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The Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea are teaming up to produce a range of accessible and affordable tools that function without mains electricity and use renewable energy.
Eliasson’s Little Sun project, co-founded with Frederik Ottesen, created a solar-powered torch for the 1 billion people worldwide who live off the power grid. It is now sold cheaply in more than 600 African outlets. [...] The products developed will be available in Ikea stores.
— The Art Newspaper
Olafur Eliasson is a busy man these days: after recently completing his first building, he's now announced a major design collaboration between his Little Sun initiative with IKEA to create a line of sustainable and affordable off-the-grid tools. Little Sun Original in Burundi. Photo: Aminata... View full entry
"His legacy will be admired for many years to come and his vision – to create a better everyday life for the many people – will continue to guide and inspire us," says Jesper Brodin, the CEO and president of the IKEA Group. — NPR
Over the weekend, the Swedish entrepreneur who created IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad (age 91), passed away quietly at his home in Sweden. The company confirmed Mr. Kamprad's death on Sunday, citing "short illness." The business magnate displayed a penchant for entrepreneurship from a young age, selling... View full entry
Four walls and a roof, a basic bathroom and a kitchen sink. Basic access to electricity (a couple of sockets "here and there") and no flooring or wall coverings. This is what the non-for profit developers Naked House – created by a London-based startup – is proposing as an alternative to the £484,000 standard cost of a home for fellow members of generation rent. — Independent
If you thought coming home with Ikea boxes made for an exciting afternoon of assembly, a London based startup, Naked House, is thinking of you. The concept of the startup is to allow the owner to have full control of the interior creation of their homes. With the current thread of DIY reaching... View full entry
Fifteen years after IKEA demolished part of it for a parking lot, a Marcel Breuer-designed office building in New Haven has become a stage for art. [...]
Now, Burr is building on those explorations in his current show, Body/Building. Spread out over the first floor of Breuer’s gutted local icon, the show uses objects that weave together a story about himself, the site, and his city.
— citylab.com
Tom Burr / New Haven, Phase 1, 2017, installation view, Bortolami, New HavenNew Haven-native, and now New York-based, artist Tom Burr tells the story of one of the city's most iconic, and controversial, buildings in his current show Body/Building, now on display inside the gutted belly of the... View full entry
Bjarke Ingels Group recently unveiled the renderings for two hexagonal “Cactus Towers”, as part of a 74,000 square-meter masterplan in Copenhagen that fellow Danish practice Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter is in charge of designing. The project will be built in the Vesterbro district at the Kalvebod... View full entry
Ikea is now offering solar panels and home batteries to its customers in the UK. The Scandinavian furniture chain is partnering with solar firm Solarcentury for the venture, with prices for solar battery storage starting at £3,000 (about $3,970 USD).
The home batteries are designed to work with existing solar panels, or as part of a new combined home solar panel / battery storage system that Ikea is selling.
— theverge.com
The Swedish furniture retail giant first starting solar panels in the UK back in 2013 to grow on a (then) heavily subsidized green energy market but ceased sales in 2015 when the British government announced its plans of cutting solar subsidies by up to 90%. Just a few months later, IKEA returned... View full entry
Confined in Utah’s Mars Desert Research habitat for three days—habitat diameter: 33 feet—the five-person team experienced the cramped living quarters and zero-waste living necessary to survive a journey to outer space. — Quartz
Designers from IKEA are exploring space-saving solutions for tiny homes by living in an actual Mars research station. During the immersion workshop led by Constance Adams, NASA architect behind the habitat for the first human mission to Mars, the team examines the ways in which astronauts'... View full entry
Valdsgaard believes Apple’s know-how and recent progress within AR will be a crucial complement to Ikea’s in-house competencies. Another major benefit of working with Apple is the company’s gigantic ecosystem of users. — Business Insider
Ikea will partner with Apple to co-build an AR-based shopping app that will enable its users to try out virtual furniture at home before making buying decisions. Michael Valdsgaard, Leader of Digital Transformation at Inter Ikea, noted that the app is intended not to replace the... View full entry
Living in a war-torn country isn't easy, which is why the idea to display a Syrian home in the comfort-addled environs of an IKEA store is remarkable. Shoppers can tour a 25 square meter mock-up that is modeled after a real Damascus-adjacent home that functions as living quarters for a family of... View full entry
Famous rapper, fashion designer, husband of Kim Kardashian West and incorrigible enfant terrible Kanye West announced his desire to design for Ikea in a recent interview with Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1."I have to work with Ikea—make furniture for interior design, for architecture," he told... View full entry
Well that's a downer. In response to multiple child deaths resulting from their distinctive particleboard units tipping over, IKEA is offering a full refund or a free wall-mounting kit for any MALM dresser or chest, and additional models, made between January 2002 and June 2016. In total, that... View full entry
Although the gargantuan stores of IKEA can already be public museums themselves, the Swedish retailer is preparing for the official opening of the IKEA Museum on June 30 in their Älmhult stomping grounds. Originally expected to open last fall, the 7,000 square-meter museum will showcase the... View full entry
The appetite of western consumers for home furnishings has reached its peak – according to Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer.
The Swedish company’s head of sustainability told a Guardian conference that consumption of many familiar goods was at its limit.
“If we look on a global basis, in the west we have probably hit peak stuff. We talk about peak oil. I’d say we’ve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff … peak home furnishings,” Steve Howard said [...]
— the Guardian
Related:Ikea and Airbnb: a match made in globalized heaven?Get a glimpse of these hacked IKEA kitchens by BIG, Henning Larsen, and NORM ArchitectsUN Refugee Agency Commissions 10k Ikea-designed Better SheltersWhy is Ikea a Non-profit? View full entry
Ikea is to Airbnb what oxpeckers are to rhinos and Donald Trump is to Fox News: a symbiotic partner. [...]
It may seem perverse to stump for standardization when Airbnb is known for its diversity, with lodgings in not just chateaus and cute bungalows, but also tree houses and shoe houses. [...]
But dig a little deeper and you’ll find the cool lingua franca of Ikea permeating Airbnb’s 1.5 million listings like fat marbling rib-eye steak.
— travelandleisure.com
Airbnb and Ikea have previously collaborated on a contest in Tempe, Australia, for shoppers (guests?) to spend the night in showrooms for $10. But the partnership that this piece's author is proposing seems to directly align Airbnb's practices with exactly what its opponents criticize most –... View full entry
Here comes another product collaboration between famous architects and affordable-brand giants. Pretty soon, consumers worldwide can add a hint of BIG, Henning Larsen Architects, or NORM Architects into their everyday kitchen space. Danish furniture brand Reform, whose concept focuses on hacking... View full entry
