Material ConneXion Skövde

Situated a sustainable two-hour train trip from the nation’s capital Stockholm, and one hour from the second largest city Gothenburg, Skövde is a town of roughly 56,000 people, known for its Volvo engine factory and in more recent years, being a hub for game development and education. The Material ConneXion^® Skövde showroom resides in an old factory building, now shared with Assar Industrial Innovation Arena – a meeting place between industry and academia, and Balthazar Science Center, which is directed towards a younger audience.

The region around Skövde has a high concentration of manufacturing industry. Material ConneXion^® Skövde is run by IDC West Sweden AB (Industrial Development Center), part of a nation-wide network of non-profit organizations working to support mainly small and medium sized manufacturing companies in their region through various projects. Material ConneXion^® Skövde brings innovation and inspiration with regards to sustainable design, material selection and circular business models.

Material Library and Online Database

At our library, visitors can explore thousands of materials organized by various themes that change over time. With a bit of our curated random input and a holistic approach to material aspects related to design, sustainable product development, storytelling and circular business models, we can provide information, inspiration and innovation!

The Material ConneXion^® database differs from databases with a more technical approach, where it can sometimes be difficult to find the right material unless you know exactly what metric you are looking for – and it is difficult to search for something you don’t know exists! The vast range of innovation from so many areas is not (only) a search engine to find a material that is just right for your application, but an inspiring library of fresh ideas and solutions you didn’t know were possible to problems you didn’t know existed.

Take a Virtual Tour!

Our Services

As a part of our collaboration with IDC and Assar Industrial Innovation Arena, we support manufacturing SME’s in the region with matters related to creative product design and development, including (of course) finding sustainable materials, but also inspire to develop more circular and sustainable business models. For companies outside that demographic and schools, we offer database licenses, lectures and workshops on various themes, often related to sustainable/circular design & business models.

Our Team