If you’re looking to create high-end design on an IKEA budget, take inspiration from Japanese artist and architect Takayoshi Kitagawa, who renovated his parents’ 38-year old apartment and studio in Osaka and transformed it into a dynamic, modernist living space.
Kitagawa’s father was a collector of odds and ends that dominated the living space. So the architect had made it his task to create shelving that would hold his father’s collection while also allowing it to ebb away into the background of their life – a type of harmony between lifestyle and object.
IKEA’s KALLAX modular shelving unit
Kitagawa’s sketch showing his IKEA hack to create parabolic shelving
Kitagawa worked primarily with IKEA’s KALLAX shelving units, which come in multiple models and configurations. And he got the idea to transform them into parabolic forms after draping duct tape from the ceiling, which drooped down to create the U-shaped orientations. “The parabolic shelf hanging from the ceiling makes contact with the floor while gradually squeezing the light entering through the window,” explains Kitagawa. “Shadows are created on the floor around the contact point, and the form is established structurally.”
Kitagawa created a total of 3 of these floor-to-ceiling units in slightly different sizes, and oriented them differently throughout the apartment.
duct tape draped from the ceiling create outlines for the floor-to-ceiling shelves
February 21, 2017 at 10:04 am
How did he get the IKEA wood to bend at the bottom without it breaking?
March 3, 2017 at 1:30 am
The real question is How? i love the design and the idea of it. Thanks for sharing Johny.
March 5, 2017 at 7:07 pm
Anthony Manners, it might just be me, but looking at the pieces, it seems that the element that forms the parabolic curve is an additional structural piece, not a modification of the existing shelf material. The curved piece would have been fabricated and the shelf modified to fit within it.