SPACE10 releases short film delineating ‘Everyday Experiments’

What if our furniture could evolve with time, to stay relevant? What if we could see the way sound and music travel through our homes? Or refurbish our bedrooms through automotive algorithms with a click? How about Narnia-style wardrobe portals to different parts of the world? Or inanimate objects—like Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story series—coming to life and sharing their stories with us? Or, better still, a chance to build our own personal Terabithia, like Jesse and Leslie? These magical narratives from some of our favourite films and books are now slowly becoming a part of our quotidian lives. Advanced technologies and a democratic design culture have enabled this change.

With the intention of further enabling more such innovations in the realm where design, art and technology intersect, IKEA’s external research and design lab SPACE10 + Inter IKEA Systems B.V. launched an experimental platform titled Everyday Experiments in 2020. “Everyday Experiments exemplifies our core belief that innovation should be open and collaborative. Great ideas come from passionate and connected groups of people, and we believe in the value of sharing ideas openly with the public rather than working in secrecy with our own biases,” says Georgina Mcdonald, Lead Design Producer at SPACE10, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Over the past two years, this initiative has platformed a horde of projects by creatives from across the globe. From sustainability to privacy and well-being; designers and innovators experiment in various areas under this initiative. Delineating the many projects that sit on this platform, external research and design lab SPACE10, co-founded by Carla Cammilla Hjort, recently released a short film in collaboration with Bakken & Bæck. The five-minute film details the participation of international designers and technologists in this open and collective process.

“At IKEA, our aim is to create a better everyday life for the many people, and when we look at bringing advanced technology into our homes, we feel rather than designing in a vacuum, it should be something we carefully consider together. Everyday Experiments provides a place to play, imagine, and most importantly share ideas on how we want technologies to impact our future homes. By openly collaborating with many different perspectives, we can create futures that feel less foreign and can be connected to the real needs and aspirations of many people,” says Paqui Lizana, Innovation Manager at Shared Data & Technology Leadership, Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

‘Everyday Experiments’ potently demonstrates the importance of collaboration, sharing and public discourse in the creative field. It intends to platform people who want to imagine technologically advanced future homes. The project serves as an appropriate exemplification of the firm’s core principles of innovation and collaboration. Over the past two years, more than 120 people from 22 international studios have been partnered with ‘Everyday Experiments’ to answer the question, “how advanced technologies can better our everyday lives at home?” Today, 30 experiments are listed on the platform as fulfilled projects. Some interesting projects among them are Tin & Ed's Kaleidoscopic Home, Oio's Updatables and Yuri Suzuki's Sound Bubbles.

The film recently released by the research and design practice brings attention to the process of ideation, visualisation and public discussion that outlines all these projects helmed by SPACE10. “Developing future scenarios together not only creates an aspirational North Star, but from a visual standpoint, it closes the imagination gap; allowing people to consider a future where technology helps create spaces that are smarter, more intuitive, empathetic and frictionless,” says Georgina Mcdonald of SPACE10 about ‘Everyday Experiments’.

Some of the technologies explored by 'Everyday Experiments' include augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, spatial audio, spatial mapping, 3D reconstruction, object detection, GAN, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and more. “The goal of Everyday Experiments was not to prototype products, but rather to have the freedom to collectively imagine what the world will look like in five to 10 years, and how IKEA could fit into that picture. It gives space for multiple narratives of possible futures to flourish amongst our community,” says Ryan Sherman, Head of Concept at SPACE10.

Everyday Experiments tackles a variety of issues through witty concepts, outlandish ideas, and fascinating prototypes. The featured experiments on the platform explore practical ways to improve daily life as well as ways to inject fun and happiness into the house, such as transforming rooms into musical instruments and picturing furniture as amiable creatures. While some projects focus on privacy and trust in private areas, others question how the home can become more healthy and regenerative for its occupants.

To view the video, tap on the cover video of this article.