Land+Living: Bad, Ikea, bad! Very bad Ikea!

Commentary — January 4, 2005 Posted by James

Destroying design to sell design

Ikea is at it again. Knocking down the past to build a big-box emporium to hock their mass produced modern design wares. Here is a company that takes advantage of their Scandinavian design heritage to sell inexpensive, yet "well designed" products to the masses. But, in the process, they have now displayed two blatant instances of their disregard for design legacy. First, they defaced a Marcel Breuer building in New Haven, Connecticut. Now the wrecking ball has turned to Civil War era structures in Brooklyn.

Nice work, Ikea. Class act all the way.

Via: Curbed
Link: New York Daily News - Ikea targets buildings
Link: Metropolis - Disposable Architecture
The bad guy: Ikea

Now, we will openly admit that we own more than a few items purchased at Ikea, but it is no secret that Ikea occupies a certain position of disdain in the larger design community. Well, as much as we like reasonably priced "designed" products, Ikea's marks have dropped several notches in our book by merit of these actions. These guys make more sense to us all the time... big stupid blue place. ;-)

18 comments

Comments (18)

Phillip Winn — January 6, 2005
These guys?

You do realize that the site to which you linked is clearly a commercial for Ikea, right? :-)

James — January 6, 2005
Ironic, huh?

;-)

beerzie boy — January 6, 2005
A comment on "Elite Designers"

I’m no fan of Ikea, but consider their remark that “no more than weeds can attract a bee” Many – if not most weeds flower, and one person’s weed is another’s flower.

alexis — November 18, 2005
IKEA MOVING THE OLD FOR THE NEW

Knocking down old buildings is a way of life - personally its a good thing to remove old ugly buildings - as seen in the above picture. IKEA is moving the world foward with its deesign and quality of products - you must understand the quality of IKEA and their products. Is there anybody out there that doesnt own an IKEA product? or who hasnt been to an IKEA store... i dont think there is! IKEA is brining the world upto European standards with their design. Any decent old building, by the way, would have a heritage clause on it preventing it from being knocked down. LETS FACE IT - IKEA stores are in the downtown part of most communities, so by attracting people to these areas it is good for the local economy and businesses. THANKYOU

Johnnyvu — January 1, 2006
holy crap

Hey I like Ikea too but give me a break, the comment posted by alexis is downright scary. Replacing old with new is not always progress! Some of the most architecualy significant buildings in the US have had to be fought to be saved from the wrecking ball at some point. I'm sure there are plenty of folks in power out there who would find buildings by Wright, Saarien, Eames, Pei, etc to be "ugly" and worth ripping down in favor of putting up a scandinavian walmart. Oh and what exactly are european standards anyways? Try building a house in Italy, they don't even have standards for plumbing for Christ sake, it's a nightmare. But at least they tend to appreciate their architecual history.

Lyta — January 4, 2006
Alexis is right

First of all, let me say that I live in a 150 year old house in downtown Montreal but I am a modernist at heart because it is a more clever way of living. I am sorry Johhnyvu but most of the older buildings that you referred to in North America lack design value. If you know your history you will know that they have been built by necessity without giving any concerns to the architecture value. A lot of them were built by reproducing and mixing unrelated ideas that do not go together (the idea of architecture for some folks). I agree with you that we must keep some old architecture buildings into a city but the buildings shown on the picture have no architecture value what so ever. They are ugly and clearly unsafe. I live in 2005 not in the past and I want to live in a city that looks turned towards the future. The future is why the humanity continues to live – if we cannot let our city evolves with its time, how can we make a better place of this Earth. I want more people to have Ikea products. People are afraid of modern design because they do not know it. That is why they seem so attached to older buildings. Look at German’s magazine Hauser, British Living etc. and Dwell for inspiration. Modern architecture is a lot more relaxing than most people thinks.

Johnnyvu — January 4, 2006
modern design

Alexis is still wrong. First off, yes I like IKEA. Secondly I embrace modern design. What we are talking about here is not about replacing just old buildings with new modern architecture. We are talking about replacing old brick buildings that typify Brooklynn with a giant blue and yellow metal warehouse. There is nothing modern or intersting about the buildings. Montreal has a wonderful, eclectic mix of architecture, not only from block to block, but house to house. How would you feel if I came in and tore up say two blocks on St. Hubert for instance to put up a Walmart or Best Buy? Don't kid yourselves, it's the same thing. -Johnny

Lyta — January 5, 2006
In retrospect, Johnny gots a point

I have to agree with you that the outside of an Ikea, a Walmart or a Best Buy are very ugly. In retrospective, I am proud that in Montreal and Quebec city, we have been tough enough – even if is not as often as its should be - to force big chain restaurants / stores to give up their awful huge signs for a more refined banner when they want to be on specific area of the city. This is just a first step. Good design in our everyday life is not a reality all over North America, like we see in some European countries. Toulouse (France) and Helsinki (Finland) are good examples of cities where we see modern design tastefully mixed with older architecture.

Stanley — March 19, 2006
think larger

What about the job opertunities. What about the people flow. We build buildings to live in them to work in them. This building means a job opertunity for 450 people. This is better then letting it be a emty whare house that atracks the opposite of what im talking about. And that's HOPE.

Vin — March 21, 2006
VALUE

Ikea means nice price, sometimes nice design. Excusive, no. I'm happy they are there. Knocking down old buildings - They must have gotten permission by the local authorities to do it.

Karen Breen-Bondie — March 21, 2006
Elite Designers Against IKEA

You fell for IKEA's marketing ploy. That link you placed (elitedesigners.org) is actually an IKEA ad.

James — March 21, 2006
Think bigger

First, let's get this out of the way (again)... I know that Elite Designers is a joke... it was a joke... ah never mind. Stanley, I appreciate your comment in terms of thinking about the positives of the IKEA store, but I would say that we need to think even bigger - the values of our communities at large, and the meaning of history and context to a specific place. I do not oppose IKEA or the opening of the store, but I object to a company that sells design and "culture" disrespecting design in local communities. I believe that we should expect more of large corporations, demand that they be good corporate citizens. In this case IKEA altered a significant modern building by Marcel Breuer (which they originally wanted to completely demolish) and then tore down some historic buildings in Red Hook. I'm not saying every old building should be preserved, but what I am saying is that big-box stores inserted into existing communities significantly alter the fabric of those communties, and a design minded company like IKEA should be interested in doing something better, something more creative. To me the Breuer building is the biggest insult as IKEA sells modern design and owes a debt to Breuer's designs for many of the products they sell. They had the opportunity to use this iconic modern building to their advantage. It is possible to mix old and new thoughtfully - too bad IKEA doesn't see the advantage to their image to do it right all by themselves.

craig in seattle — August 1, 2007
Quality

Ikea products, while they may catch the eye with slick forms and images of better living, are nothing more than post-modern junk; cheap materials, poor detailing, aimed only to create an inexpensive product with curb appeal. I don't see the value in a throw-away culture. One brick in that historic building has more character than any product I've ever consumed from IKEA. How timeless do you think IKEA's products are? I don't blame IKEA for knocking down the building. It makes $en$e for them to do so economically. If a larger cross section of society valued history as a commodity, we probably would see a a greater reflection of that in the architectural interventions of today.

my name? — February 2, 2009
ikea sells cheap junk

period

Chris Sharp — July 10, 2009
All-around bad IKEA

What an all-around bad IKEA. Novelty use of a foreign language, but strangely, everything switches to English at checkout. (Should learn to speak a fake Swedish just to rile the managers.) Exorbitant prices. Frumpy shopping bags with handles long enough that I was dragging the bag on the floor behind me as I walked. Asinine layout. No take-away bags at checkout, everybody uses a shopping cart that cannot be rolled past the curb at the exits, and cars are started up and brought around to be loaded. That way, we can make an immediate contribution to the environment with all those short car trips or engines on idle instead of later when the shopping bags may, repeat may, be improperly returned to the environment.

Anonymous — February 25, 2010

IKEA........ There is good and bad in everything and Ikea is no different, I can understand that ikea appeals to alot of people like students, young people, first time house owners,ect because its so cheap. But its rubbish furniture!!! It lasts such a short period of time and causes major problems to the environment!!! What happens to the furniture once its no good? you through it away, then you have to replace it for something new, so what happens to the stuff you through out? Well it gets dummped and just left, causing problems; like pollution!!! We live in a world where novalty and the next fashion statement is more important!!! Why not buy something that will last you 10 years or more??? The Designs are crap too, being a young Designer myself its annoying when they constantly copy everyone elses designs! I agree with Craig.

Hannah — February 25, 2010

from above

Twittlander — March 29, 2010
IKEA FOOD SERVICE DUBLIN (SEE THE VIDEOS)

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KY62WKpkeY 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Ra9n_MVSM 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJowoYH2sSU