Ikea and Tom Dixon reveal details of their top secret collaboration

Details are finally beginning to trickle out six months after Ikea announced a collaboration with British designer Tom Dixon. The last we heard was that the collection would include an aluminum-framed sofa; now, according to Dezeen, we know it’s not going to be just any old couch.

Dixon is working with students from the Royal College of Art, Parsons School of Design, a school in Japan, and other companies to develop a product that can be enhanced by an “ecosystem of apps.”

Talking at a preview for next year’s Salone del Mobile Milano, Dixon teased that he was building a modular base that could be transformed into a bed, sofa, or other type of furniture. He explained:

Rather than a bed that you buy for a short period of time, it's a sort of platform for living that can evolve into a sofa or into a workstation, according to plug-ins that you put on top. Very much like the iPhone, I'm hoping to encourage a whole ecosystem of apps that you stick on top of this basic platform of the bed.

So, from what we gather, Dixon and company are designing the iPhone of furniture, which, like the iPhone, will be augmented by a suite of apps that outside developers can create. A name for the collection has yet to surface, but may we suggest iKea?

Via: Dezeen