H22 City Expo: IKEA invites young creatives to a global competition to build a better everyday life
IKEA Retail Sweden and Ingka Group are now taking one more step into nature by launching today, 25th March, a global design competition for young creatives who are commissioned to design affordable and sustainable nature dwellings that fit in the forest.
The participants’ nature dwellings will be built in an artificial forest in the new central district of Oceanhamnen, with a front view of the Öresund in Helsingborg, Sweden, as one of several initiatives that IKEA Retail Sweden and Ingka Group are implementing during the international city fair H22 City Expo, the biggest event for innovation and sustainable urban development in the Nordic region in 2022*, happening this summer, from May 30 to July 3.
“The goal of the competition is to give and gain new perspectives on the role that nature plays in people's lives and create discussions about how we today view that role and how that relationship can be developed in our future homes and cities”, says Marcus Fairs, competition jury chairman.
The structure of the competition is based on the question of what the participants´ relationship to nature looks like today and what it could look like in the future, as part of the cities of tomorrow. Based on the answer, the young creatives will create housing that will be an important element of the "Skogen" (The Forest) area that is being built by IKEA Retail Sweden in Oceanhamnen for H22 City Expo.
“Our home goes beyond the four walls, it is also our neighborhoods and our communities and this contest for our Skogen site represents that integration with an IKEA spirit. The participants are commissioned to design their proposals based on the same principles as IKEA designs all its products - what we call Democratic Design. It implies the balance between five dimensions, which are function, form, quality, sustainability and low price”, adds Marcus Engman, Chief Creative Officer at Ingka Group.
Participants' work must be created in Open Source/open source code, which means that the winning entries will be available for everyone to download for free, built and used anywhere in the world.
From the submitted proposals, the jury selects three finalists and a winner:
● IKEA Retail Sweden will build up the finalists' contributions and show them during the H22 City Expo in Skogen;
● IKEA Retail Sweden will share the Open Source/open source code and history behind the contribution in its channels;
● One person per grant finalist will be invited to the H22 City Expo to participate and talk about the challenges along the journey and their design;
● All finalists will be published on H22 IKEA's digital channels;
● The winner will get a prize of 5.000 euros.
Details of the competition available here: H22.IKEA.COM/10DAYSPRINT.
The members of the Jury are:
● Marcus Fairs, founder and editor-in-chief of Dezeen, and jury chairman;
● Anupama Kundoo, architect and professor, India;
● Nelly Ben Hayoun, French designer, artist and filmmaker;
● Marcus Engman, CCO, Ingka Group;
● Nikoline Dyrup Carlsen, architect and founder of Spacon & X.
*The international city fair H22 City Expo is the biggest event for innovation and sustainable urban development in the Nordic region in 2022 and a major initiative by Helsingborg city in Sweden, to develop future welfare solutions aimed at improving quality of life in a smarter, more sustainable city. The city’s work with H22 consists of two parts: 1. A city-wide innovation initiative. It’s about the journey towards becoming a smarter and more sustainable city. 2. H22 City Expo – A stop along the way where we shine a light on all that’s been achieved between now and the summer of 2022. More about it here: H22 City Expo 2022.
For further information, journalists and media professionals can contact us at press.office@ingka.com or by calling +46 70 993 6376.
Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 392 IKEA stores in 32 countries. These IKEA stores had 657 million visits during FY21 and 4.6 billion visits to IKEA.com. Ingka Group operates business under the IKEA vision - to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford it.
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