IKEA launches its Virtual Greenhouse to inspire people to live a more balanced and sustainable life at home

Launching during Dutch Design Week, 17-25 October 2020, the IKEA Virtual Greenhouse is an online platform of inspiring, nature-led virtual events, workshops, talks, and activities presented by expert creatives from around the world. Anyone will be able to tune in to learn about and be inspired by a range of different content, from ‘Planting a Mini Terrarium’, to ‘Growing Flowers to Nourish Bees’; ‘How to Dye Textiles with Food Waste’, to ‘Foraging for and Making Park Juice’.

Based on insights gathered since the outbreak of COVID-19, IKEA has found that many people have experienced a significant shift in perspective and that this has led to a strong desire to optimise their lives at home and bring nature into their spaces, both to live more sustainably and to create a feeling of sanctuary at home. 

With the release of its seventh Life at Home Report – titled ‘The Big Home Reboot’ – in mid-September, the brand has centered its research this year on life during the pandemic and has uncovered the closer relationship with home that many have developed as a result. 

The IKEA Virtual Greenhouse has been created in response to these findings, and its workshops’ wider themes are grouped as follows:

The House of Plants: Masterclasses from leading florists on how to make floral arrangements to create a hygge home living space. 

Home Rituals: Inspirational recipes and virtual masterclasses focused on food and wellbeing.

Living with Nature: Tips and tricks on how to live with and care for plants in the home.

Botanical Stories: Talks from leading experts in the field of botany and sustainability.

Nature as our Muse: Utilising nature and its infinite library of resources, from extracting dyes to creating scents. 

Botanical Soundscapes: Live concerts streamed in the comfort of home, providing an intimate setting for getting personal with nature.
All the films will be hosted on the Life at Home site, where the latest research from this year’s Life at Home Report is also found. They’ll also be available on the IKEA YouTube channel. By sharing knowledge, ideas and solutions through these masterclasses, IKEA hopes to inspire people to live a more balanced and sustainable life at home.

“Many are seeking ways to live better, while making a positive difference for people and the planet – but often they don’t know how to get started. From our research for the Life at Home Report, it was clear to us that most have grown closer to their homes during the pandemic, and that they have a newfound love for cooking and an urgent desire to be closer to nature. We hope the Virtual Greenhouse will help people bring nature into their homes, inspire them to be more sustainable in the kitchen and help them to use the resources in their homes in new, creative ways,” says Jenny Lee, Life at Home Communication Leader, Ingka Group. 

The Virtual Greenhouse is just one of the many ways that IKEA hopes to bring sustainability into people’s everyday lives, and to make sustainable living more accessible to the many. For more about the ambitious goals the brand has to transform its business, its value chain and life at home for people across the world, see the IKEA People & Planet Positive Sustainability Strategy.

------------------------------

Dutch Design Week takes place between 17 and 25 October 2020. All IKEA Virtual Greenhouse content can be found here, and you can also see the timings for every event. Once signed up, just click on the ‘heart’ to add content to your favourites, and easily find it again when you return. 

Find the livestreamed content on the IKEA YouTube channel.

Head to the Life at home site for the pre-recorded workshops, as well as the latest Life at Home Report.

More information about sustainability at Ingka and IKEA can be found here. 

The expert creatives involved in the Virtual Greenhouse include:

The House of Plants

• We Smell the Rain – New Zealand, Netherlands – @wesmelltherain

• Alyson Mowat Studio – South African, UK – @alysonmowat

• Buunch – French, Japanese, USA – @buunch

Home Rituals

• Bompas & Parr – British, UK – @bompasandparr

• Arabeschi di Latte – Italian, UK – @arabeschi

• Baguette & Butter – American, USA – @baguette_and_butter

• NAS-DRA – Polish, Poland – @nasdraconscious

Living with Nature

• Emma Sadie Thomson – Australian, Australia – @emmasadiethomson

• Ro Co – British, UK – @studio.roco

• Material Library of India – Indian, India – @material_library_of_india

• Honey Fingers – Australian, Australia – @honey_fingers

Nature as our Muse

• Circular Union – American, USA – @circular_union

• Studio Blond & Bieber – German, Germany – @blondandbieber

Botanical Stories & Soundscapes (live events)

• FRAME – Dutch, Netherlands – @framemagazine

• Yuri Suzuki (Pentagram) – Japanese, UK – @yurisuzukilondon

• IKEA Life at Home Report – Sweden

IKEA Life at Home contacts
Jenny Lee, Communication Leader
life.athome.gl@ingka.com 
+46 (0) 72 151 22 23

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 378 IKEA stores in 30 countries. These IKEA stores had 706 million visits during FY20 and 3.6 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.

Tags: