The Everyday is Unordinary, A Reflection of IKEA

"Through activities, conversations, and community-oriented practices disseminated from one’s own private space, the domestic can become a new form of democratic parliament in which the architect is but an orchestrator and collaborator.”

I pulled this segment from MOMA’s description of Andrés Jaque’s “Ikea Disobedients”, which is an architectural performance piece that dissects an architect’s role in the everyday. It also questions the notion of everyday and how the depiction of IKEA’s product advertisements, in regards to family life, is different from reality. I interpreted the installation in a manner that incorporates the user as the architect as well. The installation itself had interesting utilizations of IKEA products as functions that were out of the ordinary, which is an interpolation of “everyday”. Some examples include a bed as a structure that provides cover, a chair utilized as a structure to hang an umbrella, chairs as a table, and chairs as a garden to name a few. It’s an ironic interpretation of the everyday and how humans reside within that idea of everyday. We’re beings that live outside the box, and when power is given to the occupant, a product that is as one dimensional as a chair can have multiple functions. A disobedient species. I really enjoyed diving into this installation as I believe it shows the importance of understanding human nature in regards to designing and architecture.

"The work of an architect is to render realities, to be someone who responds to reality, not producing conformities or peace of mind, but interrupting it, putting it in doubt, cutting it up so it can be studied and subjected to laboratory analysis." - Andres Jaque