sold / Borkum leather and chrome sofa by Johan Bertil Häggström for Ikea, 1972

Ready made homey cubicles. Presented as if you could simply buy the entire box, and spend your thoughts more wisely then having to waste them on your new interior. Mass production in order to meet consumption needs of those who lack time to actually think of what ‘home’ means to them. Isn’t that what IKEA is for us today?

Then what do we make of this beautiful design by Johan Bertill Häggström for IKEA? A leather sofa that in contrast to many other bulky, heavy leather designs of that period, almost seems to float above the surface. A sophisticated design that appears alien next to the popular Sörvallen and Stockholm sofas of today. It makes one wonder about how IKEA’s philosophy of today relates to that of the seventies. Did our increasing demand push design towards sacrificing refinement for functionality? Or was it technological advancement that pushed design rhetorics towards a new direction?