What the hell IKEA?
In 2012 MoMA acquired the work IKEA Disobedients by Andrés Jaque Architects, it challenged the idea of the domestic home. It illustrated the common “idea” of home by using IKEA's marketing as an example. Ikea in their commercials and publications often show a household as a sunny, happy, apolitical domicile inhabited by happy and healthy young people. These young people often have families and according to there video over 90% of the people have blonde hair.
Andrés Jaque Architects wanted to challenge this notion of the everyday household portrayed by IKEA. There argument is that the everyday household is not always sunny, and happy. People who live in homes can range from the old to the young, with kids or without, healthy or disabled. Additionally they stated that the home could be described as its own republic disconnected from the strife of the outside world. The notions being that when you are home you are around the familiar and comfortable.
Their goal when designing is to create a domestic space that is a site for confrontation, dispute, all which is unfamiliar; they imagine these spaces inhabited by everyday people from a wide range of backgrounds.
My conclusion from their argument is that they want to create a space that brings people together that normally wouldn’t get along. Put them all under the same roof and see if the space can spark social interaction. Hopefully through the disputes there is a sense of learning that can grow into a sense of familiarity. The question I believe is can a space make the unfamiliar, familiar.
I think this installation also can be tied back to the discussion of strategy vs tactic. IKEA always sends their "strategy" with their directions, but as the user we can use "tactics" to build the furniture to be our own and deviate from the prescribed path. This is actually a popular notion there are many DIY tutorials on IKEA hacks. I haven't seen one like this where a bed is used for a roof, but hey who's to say what's right?
ReplyDeleteGreat question Bryan, and I agree with Cora on the fact that using "tactics" to deviate from their strategy is one way to approach this broad but specific question "can a space make the unfamiliar, familiar?" Another way to approach this question is through a better understanding of why we design a space in the first hand. If there is a goal that can be targeted when building spaces, then we can achieve it and make a space that is unfamiliar more familiar. Architecture and comfort are two things, and when we design by breaking barriers by example and moving away from societal norms, then we are creating opportunities for the unfamiliar spaces to breath and thus making these spaces become familiar to its everyday users. However it is a challenge that the architect has to be willing to tackle, not runaway from. I believe the more unfamiliar spaces we make, the better chance we will have to come together.
ReplyDeleteI also thought this was a super interesting installation...you never truly know what will happen or change or adapt in the spaces you design. We as designers and architects can not always know what will be the best circumstances for the user. We can not only design with one demographic in mind, but at the same time there would be so many different things to account for, so where does it end?
ReplyDeleteI also watched the video and wrote about it. I was really amazed especially because I had never really thought about it or noticed it before. I think Celia raised a good point and asked a good question about "where does it end?" It's hard to find a happy medium where everyone is pleased.
ReplyDelete