Extreme Furniture

A popular design philosophy we’ve always been inspired by is the idea that “designing for the extremes benefits the majority”. One of our favorite examples of this is IKEA’s Rumtid collection.  IKEA explored the concept of living in space and used it to develop a range of furniture and homewares line focused towards micro homes and tight living spaces.

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/06/08/ikea-rumtid-furniture-homeware-space-travel/

IKEA previewed the line focused on four elements within the concept of saving space-time, space, water, and air. Each of these elements drove the direction of a specific design. Using these constraints challenged them to explore beyond the traditional and in turn to create some really unique results.

"We want to learn from extreme scenarios and connect them back to Earth, focusing on urbanisation and small space living," said IKEA's Siri Skillgate, who worked on the project with Elea Nouraud, Jon Karlsson, Philipp Süssmann, Jingbei Zheng, Robert Janson and Pauline Matika.

Not only was form influenced by this, but so were the materials that were used, even introducing a new veneer material made out of wood and waste. Additionally, they explored system flexibility in relation to micro spaces allowing for the designs to be customizable and adapt to the user's needs.