The 2017 Ikea Catalog considered as dystopian urban microapartment futurism


The new Ikea Catalog is making a big bet on very small living spaces — the kind of place that costs more than half your monthly salary but is too small for a dinner-table, let alone a separate room for your kids, who are supposed to sleep in a bunk-bed in the living room ("Why would a child on the verge of pubescence need privacy anyway?").

John Brownlee's chilling tour of the Ikea Microapartment Dystopia is especially good when counterposed against the catalog's own copy: if there was ever a layer of bullshit icing on some soylent green cake, it is this, and Brownlee's merciless fisking is just what it needs.


"Share a meal—anywhere"

In the 2017 catalog, Ikea spends a lot of time trying to convince people that not being able to fit a table into their apartment is all the rage. Here, after saying that a "meal with friends or family doesn't have to happen around a perfectly set table . . . [or] even include chairs," the company suggests eating your food off the floor like a dog . . . as long as it's from a 99¢ Oftast bowl, that is!


Ikea's 2017 Catalog Is A Terrifying Glimpse Into The Tiny Apartments Of The Future
[John Brownlee/Fast Company]


(via Metafilter)