IKEA and Ori have teamed up to develop the Rognan robotic furniture, to enable people create their dream homes in small spaces.

As cities boom, living spaces are shrinking. That’s why IKEA is exploring flexible and innovative solutions for small homes.

“We have been working with developing small space living solutions for a long time, and we know that some of the biggest challenges in homes are storage and finding the place to do all the activities that you’d want to do in your home,” says Seana Strawn, product developer for new innovations at IKEA of Sweden.

To meet this need, IKEA is collaborating with Ori, an American startup, which has developed robotic furniture for modern living. The Rognan robotic furniture solution, as it is called ,helps small spaces into smart spaces that have all the comfort and convenience of a home.

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 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 they buy by prolonging the life of the product and letting the product adapt to the requirements.  

“With Rognan, the customer gets eight extra square meters 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,” Strawn says.

“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,” she continues.

The first launch of Rognan will be in Hong Kong and Japan during 2020.