Several are targeting young urban dwellers Ikea is holding its annual Democratic Design Days event in its birthplace of Älmhult, Sweden this week, the time of the year when the furniture giant reveals its latest curiosities and anticipated releases. If you?ve been paying any attention to the company?s recent moves, you won?t be surprised to hear: It?s all about collaborations, collaborations, and more collaborations.
First up, the furniture giant is partnering up with NASA and Sweden?s Lund University for a collection informed by the challenges and constraints of space travel and living? to Mars, specifically, an idea already broadly explored by NASA, not to mention Tesla founder Elon Musk.
The idea here is that space living concepts like growing plants for both air purification and food as well as tight bunk bed setups could spark new design approaches back down on earth. For Marcus Engman, Ikea?s Design Manager, the ?dream outcome? would be a completely new way of doing storage. (Yes, please.) The company has already sent a team out to a NASA research center in the Utah desert, where they?re working with space architect Constance Adams in a simulated Mars habitat.
Jenny Xie
Ikea?s team with Constance Adams in Utah, introduced via livestream at Democratic Design Days on June 7.

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