IKEA, a Swedish furniture and home accessories brand, has developed a solution to prevent the aches and pains of moving. Space10, the experimental arm of IKEA, conceptualized a design that makes moving couches easier than ever. But interestingly, the new concept, which goes by IKEA “Couch In an Envelope,” was developed with the help of AI.
If you are wondering, the IKEA “Couch In an Envelope” is a couch you can fold and fit into an envelope. As you might have guessed, the design is incredibly lightweight. It weighs just 22 pounds. In contrast, regular couches typically weigh between 280 and 350 pounds. It’s no wonder that Space10 claims to defy the traditional norms of a couch with this design.
How AI Helped to Design the IKEA Couch In an Envelope
To make the new “Couch In an Envelope” more adaptable to modern living, Space10 has utilized AI. The experimental arm of IKEA had a few goals that it wanted to achieve with the new couch. They are:
- Easy to move
- Hassle-free to recycle or give away
- Modular
These factors make the “Couch In an Envelope” a proper solution to the hassles of moving a couch from one home to another. As the project’s outline states, “The couch has barely changed in centuries.” And while explaining the concept, the outline says, “Today the archetype of the couch has become heavy, unsustainable, and rigid.”
Nonetheless, IKEA has partnered with the design studio Panter&Tourron to get the most out of AI. The team prompted AI to come up with a couch design that’s “made for nomadic living” and is “sustainable” and “lightweight.”
AI offered IKEA a lot of suggestions on the “Couch In an Envelope” project. Along with Panter&Tourron, Space10 has gone through them all and finalized one. And afterward, the two studios created a physical prototype.
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A Closer Look Into the Design of the Couch
To build the physical prototype of “Couch In an Envelope,” IKEA has selected nothing but lightweight and recyclable materials. That includes –
- Aluminum frame
- Cellulose
- Mycelium foam
The fabrics of the couch are of the last two materials listed above. And as you might know, both of them are biodegradable. Most importantly, they helped to keep the weight of the new IKEA couch as low as possible.
Easy Assembly
You will not need to go through any hassles while setting up the “Couch In an Envelope.” With the help of AI, IKEA has come up with a design that requires no tools for the assembly process. The couch has three major components, which are a base, two wings, and four smaller legs.
The base serves as the core of the frame, while the four legs offer structural support to the couch. On the other hand, the two wings essentially function like arms of the “Couch In an Envelope.” They are foldable and can be attached to the base in multiple ways. This modular nature of the couch allows you to configure it in 30 different ways. Take a look at the video below to get an idea.
However, You Can Not Buy the “Couch In an Envelope”
Even though the “Couch In an Envelope” might look like an amazing product, you can not purchase it. As a spokesperson from Space10 says, it is a speculative design project. And IKEA does not sell speculative or concept designs to the public.
But you can check out the couch. Space10 has got it on display at its latest exhibition, which is called “Design in the age of AI.” Click here to learn more about the exhibition.
