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Posts Tagged ‘Ikea’

IKEA to Produce & Ship 10,000 Flat-Pack Emergency Shelters

12 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

ikea shanty village

With 40 test units created and deployed since 2013, IKEA is now ready to begin mass-producing its $ 1,000-per-unit temporary flat-pack house to destinations in need around the world. Much like IKEA’s everyday products, these shelters are ready to use right out of the box – some assembly required but all assembly tools included.

ikea flat pack home

ikea emergency housing

Recognizing the need for more robust shelters in refugee camps and disaster areas, where temporary housing often has to hold up to severe weather and longer-than-expected durations, IKEA developed Better Shelter as a low-cost alternative to conventional equivalents.

ikea modular solution

Supplied to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) by the Ikea Foundation, these new units will find homes in places they are currently used (like Ethiopia and Iraq) as well as other destinations.

ikea emergency shelter design

ikea house interior

At close to 200 square feet per unit, these are perhaps not spacious but some standards but are much larger than most emergency housing solutions. Panels, pipes, connectors, wires as well as solar power panels for the roof are all packed flat in boxes for easy shipping. While standardized, the modules are also designed to be adapted to regional climate conditions.

ikea house parts

ikea flat pack house

Shaun Scales, UNHCR’s chief of shelter and settlement, said in a statement: “The refugee housing unit (RHU) is an exciting new development in humanitarian shelter and represents a much needed addition to the palette of sheltering options mobilised to assist those in need. Its deployment will ensure dramatic improvement to the lives of many people affected by crises.”

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IKEA Flips Condo Sideways to Create Furniture Climbing Wall

01 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]

ikea sofa winging chairs

Furnishings become footholds, supports and resting spots as you scale the flipped-over floor of this fanciful apartment, opened to the public as a method to market a new IKEA store location.

ikea clever climb

ikea guerrilla marketing campaign

Set up in front of an historic church in Clermont-Ferrand, France, locals were invited to scale various routes (four paths in total) of different difficulties made for both children and adults, created in collaboration with Ubi Bene, a local communications agency.

ikea climbing wall

vertical climbing wall apartment

The mock apartment features beds, bookcases, chairs, tables and other fixtures set against prints, carpets, tiles and textiles, all actually on sale in the store being advertised.

ikea climb wall experience

ikea marketing clermont ferrand

Professional climbers were on hand at the opening to help people get outfitted and learn to climb – probably not something that would have been an easy sell in a country like the United States with its safety restrictions.

ikea climb

vertical climb ikea living

Spanning roughly 30 feet vertically and horizontally, the area is effectively that of (close to) a 1000-square-foot living space.

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Off the Wall: 14 3D Graffiti Designs from Furniture to Homes

Flat paint on two-dimensional surfaces springs to life in surprising ways in these 14 graffiti-inspired projects ranging from sand sculptures to entire …
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Transforming Furniture: Fitting 5 Rooms into 640 Square Feet

With a mostly-open floor plan tucked into 60 square meters of space, the design challenge was to effectively fit the functionality of five rooms into the …
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IKEA 2014 Small-Space Set: 51 Designs from Cool to Kitsch

02 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

ikea ps collection on move

The sales pitch for this new 2014 series is compelling: 51 inexpensive designer objects made for young city dwellers, people who may be on the move more often or whose domiciles simply lack square footage.

ikea small space living

The research driving IKEA’s 2014 PS collection, On the Move, is spot on: more people are living in cities than ever before, and young persons are particularly like to have smaller residences. The design results, though, are a bit of a mixed bag, with some truly useful modular and multi-functional pieces alongside less-obvious options.

ikea designer wall shelf

And indeed the collection features a some handy items, like a small-footprint, unattached wall shelf (that fits corners as well) by Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa, easy to set up and shift as needed.

ikea standing dresser roller

Similarly practical: a tall and lightweight mesh wardrobe by French designer Matali Crasset that can be tilted and rolled around within or between apartments.

ikea balancing bench design

Other choices are a bit more debatable – it is hard to see how often a balancing bench (by Swedish designer Henrik Preutz) will come in handy, particularly in narrow halls for which it is intended (its angled feet could trip you up in a skinny space).

ikea integrated lamp side table

Though it has a smaller footprint at least, it is also hard to say why a combined magazine rack, side table and standing lamp (by Polish designer Tomek Rygalik) is better when integrated rather than separated, especially when it comes to transporting it between places.

ikea portable carry greenhouse

And then there is this awkwardly cute greenhouse plant holder (by Swiss designer Nicolas Cortolezzis) that seems just slightly redundant, unless you like to take your flora for walks in the park.

slightly kitsch modular ikea

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, some of the pieces are a weird mix of retro, modern, farm and industrial, but one could argue that is all part of a refreshing trend toward a new time-spanning eclecticism.

ikea portable box shelf

ikea folding table design

ikea modular mobile furniture

Regardless, enough of these designs are on the right tack that they are worth a closer look, including bookshelves that are just a bit easier to transport thanks to wire-frame edges and folding, rolling and flip-down tables that have at least a little more character than their regular retail cousins. And the direction is right: urban dwellings are small, and portability a plus.

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15 Flat-Pack Furniture Designs & Ideas for Saving Space

A pizza box that folds out into a desk? Flat-pack furniture is incredibly clever, saves space, cuts shipping waste and is fun to put together.
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Details & Diagrams: $1,000 IKEA Flat-Pack Refugee Shelter

28 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

ikea shelter diagrams

Emergency shelters are designed to be short-term solutions, and many cannot withstand rain, wind and sun for more than six months. Yet the average stay in refugee camp is over twenty times that duration.

flat pack emergency shelter

The IKEA Foundation, in cooperation with the  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has developed a longer-term solution to this problem, turning their experience with flat-pack furniture and language-free instruction manuals toward disaster relief efforts in and around war-torn places like Syria (they are already testing in Lebanon and Iraq). Sticklers for detail should scroll carefully below for a step-by-step deconstruction of what goes into this remarkable dwelling.

flat pack shelter diagram

The problem, in part, is building the most universal unit possible in a world where emergencies happen globally, spanning regions both hot and cold and with vastly different cultural norms. Their solution is much like an ordinary IKEA product: flexible, adaptable, modular and packed into cardboard boxes of components. Naturally, they require no tools that are not included.

flat pack ikea shelter

While the structures themselves are still only expected to last a few years, they are made to be modified, enhanced and expanded in various ways. For instance, earthen walls and corrugated metal roofs can be pushed up against, fastened to and ultimately help reinforce the core buildings, or even eventually replace the need for underlying framework entirely, rendering it redundant.

ikea shelter finished

The shelters are constructed primarily from polymer panels that clip into a wire frame. On top sits an aluminum-mesh roofing sheet that is designed to reflect sunlight by day and retain heat by night. Solar energy charges a USB outlet for electrical needs. The target price range for mass production is under $ 1000, making it affordable in bulk to international organizations. Images and diagram via The Telegraph, IKEA Foundation and Graphic News.

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Virtual Interior Design: Augmented Reality IKEA 2014 Catalog

07 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

augmented reality ikea catalog

Imagine no more: now you can scan items right out of a physical catalog and watch them pop up in your own bedroom, kitchen, living or dining room at home, on-screen and in real-time before your eyes.

Watch as couches, sofas, chairs, beds, bookcases and more are picked off the page and planted in place, letting you see how that piece you like would really look context, automatically scaled to size on the spot from the digital source object.

augmented virtual interior design

IKEA notes that its European customers in particular have small spaces and need to know before they buy just how much room something will take up and where it will go – and its shoppers more broadly rarely know their home dimensions by heart.

ikea new catalog revealed

From IKEA: “The 2014 IKEA catalogue gives you the ability to place virtual furniture in your own home with the help of augmented reality. Unlock the feature by scanning selected pages in the 2014 printed IKEA catalogue with the IKEA catalogue application (available for iOS and Android) or by browsing the pages in the digital 2014 IKEA catalogue on your smartphone or tablet. Then simply place the printed IKEA catalogue where you want to put the furniture in your room, choose a product from a selection of the IKEA range and see how it will look in your home!”

augmented furniture product placement

How it works: “Customers can put the physical Ikea Catalogue into their room in the space where they want to test a product. The Ikea Catalogue App picks up the catalogue and uses it to gauge the correct scale for products that will be shown on-screen. The product then appears on the customer’s mobile phone camera within the Ikea Catalogue App so it can be tested for colour and size. Customers can then test different products to find the right one for their home – finding the perfect fit.”

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