AIR ON SALE. FROM EARLY MODERN SHOP WINDOWS TO IKEA’S MAXIMIZED EXHIBITIONS

Abstract

This paper adopts a multidisciplinary approach in linking industrial production with modern discourses and considering the pivotal roles of consumption and display in the modern history
of architecture. Starting from a theoretical preface, the paper investigates three pivotal moments of ‘air’ in the history of shopping: early experiments with window dressings, their implementation in multimodal showrooms, and digital displays. It looks at the relationships between ‘air’ as, on the one hand, an architectural object reflected in the modern fascination for transparency, glass, and display; and, on the other, as a conceptual one, a means for commodification that even surpasses matter. In particular, the paper focuses on the behavior of one of the protagonists of our material culture shaping and experimenting with consumption patterns straddling the 20th and 21st centuries: the world’s largest furnishing company IKEA. From IKEA’s early showroom, the subsequent glassed stores, to its latest virtual exhibitions, it retraces the shifts of ‘air’ from an ‘architectural’ to a ‘conceptual’ object by journeying through the Swedish company’s steps toward immaterial consumption.

This paper is part of a larger project as it draws from the author s ongoing doctoral thesis, The IKEA Home. A Counter- history of Domestic Space, conducted at KU Leuven, Brussels, in collaboration with Martino Tattara and Fredie Flore.