Cardboard Culture

For Smurfit Westrock—a global leader in sustainable cardboard packaging, Fokkema & Partners designed a workplace that feels like a natural extension of both their product and their company culture. This is not your average office: it’s a fully immersive brand experience where cardboard quite literally comes to life. Step inside, and you enter their cardboard world.

Project data

Client

Smurfit Westrock

Location

Breda

Square

1500 m2

Timeline

February 2024 – January 2025

An Ode to Cardboard
Fokkema & Partners had the freedom to go all-in with cardboard, and they did. From a cardboard Chesterfield sofa to lighting fixtures, from a lush green wall made of packaging materials to a sculptural cardboard dog. Everywhere you look, the material takes center stage. Wall graphics reference the journey of their boxes in transit, while playful design elements nod to the Westrock logo. Every detail celebrates the product Smurfit Westrock is proud to stand behind.

Even the technical solutions are inventive, like pulleys repurposed from the original ceiling system

Warm and welcoming, with a playful twist
With a modest budget and a big dose of creativity, the result is anything but ordinary. Meeting tables and desks from the previous office were reused. New additions? Naturally, made of cardboard. Even the technical solutions are inventive, like pulleys repurposed from the original ceiling system. The office, partly overlooking water, reflects its surroundings: warm, natural tones echo the cardboard palette, while blues from the water bring calm. The endresult is unmistakably Smurfit, warm and welcoming with a playful twist.

Project partners: First Crown, Verwol, PPS imaging, 2Bworking, Kartent, Gouweloos Techniek en Veolia, Moooi Groen, Avex Group.
Photography by Bram Vreugdenhil