Milan Salone 2017: Lessons for living

Milan – The inaugural Ikea Festival at Milan Salone Internazionale del Mobile aims to redefine what contemporary living spaces could be.

• Let’s Make Room for Life proposes creative solutions to re-imagine the functionality of the living room
• A programme of talks, performances and workshops are designed to open a dialogue between the brand and the public

The festival is built around Ikea’s core value of democratic design and is intended to serve as a test bed of ideas and a chance for the brand to interact with people. ‘As a curious company, we want to understand people’s needs and meet them with solutions,’ explains head of design Marcus Engman. Ikea hopes to learn from real-time reactions to new prototypes and products on show in the space.

Creative collaborations with a range of designers and studios such as OpenHouse magazine and synthesiser company Teenage Engineering addressed the changing needs of urban living. Ikea’s Space10 presented The Growroom, a large multi-tiered spherical garden designed to grow food sustainably for a small neighbourhood or business. Open-source plans are available for the structure in the hope that members of the public will build similar gardens in urban areas.