Ikea - New store Building
Carugate, Milano, Italy
1998
CLIENT
IKEA SPA
TYPOLOGY
RETAIL
SIZE MQ / FT2
24.000 - 258,000
STATUS
Completed
SHARE
The Ikea store and related facilities are the result of a direct approach and dialogue with the corporation officials.
Rather than simply accomplishing the basic requirements we were given, the store extends its function to becoming a place for social gathering, almost a destination in and out of it- self.
The radical design of the facade, which features a more integrated design of opaque and transparent panels allows visitors to enjoy the natural daylight and its playful composition of shadows it create inside the atrium.
The exterior plaza acts as a fulcrum that is often used for seasonal displays, shows as well as a play space for children. All aspects of the building were custom de- signed using basic Ikea standards yet adding a degree of uniqueness to them.
The escalating complexity of the world and the accelerating speed of change exceed any individual’s capacity to comprehend. For architects operating today, the Golden Ratio is no longer the standard – rather, the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals are. From a single elegant equation, architects are now held to multidimensional success criteria with almost infinite variables.
Since sustainability is inherently a question of complex systems, circular design, and holistic thinking, no single person holds the solution. As architects and urbanists, we must team with scientists, engineers with biologists, politicians with entrepreneurs, to combine skill sets and perspectives, knowledge and sensibility, to match the complexity of the challenges we face. As future formgivers, we won’t be defined by our individual talents or singular skill sets – but rather by our capacity to pool the skills of the many to give our future form.