Furnishings giant Ikea has launched a analysis hub and exhibition room in Copenhagen to test item prototypes and techniques of boosting consumers’ wellbeing (+ slideshow).
Ikea’s Space10 will partner with people from the worlds of art, layout, and engineering on a series of analysis tasks that will result in a assortment of prototypes, as properly as exhibitions, events and workshops.
Its very first undertaking, called Fresh Living Lab, has noticed the furniture giant spouse with 12 designers from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.
Related story: Ikea launches “deliberately low crucial” assortment by Ilse Crawford
The crew has produced a series of conceptual items designed to enhance well being and wellbeing in city environments, as effectively as monitor and reduce energy consumption. These are currently being displayed in an exhibition of living spaces at Space10, hidden among standard Ikea products.
The Heat Harvest device can be integrated into furnishings to divert heat produced by electronic goods or sizzling tableware to recharge phones, and the Wise wall hanging loses colour to alert property owners to their use of water and electricity.
The Cloud Burst faucet monitors water movement and glows red to let the consumer know when they have reached their allotted sum of time in the shower, to help conserve water.
The Vayü window attachment can open or near the windows of a house, based on air pollution amounts outdoors. Other designs include a chair that monitors movement with a smartphone app and raises its seat to inspire sedentary workers to be more lively.
As effectively as exhibiting the prototypes, Space10 is internet hosting a bar that seeks to handle foods consumption and production, by letting visitors customise and press their own snack bars in partnership with food designer Bo Lindegaard.
The lab has been set up by Carla Cammilla Hjort, who also founded and runs innovative platform Art Rebels, music and arts occasion Trailerpark Festival and creative studio Rebel Company.
Hjort was contacted by international CEO of Inter Ikea Programs Torbjörn Lööf to “co-strategise a greater potential for Ikea”.
“We have attempted to create the optimum circumstances for a fast-paced, visionary and bold atmosphere to foster and conceptualise radical tips that we can test fast,” stated Hjort.
“Space10 is also a spot in which Ikea staff can go to get inspired, obtain new perspectives and learn new abilities and tips that they may want to invest in and carry forward,” she added.
Associated story: Piet Hein Eek starts lengthy-term collaboration with Ikea
The 1,000-square-metre area is hosted in a former fishery in Copenhagen’s meatpacking district, which has been renovated by Danish design and style studio Spacon & X, and artist and designer Maaike Fransen.
The lab is decorated with hacked Ikea furnishings, and Ikea items that have been repurposed by Fransen such as a cloud-shaped sofa created from inflatable Ikea balls covered in a blanket.
“We feel a actual connection to the larger goal of Space10,” stated Ikea concept innovation manager Göran Nilsson.
“Ikea presently does a lot to boost the lives of the a lot of individuals, and with Space10 we hope to take this vision even further,” he additional.
“Whether or not or not the remedies are instantly pertinent to our recent company is not critical. What matters is to look into new directions and be ready to make adjustments.”
The lab continues Ikea’s ongoing series of collaborations, which have noticed the Swedish retailer work with London designer Ilse Crawford, and initiate a partnership with Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek.
