Hack-your-IKEA Contest Shows some Love to Generic IKEA Products

Amsterdam-based experimental design collaborative Platform 21, known for their infamous hacks of IKEA furniture, ran a Hack-your-IKEA competition this summer, and they have received nearly a hundred national and international entries to the contest. All from enthusiastic hackers that each in their own way changed an IKEA product.

On behalf of the jury, furthermore made up by Erwin van der Zande - editor in chief of BRIGHT magazine - and Césare Peeren of 2012Architecten and Superuse.org, hack conaisseur Scott Burnham announced not ONE but TWO winners. Burnham states: “That is the advantage of a hacking contest; that you can change the rules yourself at the last minute.”

WINNER: ERIK, the elk! by Nora Feddersen (DE):

“ERIK is a clothes-hanger for children made out of an IKEA FNISS paper basket and two IKEA STATIST decoration trees.
I got rid of the basket’s bottom and made a round mdf wood board with two holes and the print FEED ME! The round piece is screwed to a wall with the two holes on its rim. The basket fits exactly on top of the round mdf piece and is held by the two STATIST trees which are stuck through the holes in the basket through the holes in the wood.

ERIK is greeting kids everyday demanding to feed him with anoraks, gloves and scarves.”

Nora Feddersen studies at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

ERIK, the elk! - Nora Feddersen

ERIK, the elk! - Nora Feddersen

Burnham: “The other area we focused on was the straight-up design hack. Personally, I wanted to keep things pure, in that only IKEA products were used in order to create a different, unique ‘third’ product. So IKEA Product A + Product B = new Product C. For this ERIK! the elk was the winner because not only is it a brilliant hack using existing IKEA products, but its end result looks exactly like an IKEA product and it is hard to believe they haven’t already made this. If they were smart, the next step would be to hire this hacker and add ERIK to their product line!”

WINNER: ASTRID hack by Lisette van Haasnoot (NL):

“You buy an ASTRID at IKEA and pay at the cash register. Then you take the lamp out of its box and return the lamp without box at the customer service desk to get your money back. Now you have a free (!!) and very pretty - not yet functioning - lamp.
To make it into a functioning lamp you need two cardboard partitions (which you also get at IKEA for free), which you crosswise slide into each other.
In the middle of this partition you cut a space in which to fit a light bulb and socket. You also cut parts of the box out according to the required light intensity. After that it is just a case of putting the different parts together.”

Lisette Haasnoot studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

ASTRID - Lisette Haasnoot

ASTRID - Lisette Haasnoot

The opinion of the jury according to Scott Burnham: “We focused on two areas of hacking culture when judging the entries. The first is what I refer to as a ‘soft’ hack - where a system or process is hacked by a suggested alteration of the way you interact with Ikea. There were several exceptional entries in this category where people used Ikea as a workout area, or as the potential supplier of composting materials. The winner in this area was of course the ASTRID hack. This was just a brilliant hack of the entire IKEA packaging, returns and branding system. Now that this hack will get a lot of attention and more people are bound to try and make it themselves, I bet IKEA will quickly switch to a transparent plastic packaging for this lamp.”

HONOROUBLE MENTION: PAX AETERNUS coffin by Peter Schippers (NL)

“In this regard I also think the PAX AETERNUS coffin by Peter Schippers deserves an honourable mention for not only being a nice design hack using existing materials, but an entirely unexpected entry as well - refreshing and original”, says Burnham.

“I and the rest of the jury were incredibly impressed by the quality of all the entries. The most remarkable thing about it was how such a simple concept of Hacking Ikea spawned such a wide range of design responses, and such a vast number of entries. It was easily the most entertaining competition I’ve ever judged, and one of the most innovative as well.”

PAX AETERNUS coffin - Peter Schippers

PAX AETERNUS coffin - Peter Schippers

PAX AETERNUS coffin - Peter Schippers

THE NOMINEES:

The jury picked ten favourites from which the two winners and the honorable mention were chosen. Here you see which seven entries were nominated as well.

Our BIGGEST idea is the smallest price - Laurens Manders

Our BIGGEST idea is the smallest price - Laurens Manders

IKEAtjas - Sylvia Fennis

Hangchair by Studio Niels & Sven

Bedchair - Boris Wiasmitinow

LACK + LACK = LACK van Kevin Koekkoek

LAMPA LAMPA - Henk de Vroom

DOMESTIC SPORT by DAREDO (see the whole line here)

Some more noteworthy entries:

IKEA HACKS by Studio Proxy & HELLOGRAPH

From left to right: IKEA Rollercoaster Chair by Colette Lemmerman; Project Bad Math by Anna Sikkema; JURGEN by ax710

From left to right: EMMA by Heleen Lamorée; BILLY Boombox by Torsten Wemer; Remodeled lamp by Michele van Kooyk Snook

The winners of the contest win design fame. Their hacks will be exhibited in the stand of BRIGHT during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in October. Also they will travel with the Hacking IKEA exhibition to the 2009 Montreal Biennale in Canada in May of next year.

Images: Platform 21