The story behind the product
RISATORP is ready for anything
How does a storage solution for fruit and vegetables go on to become one of the most versatile objects in your home? Great design and the collective imagination of the many, of course! Let’s meet IKEA designer, Wiebke Braasch and learn more about how the RISATORP basket came to be.
For RISATORP, Wiebke was briefed to design a solution for storing fruits and vegetables in the kitchen. “I think everyone has found a rotten banana somewhere in their kitchen. One of the things that leads to food waste is that we don’t see everything we have. We wanted to come up with something that could make even a little difference.”
Inspiration for RISTORP’s form came from a number of places. Wiebke was strongly influenced by the willow baskets used in gardening, but as the product needed to be airy and semi-transparent, working with natural fibres wasn’t ideal. Like so many great ideas, Wiebke’s “aha!” moment didn’t strike during working hours, but while out experiencing the world. “One day I was cycling around on my bike and I had this bike basket in front of me, made from metal mesh. This was it!”
Metal mesh is wonderfully smart material, used in many products across IKEA. It uses very little material to cover a wide surface area – perfect for the areation and transparency needed for RISATORP. But a challenge came in when bending the mesh to make the base of the basket. Much like a sheet of paper, mesh only bends in certain ways and soon it became clear that the product could not be made using a single sheet. It's problem solving like this that fires up Wiebke's creative flare. “When you need to adapt something in the design, you shouldn’t see it as a hindrance, but as an opportunity to make the final product even better,” reflects Wiebke. After listening to the supplier's input, the addition of an extra square of mesh in the centre of the base and a reinforcing square gave the opportunity for indentations on the bottom of the basket, lifting it ever so slightly off a surface and improving the aeration.
The cool, metal base needed a warm contrast. Wiebke chose layered wood for the handle – an iconically Scandinavian material that calls back to the natural beauty of the willow baskets which first inspired her.
The RISATORP basket has been in the range for over a decade. It’s been refreshed in many fun, new colours but its function remains unchanged – a basket that’s up for anything! “My hope for RISATORP was that it would be used in a versatile way,” says Wiebke. “In my family, we use it for socks! My colleague has a few for her kids to sort their building blocks by colour. My mother uses her RISATORP for fruits, as it was intended. I love to see how people use their baskets!”
The RISATORP basket’s clever design and smart use of materials hasn’t just been a commercial success – it’s gone on to inspire others within IKEA. “A really nice thing to see is that in recent years some of the product developers have added little friends to RISATORP,” says Wiebke. “So RISATORP has grown a family! It’s exciting to see that a design holds certain characteristics that you can build on to make something new.”
“The creativity in making things and thinking very visually has been in me from the beginning more or less. I have always felt my best when I can just be creative, and that is how I felt while designing RISTORP.”
– Wiebke Braasch