The Swedish doctors of design from IKEA are bringing a festival about home design, retail and food to the Museum of Contemporary Art this August. It’s the first Democratic Design Days Sydney has seen, and the three-day program of talks, workshops, exhibitions and dining experiences will give audiences insight into the world of product development and home living innovations. It will also unveil new IKEA collections and partnerships with style leaders like French retailer Colette and Australian artist Craig Redman.
At the centre of events is the Democratic Design Days Exhibition, which will run at the MCA for the full length of the festival, August 27-29. The free exhibition will showcase new IKEA collections and unusual prototypes currently under development, like a chair tailored for video gaming. Guests will have the chance to talk to the creatives and collaborators across a number of workshops and discussion panels, including Marcus Engman, IKEA Head of Design.
If your memories of IKEA are punctuated with the bold, zesty flavour of their beloved meatballs, you’ll want to book in for Donate by Plate: The IKEA Social Enterprise Meatball Restaurant. There’s two sessions of this meatball feast each night, where from $20 you can dine with a view of Sydney Harbour, sipping your specially designed IKEA cocktail on arrival, before digging into a three-course shared meal inspired by the humble IKEA meatball.
All proceeds from the dinners will be donated to Foodbank, Australia’s largest hunger relief organisation. Then, stick to the kitchen with the forum Future of Food in the Circular Economy (Aug 29), where a panel including food celebrity Matt Preston will discuss food resources, sustainability and waste.
Tuesday night (Aug 28) is game night. Spend an evening engaging in friendly competition at Game On! You can challenge friends in video games and dance-offs, plus there’s a cocktail on arrival and you guessed it: more meatballs.
Like getting hands-on with an Allen key? Head to the IKEA (dis)Assembly Party (Aug 29) for the final hoorah. You’ll help out the exhibition curators by pulling apart furniture as you shimmy to DJ tunes, fuelled by Swedish cocktails and snacks. It’ll be a great post-work team bonding opportunity, plus you could walk away with a sleek new daybed – all the furniture is up for grabs if you take a snap and post about your favourite item on Instagram.
While some events are free, they’re all ticketed, so book in advance.