IKEA Oxford Street designed for Londoners "living in super small spaces"

Swedish furniture retailer IKEA has launched a shop on London's Oxford Street, located in a Grade II-listed building renovated by UK architecture studio BDP.

Opening tomorrow, IKEA overhauled the ground floor and two basement levels of a 1920s building for its latest city centre location.

The retailer aimed to create a shop that would appeal to London customers with limited home space while evoking a similar shopping experience to IKEA's larger, warehouse-like stores.

The upper basement level was separated into room sections, including living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and children's space, and features examples of small room layouts designed by people from London.

"What is super unique to the Oxford Street shop is what we call 'culture clusters' – every room set has been designed by somebody who lives in London," IKEA market manager Matt Gould told Dezeen.

"We wanted to be true to the spaces people have in London."

"They don't have these big, grand, huge kitchens where they can fit everything in. People are living in super small spaces," Gould continued.

"It's super important that when we do our designs here, we can connect to the people who shop with us."

At ground level, the shop has curated sections of IKEA products that were selected by people from London, designed to appeal to local residents.

A deli and dining area is located on the upper basement level, and on the lower basement level is a market hall of products typical of IKEA stores, which are usually located in lower density areas of cities.

Gould said that the retailer's experience of opening its first city centre branch in London's Hammersmith in 2022 helped inform the layout of the Oxford Street shop, after learning that customers preferred room-specific areas over open-plan shop floors.

"We learned a lot from the Hammersmith store – customers want the traditional IKEA flow," he said.

"With the city stores, a lot of the work has been around trying to be IKEA and what we're known for, but then also throwing in some differences," Gould continued.

With its Oxford Street store and plans to open a branch in the centre of Brighton, IKEA hopes to bring activity back to UK high streets.

"We targeted Oxford Street because we want to be part of the high street," said Gould.

"There has been a challenge in the high street over the last few years. We continue to see a movement of people buying online and not wanting to leave the house," he continued.

"When it came to the design of the store, it was important to have something a bit different to bring them in."

As well as refurbishing the Grade II-listed building to contain an IKEA store, BDP renovated the upper floors of the seven-storey building into office space.

Accessed through a lobby on a side road off Oxford Street, the offices benefit from roof terraces with views of the surrounding city.

BDP aimed to retain as much of the original building as possible, and stripped back boards that encased columns to reveal the building's steel structure.

"One of the biggest mantras was to work with the building and make good, not change something for just change sake," BDP principal architect Garry Wilding told Dezeen.

"The lighter you touch a building, the longer it will last," he continued. "We're putting it in good stead for the future and making sure it will last 1,500 years by sensitively preparing it and making it strong and robust."

IKEA launched a "democratic design" exhibition at this year's Milan design week, aiming to showcase high-quality design pieces at affordable prices.

Elsewhere on Oxford Street, Marks & Spencer was given the go-ahead to demolish an art deco building and replace it with a new development by UK architecture studio Pilbrow & Partners.

The photography is courtesy of IKEA.

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