From "throwaway culture" to "democratization of design," from building it yourself to that one missing screw: the world's best-known furniture brand has changed our lives, says art expert Romana Rebbelmund.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. May
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Ikea: 75 years of Ingvar Kamprad's Swedish modernism
From a mail-order sales business to locations in 51 countries. A look back at the history of the Swedish furniture giant and its legendary founder.
Image: picture-alliance/IBL Schweden
The man behind the legend
Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has passed away at 91. A businessman since childhood, Kamprad founded Ikea as a mail-order sales business in 1943, when he was only 17. It wasn't until 1948 that the company began selling furniture. At his death, Kamprad was one of the richest men in the world.
Image: Inter IKEA Systems B.V. 2017
Kamprad's first profits
An exhibit from Sweden's Ikea museum, which opened in 2016, shows the box used by Kamprad to store earnings from one of his first businesses — selling fish to nearby farmers on his mother's bike. The museum is located at the site of the very first Ikea store in Almhult, Sweden.
Image: picture-alliance/IBL Schweden
The first furniture superstore
In 1953, Kamprad opened the first Ikea store in his hometown of Almhult. As interest and profits grew, the company expanded throughout Scandinavia, arriving in Norway in 1963 and Denmark in 1969.
Image: Inter IKEA Systems B.V. 2017
Do it yourself
Ikea is known for its bare-bones flat packaging, with customers usually required to assemble furniture themselves. This design helps keep costs down and allows for massive amounts of stock to be available in Ikea stores. On the left is the frame of a Poäng armchair. Ikea has produced 30 million of these chairs since they were introduced in 1978.
Image: Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt
Children welcome
Seen here is an Ikea collection from the 1970s. Pine was, as it is now, a mainstay of Ikea style — as well as bright colors and kid-friendly design. Today, German represents the furniture giant's biggest market with 53 stores. For comparison, the entire United States has 45.
Image: Inter IKEA Systems B.V. 2017
World famous
Over the decades, Ikea has expanded to 51 countries, and has plans to build stores in 10 more in the next few years. The biggest Ikea in the world is in Gwangmyeong, South Korea and is 57,100 square meters (614,619 sq ft) in size. Seen above is the opening of the Ikea in Moscow in March 2000, an event that drew a crowd of 30,000 people.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Feferberg
Under fire
Ikea has come under fire numerous times — for its symbolic association with post-World War II consumer culture (famously lampooned in the book and film 'Fight Club'), and for its business practices, such as being registered as a charity. In 2015, Italian Ikea employees demonstrated outside the Swedish embassy in Rome over low wages.
Image: picture-alliance/CITYPRESS 24
Charitable work
Over the years, Ikea has been involved in a number of philanthropic causes, and regularly donates large sums to UNICEF and Save the Children. Here, refugees in Iraq are housed in Ikea 'Better Shelter' housing.
Image: Better Shelter.org/2015 Erik Hagman
Unavoidable Ikea
Some Ikea products are so ubiquitous they are easily recognizable by name, such as the Billy bookcase. In 2009, Ikea said that it had sold 41 million Billy shelves since 1979, making it the most popular piece of furniture in the world.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Dedert
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DW: How has Ikea changed our culture?
Romama Rebbelmund: In the 1970s, Ikea was an important part of the student movement, because the company actually manufactured reasonable furniture at an acceptable price. But Ikea wasn't yet socially acceptable to the middle and upper classes.
But then, at around the turn of the century, all that changed. Ikea became popular because they changed their offer. Not only was there the Billy shelf — now, there were different versions of Billy, some with drawers or compartments that could be locked. Ikea has continued to expand this shelving line, and today they have great cabinet systems. I have one at home. That wouldn't have been possible in the 1970s.
What was so sensational about Ikea — aside from the fact that it was reasonably priced?
At Ikea, you didn't buy the finished product; you bought a kit. In principle, this was something you could take home right away. Before, you had to order furniture and wait for it to be delivered. In that sense, Ikea turned its customers into accomplices.
Ikea — and its pine furniture — filled many homes in the 1970s and 1980sImage: Inter IKEA Systems B.V. 2017
You say accomplices — in the sense that through buying cheap furniture, it became easier for people to dispose of that furniture, developing a sort of throwaway culture?
Absolutely. With every move, the question would now be: Am I taking this with me? Or do I decide to buy something else? We're not talking about grandma's solid wood wardrobe here. From this point on, it became much easier to leave things behind with a clear conscience. Ikea has definitively shaped our culture.
Would you say Ikea has also set standards when it comes to the spread of modern furniture design?
Yes, definitively. In the early years, there was a distinctive Ikea look. But more recently, Ikea has begun attracting its own good designers. And these designers have also purposefully oriented their furniture; they more closely follow modern trends. Today, big-name designers come to work on product lines; it's no longer considered in a negative light. Inexpensive, good-looking furniture for everyone that also contributes to the design culture. This is Ikea's brand.
Ikea's iconic Swedish meatballs have also become part of the global cultureImage: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pilick
Millions of Ikea catalogs are printed every year, and end up serving as a design snapshot of an era. What makes them so popular?
Indeed — I have one at home. The Ikea catalogs have a very nice, square format. It's clear, and easy to read. The product photographs are very professional, and things look very nice.
These catalogs don't just show furniture, but whole worlds, different ways of life. Incidentally, the Art and Museum Library in Cologne also has a collection of Ikea catalogs, proving they're not just junk.
Could you imagine a world without Ikea?
No, not at all. Even here, in my office, Ikea has left its mark — in the form of a deep, white shelf.
Romana Rebbelmund is an art historian and curator of fine art, design, graphic art and posters at the Museum of Applied Arts Cologne.
