Swedish brand IKEA has unveiled its Kompishäng collection for short-term renters, featuring affordable and portable furniture and homeware designed to be moved without a car. The 12-piece range includes a £7 wardrobe organiser that doubles as a backpack and a side table that can be carried over the arm like a handbag. None of the pieces costs more than £70.
The collection was created especially for young people and students in cities, who are constantly moving house and often hardest hit by skyrocketing rent prices. IKEA designers conceived Kompishäng after visiting a series of central London homes belonging to renters between the ages of 20 and 28. Across the homes, the designers witnessed improvised storage solutions and heavy furniture abandoned before the young adults moved onto their next rental home.
“We wanted to create a collection that could be moved with your body alone, without needing a car,” said designer Wiebke Braasch. That brief shaped lightweight, easily transportable pieces made from timber, steel, canvas and pine. The range aims to solve practical problems of urban renting while still feeling like proper home furniture.
Among the pieces is a flat-pack solid pine desk with green powder-coated steel legs, which assembles in just two clicks without the need for any tools. A hanging wardrobe organiser features three storage compartments and straps. When zipped up, the dark green hanger doubles as a backpack that can be used to carry other belongings during a house move. A set of two timber stools can be stacked on top of each other to create a shelving tower.
The collection’s timber-and-steel side table can be folded into a flat shape and carried over the arm like a handbag. A shopping bag was fitted with wheels to transform it into a trolley that can carry up to 10 kilograms. For personalisation, one mirror is made from pine with slits in its frame that allow renters to slot in photos or postcards. Other pieces include a canvas door hanger with multiple pockets, a back cushion and a plant pot holder with handles for easy transportation.
Designing for Permanence and Portability
For the project’s creative leader Ina Tidbeck Sjöblom, the challenge lay in creating furniture that feels like it belongs in your home, however briefly you live there, “not pieces that remind you you’re about to leave”. “Balancing permanence and portability became a guiding principle across the entire collection,” she explained. “Moving plants was a bigger problem than I ever imagined, and it was fun to come up with a new solution that makes it easier to both carry and protect them while moving,” said Braasch. The final pieces in the Kompishäng range are a timber coat rack that can be hung over a door and a curved bookend with handles, both designed in the same lightweight style as the rest of the furniture.
IKEA is known for its emphasis on balancing clever design and affordability. In May, the brand unveiled a new edition of its experimental PS collection, with pieces that cost mostly under £100. The impact of the range was discussed on our Dezeen Weekly podcast. With Kompishäng, IKEA extends that philosophy to the realities of transient urban living, offering renters a way to furnish a home that can travel with them piece by piece.
Image Courtesy: Dezeen
