A sneak peek into the brand’s creative innovations for the upcoming year by Inma Bermúdez, Claus Meyers, Greyhound Original Bangkok, Ori and Zandra Rhodes amongst many other renowned brands. 

United Arab Emirates, 17 June 2019:   IKEA, the region’s favourite Swedish home-furnishing retailer, gave its customers a glimpse of all the exciting upcoming collaborations with globally acclaimed artists, designers and brands for them to look forward to in 2020. The latest IKEA developments related to product designs, sustainability features, healthy living elements, food market, and much more were unveiled at IKEA’s biggest event in Sweden, Democratic Design Days. This year’s event focused heavily on sustainable solutions for a positive impact on people and the planet, as well as creative home solutions for small space living. 

Since 2012, IKEA has been proactively engaging in sustainability projects. IKEA is collaborating with the Spanish award-winning designer, Inma Bermúdez, on a project to clean plastic pollutants from the oceans. The collection, MUSSELBLOMMA, is made from recycled plastic, including PET plastic waste caught in nets of the Mediterranean Sea and collected by Spanish fishermen. Customers can expect bags, cushion covers, and tablecloths inspired by the ocean with geometric pattern of greens, teals, and corals. 

IKEA’s sustainable ambition can also be seen in its newest food offering. IKEA and Claus Meyer, often accredited as the founder of the New Nordic Cuisine Philosophy, are teaming up for a delightful food experience offering “a modern taste of Sweden” to customers around the world. The collaboration is true to the IKEA vision and takes guests on an authentic Swedish culinary journey that demonstrates that sustainable food is not only a better choice for the planet, but also for your taste buds.

In collaboration with Greyhound Original Bangkok, IKEA visited Thailand to explore small space living and multifunctionality with an open and problem-solving mindset. Its mission was to explore innovative solutions to better living with small spaces and tight budgets as recycling, reusing and creative re purposing has become a growing trend in Asia.  Greyhound Original was a perfect match for IKEA as they are well known for combining the expressive design of fashion and street culture to using materials in new ways, reusing and repurposing it. This resulted in an interesting collection influenced by Asia, called SAMMANKOPPLA which means interconnect or unify. 

As metropolitan areas are becoming more popular and booming, living spaces are shrinking. IKEA is exploring flexible and innovative solutions that empower people to have big dreams for their small homes through a collaboration with Ori. In conjunction with IKEA, the American startup has developed ROGNAN robotic furniture for modern living where people will be able to turn small spaces into smart spaces that have all the comfort and convenience of a home. ROGNAN will help transform furniture to the function needed at the time, for example bedroom to walk-in closet, to work space, to living room.

IKEA believes that homes are a perfect reflection of the people living inside. Patterns and colours are a powerful expression of skill, personality and local culture and can alter the character of a space in many ways. They can visually change the size of a room, affect the atmosphere and are a relatively easy and low-cost way to make a change. Together with British designer Zandra Rhodes, known for her edgy and exuberant fashion lines with prints, IKEA is set to launch a new product range that will translate Rhodes’s famous colorful textile prints and patterns into a homeware context. 

In 2018, IKEA launched the ‘Better Air Now’ initiative with the aim of acting on a global environmental issue by turning rice straws - a harvesting residue that contributes heavily to air pollution when burned - into raw material. The first results are seen in the upcoming collection FÖRÄNDRING which means ‘change’ in Swedish and illustrates the desire to contribute to positive change. 

To offer inspiring everyday tools where renewable energy contributes to a sustainable and independent life, IKEA and Little Sun, the social business who has been providing energy to communities without electricity around the world have launched a series of new products called SAMMANLÄNKAD. Together they have been developing solar panels that can be attached and connected to windows, charging docks and lights but can also provide solutions for active outdoor life. Facilitating people’s lives and reducing dependency on unreliable public infrastructure is one of the main ambitions behind this collaboration focusing on solar energy. 

Apart from the above collaborations, 2020 will see the launch of exciting collections that focuses on providing solutions to the many people. One such collection focuses on bringing families together over playtime - IKEA and LEGO Group are grouping once again to develop solutions to stimulate play with children all around the home resulting in the new collection called BYGGLEK.
 
Not only is IKEA promoting healthy living in their restaurant, but it’s also inclined to enable healthy habits at home. Together with ADIDAS, IKEA aims to find new smart solutions to enable people to stay active at home as well - such as how to exercise with limited space at home and how to avoid disturbing neighbours and family members. An addition to this is the collaboration with TOM DIXOM, where IKEA will be developing new products that will allow growing plants and vegetables inside and outside of homes. The aim is to inspire the many people towards healthier and more sustainable food habits.