![]() ![]() Look out for bus timetables, or better still, hire bicycles for shorter distances. The temporary exhibition on view is ‘Ikea Hacked’ (on till March 24, 2019), showcasing how 30 international designers, architects and artists are using Ikea products as raw material to arrive at new designs and functions through ingenious tweaks.Ī tour through the museum typically takes two or three hours. ‘Your Stories’ puts the spotlight on people who’ve shared their experiences. ![]() The ‘Our Story’ section establishes how Gustavian-style furniture, scientist Carl Linnaeus, artists Karin and Carl Larsson, and author Ellen Key have all inspired the product range. The exhibits include the lingonberry picker, wooden lunch boxes, baskets made from pest-resistant juniper wood, and ‘beech’ wood barrels used to transport butter from Swedish dairies to England. ‘Our Roots’ gives a brief history of the lives of people in the Swedish countryside in the 18th to early 20th centuries. ![]() The permanent exhibition is divided into three zones. A temporary exhibition that’s updated twice a year comes alive with everyday objects used innovatively to arrive at contemporary art. Ikea Museum features a permanent exhibition that gives insights into Swedish history, culture, lifestyle, its agrarian challenges and how Kamprad established the business. A note at the entrance reveals that a standard shipping container of 76 cubic-metre capacity can hold up to 778 flat-packed Billy bookcases! These containers are loaded on trucks, trains and boats, to transport products from Ikea factories to suppliers and stores across the world. The container doubles up as the museum’s entrance for a reason - shipping containers have been a part of the company’s success story. Inside the Ikea Museum, a walk through the history of Swedish countryside During lunch hours, this wall opens up to connect the museum to the sprawling Ikea restaurant. One of the walls bears artwork that resembles a stack of colourful containers. The museum’s entrance is a shipping container. The exteriors of the building were designed in international modernism style by architect Claes Knutson. The building that housed the first store from 1958 to 2012, now functions as the museum.Īrt, design and functionality go hand-in-hand in the museum’s corridors. Outside the Ikea Museum, a signage reads ‘It began here in 1958’. There are a few other hikes in Almhult’s vicinity, but the town remains a major draw for being the Ikea headquarters. Head North to Råshult to hike through the cultural reserve where the gardens are maintained in a 17th-Century aesthetic. Before that, the sleepy town was known as the home of Carolus or Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy. Ingvar Kamprad founded Ikea in 1943 and opened the first store in 1958 in Almhult. On a journey through Sweden and Denmark, it’s worth stopping to understand how this erstwhile farming town turned into a place that gives wings to entrepreneurship. A little further is the new Ikea store, an Ikea Fynd store where you’ll find things for a steal, some charming Swedish residences, and a town centre with cafés, stores and other establishments. This little town is marked by a clutch of Ikea offices, museum and the hotel - all down the railway track. If you look up Almhult on any travel portal, you’re likely to chance upon comments that there’s nothing much to do here unless you’re curious to see Ikea’s birthplace and headquarters. Now referred to as ‘Ikea town’, Almhult municipality has a population of nearly 17,000. We took this little detour during ‘home visits’ to understand Scandinavian design and style, as part of Ikea Democratic Design Days in 2018. From here, take a two-hour train ride to Almhult through the stunning Øresund Bridge, which is a 16-kilometre road and rail bridge between Sweden and Denmark.
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