Ikea, furnishings powerhouse and purveyor of minimalist DIY goods, has of late branched out beyond the bookshelves, sofas, and storage units it’s known for into territories as far and wide as virtual reality, hydroponics, and more.
In addition to an announcement that the company will focus increasingly on recyclable materials in an upcoming line, and a recently unveiled collection heavily influenced by the forms of Indonesia and Vietnam, the company recently released the findings of its 2016 Life at Home Report.
The report, compiled by "surveying more than 12,000 people in twelve cities across the globe," Ikea detailed in a press release, looks at what constitutes "home" for folks in those dozen locales, including London, Toronto, New York, Paris, and more. Ikea researchers then used four lenses for examining this data: Space, Things, Relationships, and Place.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, especially in the age of the internet, only 20 percent of those surveyed felt "home" is merely a physical place. Instead, the consensus among those who responded seems to be that home is "where they have their most important relationships." Additionally, only 37 percent of millennial respondents (defined for this study as those between ages 18 and 29) felt "at home in their actual residence."
Most telling is that, a full quarter of the survey’s respondents said it was more important to have decent Wifi "than to have social spaces in the home."
Read more over on the Ikea Life at Home Report site.
- Life at Home Report [Ikea]
- All Ikea coverage [Curbed]