Since Ikea arrived in Bangkok in 2011, the furniture scene in the country has become more vibrant. The affordable price and simple design has helped the brand gain awareness among Thai consumers and changed the way customers think about home decoration.
Fashion and trends are something Ikea designers don't overlook. However, they're not the main principle steering the company.
"Colour and form also influence our products. But mostly our focus is on how to solve people's needs and to create better ideas at home," said Leonie Hoskin, Ikea project manager for Life at Home & Range in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. "For 2017, we focus on urbanisation as we found that people are living in small spaces more and more today."
Ikea has implemented "Democratic Design", which includes form, function, quality, low price and sustainability.
"Normally, it's easy to do one or two ideas at a time so our challenge was putting all five together," said Hoskin.
"People shouldn't have to be rich to be able to use sustainable products. Our responsibility as a big company is to make things more accessible for more people. Then, more people will do it. We're not only looking for an optimal price situation but also for a minimal environmental impact and that's not always easy."
One of the products in the 2017 collection is a vase, designed by Finnish designer Iina Vuorivirta, made out of recycled waste glass from a factory in China.
The major challenge for second life products is how to ensure that there will be adequate material for production so that the products do not end up as limited editions.
As Ikea realises that each individual is different, the company has attempted to understand people's home behaviour across the globe. Visiting people's home is one of Ikea staff tasks.
"I want to see how people live because that influences our way of working. I think we know a lot but that's definitely not enough," said Hoskin.
The Swedish brand would prefer to keep their Scandinavian heritage in the design of their products but the brand claims not to disregard the fact that most of the world's population lives in Asia.
"Of course, we want to deliver great things to many people so how can we get the message from this side of the globe all the way back to Sweden to influence the products? We have to work on how to make Asian style blend with Scandinavian style."
What exactly is Scandinavian style? Hoskin explained that it's about rational design -- design that makes things work with limited resources and simplicity.
"We're striving to make sure that things are humanistic, truthful and honest. It's about how can we move toward a better life and not just with fashion and trends," she concluded. "We don't claim to be perfect. We make mistakes but we try to learn from them and we'll continue to develop to make it better."
These vases are mouth blown into the same mould but as they are made from recycled glass from factories in China, each piece is different.
POÄNG Chair, one of Ikea's first armchairs with flat arms, takes up less space and makes shipping easy.
