Rognan robotic furniture for small space living

https://ikea.today/ikea-explores-future-living-for-the-many/

by wallflower • 7 years ago

39 49 7 years ago

ikea.today

falsedan• 7 years ago

Wrong link, should be https://ikea.today/rognan-robotic-furniture-for-small-space-...

tomglynch2• 7 years ago

How does a wrong link get this many upvotes?

hjk05• 7 years ago

Likely the add agency hired by IKEA to put attention on this got the link wrong but the likes they’ve arranged rolled in just the same.

rypskar• 7 years ago

Wonder if the name is from the small Norwegian village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rognan and why they did go for that name

Luc• 7 years ago

They always use Norwegian place names for their beds.

w_t_payne• 7 years ago

Man the future looks depressing.

TausAmmer• 7 years ago

If you will be nice boi, your living space will be upgraded +5sq. ft.

michaelt2• 7 years ago

I see what you mean - but things like sofa beds and murphy beds have been with us for decades.

Is a motorised sofa bed any more depressing than a regular sofa bed? Or is it more the implication they see such furniture as a growth market?

krapp• 7 years ago

This is the future for upper middle class urbanites who could easily afford better, but can't abide living somewhere that isn't chic... the depressing future is for everyone else, and it probably looks like hives of Japanese-style capsule hotels 3d printed from recycled garbage.

ahoka• 7 years ago

Do people really want to live in such slave dwellings? These futuristic minihomes keep popping up in media, but is this really the solution? The people I know who live in small apartments cannot even afford new furniture. I used to live in 25m2 and the last thing I wanted was these automatons.

brabel• 7 years ago

In Stockholm and other cities in Europe, people are more than happy to live in tiny apartments around 30sqm that look like the one in the video. Examples in the best areas of Stockholm downtown: https://www.hemnet.se/bostader?location_ids%5B%5D=925970&loc...

deytempo2• 7 years ago

until there is 0 risk of a fire on apartment X spreading to apartment Y, I don’t think I could rest easy in an apartment with all of my stuff.

buboard3• 7 years ago

Are they more than happy? Or just settling?

EliRivers• 7 years ago

Based on my UK experiences, people want to live in nice houses, but they will live in whatever they can afford based on how much money the bank is willing to lend them for a mortgage; doesn't matter how badly made or small.

cagenut• 7 years ago

there are nearly 8 billion of us and we'll cross 9 plenty soon. industrialization, modernization, and globalization have already been driving people into cities for decades. going forward on top of that droughts, famines, hurricanes, floods, etc will increasingly drive climate refugees into cities.

we are already in a "housing crisis" that will only escalate rapidly as pressure from the net-influx of people moving in compresses living space. this is what ikea is talking about in the first minute of this video (which at one point was the link): https://ikea.today/ikea-explores-future-living-for-the-many/

your mental framework of "why would I, a wealthy person who can afford more, want this?" is basically a mistake of making it about you. its not.

buboard3• 7 years ago

we are already in a "housing crisis"

The places with a "housing crisis" are uber-wealthy neighborhoods or cities like SF or London, the crisis is not caused by incoming refugees but by high salaries, and yeah, it's rich people who live in those tiny spaces. Comparatively, poor people live in more affordable neighborhoods.

https://www.citymetric.com/skylines/mapping-uk-s-housing-wea...

seren3• 7 years ago

Has anyone any idea what standards might apply to autonomous moving part inside a home ?

I am not sure that it actually exists, but at some point, someone is going to be crushed by its moving furniture or trapped in the sofa.

ulrikrasmussen2• 7 years ago

Why would it need to be robotic? If the friction on those tracks is low enough, then it should be possible to move the whole setup by hand.

seren3• 7 years ago

Even with low friction, you probably need to apply brakes at rest to avoid having it to move uncontrollably at the wrong time. But certainly it could be manual.

By using a motorized motion, you have more freedom in the design, and you can likely move heavier load. Not everyone is necessarily fit enough to push, squat, or reach some part.

But this is a good point and I hope you can use the system without power, because it would suck to sleep on the ground because you have a power outage.

ulrikrasmussen2• 7 years ago

Braking could certainly be done without motors by requiring a handle to be squeezed while moving. With heavier loads I might see the point in using motors, but I think a few pulleys could do the trick as well.

My point is mostly that the robotic part seems to be slapped on to make the whole thing seem more futuristic, when in reality it is just a clever design for a folding bed.

saulrh• 7 years ago

Getting the friction down far enough that they could get the thing rolling would also mean low enough friction to store a ton of momentum and roll it over someone's foot. This thing probably masses ten times as much as any manually-actuated compact furniture I've seen.

On top of that, consider accessibility. I'd be mostly fine hauling this around, but I know some people that weigh literally half what I do and others with joint or coordination issues. They would have trouble.

Finally, this system is probably going to last way longer. Humans are really awful at using things carefully, while a mechanical engineer with some servos can control exactly where the force is. The "grease the rails and push" plan is great for getting it started, but then you've dumped a bunch of energy into the system and it'll have to be dissipated by running the thing into a physical stop, which is a recipe for vibration and stress that'd shake it to pieces in months. A controlled system can move the unit smoothly and carefully slow it down at the end of travel. I bet this is cleanly in Vimes Theory of Boots territory.

iguy• 7 years ago

Right. Lots of big libraries have these, to save space, and while I guess they need a strong floor, moving a ton of books by hand seems to be no problem.

mr_t5• 7 years ago

I've started to sleep on the floor (better said, on two or three blankets on the floor) a year ago because I've read somewhere it helps with back aches. The first week was weird and uncomfortable, but I got used to it quickly.

I've never slept that well (frequent sleepless nights before switchting to the ground) and my aches almost vanished.

I got rid of my bed since I didn't need it anymore and realized how much space it took (I live in a single room in a shared appartment). Now my smallish room seems so much bigger, I literally can't even use all that space efficiently (I live quite minimalistic).

Sure, this isn't for everyone, but overall I can't stop thinking that something I took for granted (everyone needs a bed, right?) is in fact nothing but an accessoire that, in retrospect, even decresed my quality of sleep, therefore even my quality of life.

vageli• 7 years ago

I've started to sleep on the floor (better said, on two or three blankets on the floor) a year ago because I've read somewhere it helps with back aches. The first week was weird and uncomfortable, but I got used to it quickly.
I've never slept that well (frequent sleepless nights before switchting to the ground) and my aches almost vanished.
I got rid of my bed since I didn't need it anymore and realized how much space it took (I live in a single room in a shared appartment). Now my smallish room seems so much bigger, I literally can't even use all that space efficiently (I live quite minimalistic).
Sure, this isn't for everyone, but overall I can't stop thinking that something I took for granted (everyone needs a bed, right?) is in fact nothing but an accessoire that, in retrospect, even decresed my quality of sleep, therefore even my quality of life.

Do you sleep directly on the floor with no padding whatsoever? I tend to sleep on my side or stomach and have never been able to sleep well on a bare floor.

mr_t5• 7 years ago

I sleep on 2-3 blankets, so a little padding. But too much padding gets uncomfortable for me. Let me try to elaborate what I think I learned during the past year. But take it with a grain of salt, it's just subjective perception:

I slept on my side or stomach most of my life, it was the only comfortable way to sleep for me. I started to sleep on the ground just like that and guess what, the first nights were horrible. Once I started to sleep in different positions, everything changed. My theory is that there is no real feedback on a mattress/very soft ground. I can sleep like I want and it will be comfortable, even though it might be "bad sleeping posture". If I do the same on the ground, there is no padding, my body gets real feedback and reacts with pain in bad "sleeping postures". But what does the pain tell me? In one way: Sleeping on the floor is bad because it hurts. In another way: My way of sleeping is bad because it hurts, so I need to change it.

An example: Sleeping on the stomach on a mattress is still somewhat "comfy" for me (even though I don't like sleeping on a mattress). Sleeping on the stomach on the ground is a no go, because my weight presses my chest against the ground, making breathing way harder than sleeping on my back with no weight on my chest. I just got so used sleeping on my chest that sleeping on the back was horrible at first, but once I got used to it I felt more replenished the mornings after. So if I sleep on my stomach like in this example, is sleeping on the floor bad because I can't breathe properly, or is sleeping on a mattress bad, because I don't get the necessary feedback to realise it affects my breathing? I guess that is something everyone needs to decide for himself, but for me the answer is: sleeping on a mattress is bad.

ghaff2• 7 years ago

Even camping I like having a decent sleeping pad.

But there’s certainly nothing wrong with a futon you roll up (or a sofa bed or Murphy bed) if you’re short of space.

I like a good futon and use one at home (on a platform bed).

tomglynch2• 7 years ago

Do you sleep in the same spot every night? I'm chuckling at the idea of you getting tired and just picking a random bit of floor within your house to lie down.

jcims• 7 years ago

You have to bless the spot by circling it three times first.

mr_t5• 7 years ago

You made me laugh, thanks! I do have three blankets (on which I sleep) that I store in my closet during the day. Most of the time I put my bed on the same spot, but sometimes I move it slightly (towards the windows on hot days, etc.), although not that much.

madengr• 7 years ago

I slept on the floor for 6 years, only getting a bed several months after I bought my house. No furniture either other than two fold out tables for old Unix work stations and a bean bag.

It’s an excellent method of birth control; no bed that is. The work stations don’t help either.

vinayms• 7 years ago

The biggest problem I have with sleeping on floor is that I have to literally walk on the mattress or blanket in order to lie down or get up, which is just so icky to me.

If that is strange you'd find it stranger to know that I am Indian and sleeping on floor is both tradition and sometimes compulsion due to poverty (though I was never poor). I was fine with it all these years and don't know what changed recently.

mr_t5• 7 years ago

Your point that sleeping on the floor is "compulsion due to poverty" is something I started to think about alot since sleeping on the floor. It made me realise how much we ("wealthy people") isolate/distant ourselves from the ground. Sitting on the floor? That's weird, better sit on a chair or the comfy sofa. Sleeping on the floor? Even weirder. Walking barefoot (something I don't to, btw)? Ew thats gross!

But the result (or at least what I can say about myself) is that our range of motion gets worse every year, which ultimately leads to aches, pain and even worse stuff.

If one of the main arguments (that I hear all the time) against sleeping and sitting on the floor is "but you have to get up from the floor all the time, I couldn't do that", I'd argue that proves my point. Altough its might be just a biased gut feeling.

PeterStuer2• 7 years ago

I slept in a sleeping bag on a stone tile floor for 3 weeks as a student when my furnishings hadn't arrived yet. When my bed got there, I still reverted to the floor the first few nights a I had so gotten used to it. I think I could have gone your path, but did not because I required (some) more cleaning (dust on a hard floor is more noticeable), and admittedly out of convention/habits.

kenneth• 7 years ago

How does that affect your romantic relationships? I imagine you're single since you don't mention a co-living situation which would otherwise be relevant. I imagine taking a girl home you without a bed might not be ideal.

Also, does it affect your ability to sleep on a regular bed without issues?

mr_t5• 7 years ago

I do have a girlfriend, but she's studying in another city. We see each other almost every weekend and agreed that I visit her place most of the time, since she can't stand sleeping on the floor.

It does affect my ability to sleep on a regular bed a lot (I sleep in her bed when I'm at her place). It's super uncomfortable for me, I don't feel as rested the next morning and she tells me that I am snoring very loudly and frequently in her bed. Sometimes I sleep on her floor as well, and according to her I my snoring almost disappears on the floor.

deytempo2• 7 years ago

The irony here is if you have enough money to afford this sort of thing, why would you live in a small space?

nine_k• 7 years ago

Because not buying a $1000 piece of furniture would only pay for 1-2 months of rent of a large space?

If you live in a proper city, like much of Europe, space is at a serious premium.

michaelt2• 7 years ago

Although the video depicts tiny one-room apartments, the second market for this is people who'd like some extra space without the cost and inconvenience of extending their house or moving house.

i.e. if you're willing to pay $2000 to get space for a home office or exercise space, that'll get you a pretty fancy folding bed - but it's a fraction of the cost of an extra bedroom.

ghaff2• 7 years ago

You don’t need something robotic but I expect folding beds (especially outside the most expensive cities) see a lot of use in guest bedrooms and similar. A traditional bed sort of locks a room into a guest bedroom function even if it’s rarely used as such. Better to have a sofa bed of some sort and use it for whatever purpose most of the time.

LudwigNagasena• 7 years ago

I think many people who can afford this sort of thing barely have any money to rent a closet in a city like Singapore.

LUmBULtERA• 7 years ago

"Sir, are you classified as human?" "Negative, I am a meat popsicle."

Reminds me of Korben Dallas' place.

wlkr• 7 years ago

I think of his and similar styled apartments often. Clips for those who aren't aware [0] [1]. Bears resemblance to the Capsule Tower [2] [3].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzOHhzk7zJ0

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZFH4wCLVXY

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakagin_Capsule_Tower

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXRJE2caPNY

ltc5505• 7 years ago

“Hey Siri, retract the bed into the rear of the kitchen wall and spin the bathroom 180°.”

PeterStuer2• 7 years ago

I can't be the only one that lol'ed when they didn't dive into bed together. I see what you did there, IKEA.

buboard3• 7 years ago

Cities are booming and at the same time living spaces are shrinking.

That's not necessary with the right allocation of shared spaces. Are workspaces "shrinking" because more people work in coworking spaces?

Designers should stop pretending that prison-cell living is something desireable, it's not.

Rognan robotic furniture for small space living

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