To Nytillverkad and beyond – IKEA, SPACE10, and designers of tomorrow explore future with vintage designs in AI

“There’s so much to be drawn from the sixties through the nineties of IKEA designs, and there’s something really transcendingly modern about the seventies and eighties in particular”, Alexandra Zenner, Creative & Planning at research and design lab SPACE10, says enthusiastically.

“Maybe it’s nostalgia!” Georgina McDonald, SPACE10 Creative & Partnerships, chimes in. She continues: “What comes with the advancement and speed of technology is the paradox of this kind of human need to slow down and look back. What is in the past? What was good then, and what is nice and familiar about it now?”

Bringing vintage designs into the future with IKEA and SPACE10

Both Alexandra and Georgina work with exploring future technologies at SPACE10. And they’re both strong believers in the importance of also celebrating the past with those very same technologies, not least when it comes to design. A generative artificial intelligence model fed with 70's and 80's IKEA catalogues is an example of that. One that was brought to a workshop - co-hosted by IKEA and SPACE10 - for design students to utilise to explore designs fit for the future, with a little help from the past.

“Technology doesn’t necessarily need to immediately change form. In images of the future, you often see largescale glass, warped buildings, drones going through them. I don’t know about others, but to me, that doesn’t seem like a cosy, grounding future that you want to live in”, says Georgina. “Putting vintage designs into a superpowered advanced technology like generative AI gives way to the past in imagining the future, which really is integral to making it inviting and familiar enough to consider.”

Integrating classic and iconic designs from the past into generative AI then makes it a tool for looking into what should be kept and replicated – and what to change. From simple things, like colour and finish, to decisive details regarding materials and construction.

The latter especially as they relate to considering the environment and climate in the design process, tackled in the workshop through a focus on challenges such as waste, energy efficiency, and air quality.

“Where it becomes interesting is if you start integrating different types of AI with this generative piece. You could have an AI that could tell you the best local materials for creating a chair in, say, Barcelona. And it would know exactly those materials and give you generations relevant not only aesthetically but also in terms of material used with the sustainability angle, and all the pillars of Democratic Design”, Alexandra muses out loud. 

“Where it becomes interesting is if you start integrating different types of AI with this generative piece. You could have an AI that could tell you the best local materials for creating a chair in, say, Barcelona. And it would know exactly those materials and give you generations relevant not only aesthetically but also in terms of material used with the sustainability angle, and all the pillars of Democratic Design”, Alexandra muses out loud.

The workshop held at Milan Design Week then had participants engage with the question: what if the program wouldn’t just generate, but think in that vein, acting as a mechanical collaborator and creative partner? Potentially enabling an entirely new mode of concept development that is faster, more efficient, and provides more ideas than any human alone could generate.

A good hundred or so concept generationsfrom the lively hour-long workshop with students of different design disciplines might be a good proof point for the latter.

An open conversation to explore the future context of design

“At IKEA, we like to start at this end when exploring new things and technologies; opening the conversation to listen and learn from people, especially students in this case. They represent the future, so it’s nice to explore it with them”, says Johan Ejdemo, Design Manager at IKEA.

He smiles knowingly as he notes that back when he started out in design, the tools were pen, paper, and your own mind.

“There’s so much more going on today, and it’s likely that this kind of artificial intelligence will play a role in the careers of these students. We are curious about their views on it and on their own roles in the future context of design”.

What is the potential impact of generative AI in design work today?

“Right now, it’s a little bit more like fuel for our imaginations, and we still need to use our craft and knowledge of how things are actually made in order to bring these ideas to life – and to evaluate what should be made versus what should probably stay in the digital universe”, says Alexandra.

“The most important thing to know that you still need to do the research, you still need to put in the time, and you still need to be able to understand and know what you’re looking for. Working with artificial intelligence makes you put words to things before you immediately and in a purely aesthetic way go, ‘Ooh, I like that’. Why do you like that? It can kind of hold you accountable when it comes to defending your design, preparing you to have the right vocabulary for it", says Georgina.

How might generative AI eventually come into play in the human-centred design process at IKEA? 

“At IKEA, we are curious and ready to try different things going forward. We haven’t decided on how to work with AI at yet, but if and when we do, we will make sure not to misuse it. And no matter what, we will always start and end with people”, says Johan. “A lot of our uniqueness comes from interacting with people, in their homes, on the factory floor, in the production unit. At the end of the day, we still use our own minds when we work with this kind of creative tool and support. In my field of product design, we have no sense of this tool replacing people – you as a designer will always be the human being behind it.”