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e

Furniture Design

Ikea and Tom Dixon Collaboration Yields the Delaktig, an "Open Source Furniture" System

By Rain Noe - January 24, 2018

Given the popularity of Ikea-hacking, it was inevitable that Ikea would court those who like to modify their furniture. Thus the company has collaborated with Tom Dixon and created the Delaktig, a sort of furniture platform that end users are meant to customize with add-ons either purchased or DIY'ed.

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The Delaktig is essentially a rectangular aluminum frame on legs that comes in three sizes, with the footprints of a twin bed, an armchair or a square ottoman. In its simplest form, a piece of upholstered foam is placed atop it to form a seating surface. End users are meant to add various components to transform these platforms into sofas (or the smaller sizes into chairs) along with armrests, table-like platforms or lighting.

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The accessories, whether store-bought or DIY'ed, are attached by means of a vertical plane that somehow (it's unclear from the images) slots into the side rails.

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Here's Dixon, Ikea Head of Design Marcus Engman and Ikea Creative Leader James Futcher discussing the design:

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Wired reports that "Ikea's initial line of add-ons will come from the company and from students at the Royal College of Arts in London, the Parsons School of Design in New York, and Musashino Art University in Tokyo," pointing to the company's desire to get young people involved.

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From IkeaToday: "Prototype by Shoko Sato from Musashino Art University in Tokyo. A simple and beautiful idea according to Creative Leader James Futcher. Using the same dimensions, the leg of the sofa just flows out beautifully into a lamp and coat stand."

Then there's this bit, which I found intriguing:

Dixon says his studio will put out luxury peripherals like marble countertop side tables or leather sofa cushions—stuff Ikea wouldn't sell, because of the cost.

The concept is admirable: If you have a piece of furniture that can be reconfigured, in theory you needn't get rid of the entire thing in order to update the style. Maybe it would help avoid situations like this.

Two things I wonder, though: One, would someone who can purchase Tom Dixon's stuff deign to purchase an Ikea frame? As for two, I'll pose this question to you: Do you think the Ikeahacking crowd will cotton to the product, or is the transgression of "hacking" itself what they enjoy? Meaning that they wouldn't buy it if it was intended to be hacked?

In any case, I'm curious to see what the results of this experiment are. Hopefully we won't have long to wait: The Delaktig becomes available in Europe next month, and in August for those of us in the 'States.

Furniture Design

Rain Noe

Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.

5 Comments

Juan Cano

a year ago

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To me, hacking it is making it something it was not meant to be. Make a car headlight into a desk lamp. This product, while appealing, is not hacking or open source. It's a LEGO set with a dozen pieces.

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malcolm borrell

a year ago

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It's good to think that Ikea feels threatened by hacking. looks like a nice design idea, however, doesn't offset the in-built obsolescence of most of the product in the store.

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Eliot Phillips

a year ago

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I have no idea why IKEA is calling this "open source". At bare minimum they'd need to provide CAD models.

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- Dee Espeefour
  
  Eliot Phillips
  
  a year ago
  
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  1Z
  
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  My thoughts too, this is "modular" at best.
  
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Sean Thackston

a year ago

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I'd be down to play with it. I don't think of hacking as some form of societal subversion. It's just about making it your own, and who doesn't want something custom tailored to their life? If Ikea and Tom Dixon want to make that easier for more people, then I think it's great!

You'll still have the hardcore hackers slapping a motor on it and turning it into a boat (I'm looking at you Swan).

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