The story behind the product
Lean into happiness with LYCKAN
There’s a new iconically IKEA product on the block! Let’s get to know IKEA designer Henrik Preutz and how his design process led to the creation of the LYCKAN chair.
It began with a brief to work with layered glued wood. It’s a material that Henrik loves. “I love everything about it. I love its properties and how it looks. Because the thin sheets of wood are glued together, you can control so much. If you glue eight to 10 sheets together, you’ll get a super flexible material which can be used for the seat and back, while around 25 sheets will be stiff and hard – great for legs where you need more strength and rigidity. It’s a material that allows for curved, ergonomic shapes and great function.”
Layered glued wood is undeniably Scandinavian. Looking back at the work from Danish and Swedish designers in the 50s and 60s, the material appears everywhere. The challenge, of course, is to come up with something new and exciting, while still iconically IKEA. It’s tight design parameters like this that fuel Henrik’s imagination – leading him to produce original designs like the LYCKAN chair. “I always try to design products that people fall in love with at first sight. But that’s the tricky part, right? To create something that people feel they can’t leave the store without. It’s one thing if people like what they see but another thing if they sit in a chair and love it even more. Then you know you’ve really nailed it.”
For Henrik, the design process begins with basic shapes on the page. Circles and rectangles form the base, with detail and expression coming in later. “You have to sketch for two or three days. And, you know, it's really hard work until all of a sudden from nowhere, you feel a spark. I think this is what is so fascinating about my kind of work – that little spark, that little second, when you get an idea that excites you. That's something you really strive for and when it happens, it’s a super nice feeling.”
When it comes to working with layered glued wood, designers are at the whims of the material. “While it's super versatile, you cannot bend it in any way you want”, says Henrik. “It's more or less like bending paper. If you can bend the paper without it getting any kind of wrinkles, you can also bend the wood in the same manner, so you have to keep the design quite simple.”
The seat of the LYCKAN chair sits at a firm 90 degrees – a strong contrast to the embracing curve of the back. The legs have a delightful flex, moving with you. But creating a cantilever chair came with its own challenges. The curve and movement of the chair needed to work for as many people as possible, but the chair itself also needed to fit into the iconic IKEA flat packaging. Rounds and rounds of testing later – both in the studio and the IKEA test lab – and the LYCKAN chair was ready to be boxed up and welcomed into homes around the world, with the perfect bounce for the many!
“Lycka means happiness in Swedish, and my hope is that that's exactly what people feel every time they look at this chair – that it brings some joy into their everyday life." – Henrik Preutz