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No IKEA for Korea

Hacking IKEA Seoul

Saving by Design, part of Design MADE 2008, is dedicated to designers who re-use or re-functionalize what we would normally consider to be waste materials. One of the original motives for organizing Platform21 = Hacking IKEA was to draw attention to the enormous amounts of easily discarded IKEA-products you find in the trash, and how to re-evaluate this material. This motivation was why Platform21 was invited to Seoul to participate and present some of the results from Platform21 = Hacking IKEA. Furthermore the Korean Design Foundation gave seven Korean designers the assignment to create IKEA-hacks as well.

Surprisingly IKEA has not yet opened a store in South Korea. Nonetheless most Koreans know the brand and are quite keen on owning its products. It made Hacking IKEA in Korea a little different, but not less interesting. Even if Koreans don’t have the personal relationship of either loving or hating IKEA, which you find so much in the West, they still understand the concept of hacking products of a global brand very well, and know how important it is to always be critical.

For Hacking IKEA in Korea the Korean Design Foundation’s artistic team staged IKEA’s iconic merchandise pick-up area, recreating the feeling you get when picking your products from its shelves.

The workshop table functioned as the center of the presentation. Here, the audience was invited to hack one of the best-known icons of IKEA, its blue shopping bag. Visitors needed very little encouragement to start hacking themselves; making hats, masks, and various pieces of clothing proved no problem for the many Koreans that flocked to Design MADE 2008. This attitude was well displayed during the first day when the exhibition was completely over-run by a large group of Korean toddlers who needed no explanation whatsoever what hacking is all about.

Participating designers:
Ki-ra Kim, Hee-sung Kim, Zi-noo Park, Kyum-bie Lee, Mi-kyung Lee, Sang-hyun Joo, Ji-hoon Ha, Alan D. Joseph, Bas van Beek, Bjorn Andreassen, Cynthia Hathaway, Daan van den Berg, Daniel Saakes, Daredo, Eric Morel, Eric Von Robertson, Frank Bruggeman, Helmut Smits, Kevin Koekkoek, Lisette Haasnoot, Nora Feddersen, Sander van Bussel and Studio Vollaerszwart.

Design MADE: Saving by design
21 November - 17 December 2008
Seoul Arts Center
Seoul, South Korea

More info: www.designfo.org