Cities are booming and at the same time living spaces are shrinking. That’s why more brands than ever are exploring flexible and innovative solutions that empower people to have big dreams for small homes, and the same is true for 'Rognan', a new line of robotic furniture developed by IKEA in collaboration with Ori.

More and more people are living and moving into cities where approximately an extra 1.5 million people join the urban population every week. This mass urbanisation is accelerating and creates heavily populated cities that are at the same time consuming both land and resources at an unsustainable pace. With an aim to create a better everyday life for the many people, enabling them to create their dream homes in small spaces, IKEA seeks to answer the question: How can you utilise the square metres of your home in a better way without compromising on either function or your dreams?

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“We have been working with developing small space living solutions for a long time, and we know that some of the biggest challenges in peoples’ homes are storage and finding the place to do all the activities that you would want to do in your home. This is especially the case in big cities where people have to make compromises in the functions of their homes. We wanted to change that,” says Seana Strawn, product developer for new innovations at IKEA of Sweden.

To meet this need, IKEA is collaborating with Ori, an American start-up that has developed robotic furniture for modern living and has been challenging the limitations of square metres in living spaces. With Rognan as a robotic furniture solution for small space living, people will be able to turn small spaces into smart spaces that have all the comfort and convenience of a home.

“People across the US have been living large in a small footprint with Ori’s robotic interiors since we introduced our first commercial product two years ago. At about the same time, we began working with IKEA to bring robotic furniture to the world. We share IKEA’s passion to enable people to make the most of their living spaces, and look forward to helping realise this as we continue to develop living spaces for the next generation,” says Hasier Larrea, founder and CEO of Ori.

Rognan is built on Ori’s robotic platform with system thinking in mind, working with the IKEA storage solution Platsa as a standard geometry. This means that people can easily change the function and look of Rognan, or move Platsa to another place if that’s needed, being more conscious and less wasteful of what you buy by prolonging the life of the product and letting the product adapt to your life changes. Rognan also works with Tradfri cabinet and wardrobe smart lighting.

“With Rognan, small space living customers will no longer have to compromise their needs, dreams or comfort in order to achieve a multi-functional living environment. With Rognan the customer gets eight extra square metres of living space, using robotics to transform the solution from bedroom to walk-in closet, to work space, to living room. An all-in-one solution activated through a simple interface touchpad,” says Seana Strawn. “Instead of making the furniture smaller, we transform the furniture to the function that you need at that time. When you sleep, you do not need your sofa. When you use your wardrobe, you do not need your bed etc.,” Strawn continues.

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