Armillary Lectures: Rebecca Carrai – IKEA-Land. A Counter-History of Domestic Space

IKEA-LAND. A COUNTER-HISTORY OF DOMESTIC SPACE

The homogenization of taste and consumer behavior, the rise of amateur craftsmanship through DIY practices, the democratization of aesthetically pleasing, modernistic mass-produced goods, the accessibility of home furniture frequent refurbishment, and the trend towards nomadic living, are just some of the phenomena that can be attributed to the increased influence of Western consumerism in the home. An icon of the West, IKEA—the world’s largest furniture retailer—has garnered attention in various academic, pop, and artistic domains, and has also been examined in detail in the fields of economics, semiotics, branding, and marketing. Yet it seems to be still understudied from an architectural perspective; a knowledge-gap addressed by this doctoral research.
By examining moments and periods of the company’s history — through literature, archival research, empirical observations, and oral history—this study posits that IKEA is a highly valuable lens through which we can observe significant changes that have shaped society and architecture, from the mid-20th century to the present day. IKEA can be regarded as a precursor to today’s neoliberal, cognitive capitalism, with its impact on architecture rooted not so much in the morphological or aesthetic features of its products, but rather in its virtual production. Instead of a comprehensive analysis of the vast range of items produced and disseminated by IKEA, this study hones in on more intangible aspects of production: the design of consumption patterns, and the creation of an “IKEA-culture” at home. These aspects—due to their ubiquitous presence and dual register (both material and immaterial)— shape what the thesis has coined as “IKEA-Land.”
As a “counter-history” of domestic space, this study brings the commercial actor IKEA from the periphery of architectural histories to the forefront, expressing its significance as an “other” architectural agent, and in doing so contributing to a wider body of scholarship on interiors from an architectural stance.

REBECCA CARRAI is an architectural historian working at the intersection of modern design and architecture through a cross-disciplinary approach, encompassing anthropological and philosophical subjects, business studies, material culture, capitalism theories and media analysis. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Lise Meitner “Coded Objects” Research Group, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck. She holds a PhD in Architectural History from KU Leuven’s Faculty of Architecture (2023), where she examined global domestic interiors through the lens of IKEA, the world’s largest furnishing corporation.
Rebecca was a visiting scholar at Norwich University (2024); at Princeton University (2023), at KTH Stockholm (2022) and at the Architectural Association in London (2019-2021). She is the co-chair of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN) Interest Group titled ‘Building Word Image’.

ABOUT THE LECTURE SERIES
Armillary spheres are “models of the celestial globe constructed from rings and hoops representing the equator, the tropics, and other celestial circles, and able to revolve on its axis.” This lecture series wants to be a window onto the sphere of academic research, gazing at the different constellations drawn by doctoral dissertations within the horizon of architecture. The course aims at inviting researchers that already obtained a PhD to present their dissertation to an audience of doctorands, providing a diverse array of examples and case studies on approaching dissertation work within the field of architecture.