Ikea designers used AI to help create a couch that can be packed in an envelope. Your back will than
- A couch that only weighs 22 pounds and can fold into an envelope could make moving a breeze.
- Using AI, a design lab affiliated with Ikea created a the concept called "Couch in an Envelope."
- The couch would not require tools for assembly and could be configured in at least 30 ways.
Ikea has developed a potential solution for the aches and pains of moving. The company's experimental design arm, Space10, conceptualized what has got to be the easiest couch ever to transport.
The aptly titled "Couch in an Envelope" can be folded to fit into an envelope and only weighs around 22 pounds.
It is the product of a challenge meant to defy the existing norms of what a couch can be, according to the project's outline.
Space10 used AI to help it design a couch more adaptable to modern living — one conducive for moving, easier to recycle or give away, and modular, so that people working from home can change locations with it, the project's outline says.
"The couch has barely changed in centuries," according to a video embedded in the project's outline, which explains the concept. "Today the archetype of the couch has become heavy, unsustainable, and rigid."
Partnering with design studio Panter&Tourron, the company prompted AI to design a "couch made for nomadic living" and a "sustainable," "lightweight" piece of furniture, the company said.
After a range of ideas were suggested, the two studios fleshed out a concept, with Panter&Tourron creating a physical prototype.
The couch is made with an aluminium frame, making it both lightweight and recyclable. The fabrics used for the body and pillows of the couch are constructed from cellulose and mycelium foam, which are both biodegradable.
The couch does not require any tools for assembly. In the concept video, a blueprint of the couch is shown, displaying three major pieces for the body — a base, serving as the core of the frame and two "wings" — as well as four, smaller legs.
The "wings," which essentially function as the arms of the couch, are foldable and can be attached to the base in different ways. The modular nature of the unit allows for at least 30 different constructions, as shown in a diagram on the project's outline.
"This is a speculative design project and therefore not something that IKEA will be selling," a Space10 spokesperson told Insider.
The prototype of the couch is on display at Space10's latest exhibition: Design in the age of AI.
The product comes out as the conversation around "fast furniture" — pieces that are affordable and can be assembled at home — and its environmental toll have heightened.
"The project is an agenda for change. To inspire designers to challenge other outdated archetypes and move towards designs that are lighter, and more sustainable. Better for people and the planet," Georgina McDonald, who works in creative and partnerships at Space10, said in the project's outline.
Watch: The meaning behind all those obscure IKEA product names
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