Yahoo Finance PICTURES: IKEA targets renters living in small spaces with new collections
Swedish furniture giant, IKEA is creating furniture for smaller spaces designed to respond to a ballooning global population as well as for those who are constantly on the move.
Announced in early June, IKEA has struck up a spate of partnerships and collaborations which has seen it invent various ranges from multi-functional products to robot furniture.
“There is a rapidly growing urban population and people are living in smaller spaces as well as moving more often than before,” IKEA Sweden creative leader Viveca Olsson said at the Democratic Design Days conference.
One of the upcoming collections designed specifically for smaller spaces is RÅVAROR, a collection of 20 pieces – featuring a daybed and sofa, tables, open storage solutions, textile, and lighting. It’ll be available globally in September 2020.
“We wanted to create a few key items that have a new level of versatility, functionality and simplicity,” Olsson said.
“And when it is time to move, it should be easy to pack everything up, stack them together and relocate to your next home.”
The collection was designed with urban life in mind, she added.
“We asked ourselves; what is needed to turn a small space, such as 12 square metres, into a home? And what is needed to create that homely feeling even though you might be moving on to a new place soon?”
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Robot furniture
But IKEA is working on more than just furniture that folds up neatly.
It’s partnered with robot furniture start-up Ori to create ROGNAN robotic furniture, another one of its new collections aimed at providing a solution to small-space living.
So, how does ROGNAN maximise the space in a small space without sacrificing function or design?
“We know that some of the biggest challenges in peoples’ homes are storage and finding the place to do all the activities that you’d want to do in your home,” said IKEA Sweden product developer for new innovations Seana Strawn.
“This is especially the case in big cities where people have to make compromises in the functions of their homes. We wanted to change that.”
ROGNAN allows the home-maker to gain eight extra square metres of living space, with the robotic furniture designed to transform one space into four, from bedroom, to walk-in closet, to work-space, to living room.
“Instead of making the furniture smaller, we transform the furniture to the function that you need at that time. When you sleep, you do not need your sofa. When you use your wardrobe, you do not need your bed,” Strawn said.
ROGNAN will launch in Hong Kong and Japan next year.
Multi-functionality
Ikea also headed to Thailand recently alongside contemporary clothing store Greyhound Original to “explore small space living and multi-functionality with an open, problem-solving mindset,” according to an Ikea statement.
“The result is a collection influenced by Asia, called SAMMANKOPPLA, which means interconnect or unify.”
Greyhound Original began as a men’s casual wear store in Bangkok in 1980 that then expanded to women’s wear and accessories. They then branched further in 1998 to open a Greyhound Cafe.
Ikea wanted to work with Greyhound Original because of its experience combining fashion design and street culture with the philosophy of reusing and repurposing materials and eventually created a collection that would make the most of small spaces.
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