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Ikea Refugee Shelter Entering Production
jones_supa writes: Ikea's line of flatpack refugee shelters are going into production, the Swedish furniture maker announced this week. The lightweight Better Shelter was developed under a partnership between the Ikea Foundation and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and beta tested among refugee families in Ethiopia, Iraq, and Lebanon. Each unit takes about four hours to assemble and is designed to last for three years — far longer than conventional refugee shelters, which typically last about six months. The product is an important tool in the prolonged refugee crisis that has unfolded across the Middle East. The war in Syria has spurred nearly 4 million people to leave their homes. The UNHCR has agreed to buy 10,000 of the shelters, and will begin providing them to refugee families this summer.
To sell Allen keys at premium at refugee sites.
From time to time IKEA actually has to do something to earn that tax-free charity status.
Ikea: just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen
Ikea: selling furniture for college kids and divorced men
Everyone has a home
But if you don't have a home you can buy one there
I can now wait for the day that some idiot shows up at my office asking me to certify/upgrade their Ikea shelter the bought on CraigsList for use as a permanent dwelling.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Plus another year and a half lying in the shipping crate, waiting to be assembled.
By summer, they may have been able to finish assembling half a dozen of those 10,000 shelters.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
It's about time the people displaced by Ikea's relentless territorial expansion found shelter.
Ikea is not the best corporate citizen, nor do they have the best quality or the best prices.
But their stuff is clever. I like clever. Why can't other manufacturers think ahead and from the customer's perspective like that?
"Designed to last for 3 years". Impressive, that's about a year longer than their normal furniture.
It would probably be sellable at an Ikea as well, to decrease costs through commercial sales
I could see this as camping gear, DIY flatpack cabin, DIY garden guesthouse, flatpack survivalist supplies
I wonder how it holds up under snow and monsoon, since places needing such shelters can have snowy winters (Japan Fukushima) or hurricanes (Haiti) and monsoons (Burma)
I would stick with an all canvas tent, breathable, mendable, durable, adaptable (any shape I need it to be), foldable into a very small package.
This looks like one missing part and the whole thing wont work...just like their furniture.
Did they just make an easy to assemble shipping container?
It would probably be sellable at an Ikea as well, to decrease costs through commercial sales
I could see this as camping gear, DIY flatpack cabin, DIY garden guesthouse, flatpack survivalist supplies
I wonder how it holds up under snow and monsoon, since places needing such shelters can have snowy winters (Japan Fukushima) or hurricanes (Haiti) and monsoons (Burma)
There might actually be a real demand. A lot of places in the US have homeless "tent cities" where local homeless populations live, and there is definitely an effort to work to improve their lot.
Could someone directly link to an image of those shelters? I don't feel like allowing 10+ 3rd party javascripts
Couldn't happen, nobody wants it in their backyard and the people you're talking about wouldn't want to live in a refuge camp-like setting.
So I read it wrong. I didn't know Ikea was into the smelter business, so I had to re-read. One little letter wrong ....
I hate to promote them, as I love second hand shops and hate anything new or fashionable. But I am tall and they are the only place I could get a desk with adjustable height. Why doesn't everybody offer that???
And it seems that they don't actually need to do anything like that. The registered purpose of the charity is "innovation in the field of architectural and interior design", so I guess just coming with a new sofa design every year they should be covered...
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
If your mother in law comes visit, you could assemble it in your backyard...
More from TFS:
Logistically friendly and easy to build
Better Shelter will arrive in two cardboard boxes which are packed in subsequent building order.
The two boxes can be individually lifted by four people and contain an assembly instruction image manual, which lets you assemble the shelter, together with three other people in 4-8 hours.
Better Shelter is built in three sub-sequential steps:
Foundation
Roof with ventilation and solar panel
Walls with windows and door
Better Shelter is optimized to meet the high volume production condiÂtions and flat pack logistic demands required to be cost efficient.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
if you make the frame from wood, you lock up carbon. steel is a total waste of resources, also conducts lightning through the frame of the building.
plastic is the worst possible choice for the panels, almost anything else is better, as long as it is reasonably fireproof.
sometimes long life is a bad thing - plastic is damned hard to keep clean, and harbours disease - it would be far better if the panels were made of something local, cheap and recycleable, that needed to be replaced at least yearly.
with a little bit of careful thought, just about any country could produce it's own emergency shelter system out of local resources.
funny how the western world becomes less and less competent at anything, the fatter and more ikea it gets.
these people should give up saving the planet, and learn how to feed their own children properly, they are becoming as dumb as the cows that seem to be the only thing they eat.
This project is all fine for the purpose of housing refugees, but much more could be done with it.
1. At a projected $1K(US) cost, many people would be willing to donate a unit for a refugee family, and get a Schedule A deduction. A little publicity is all that would take.
2. IKEA could sell units in its stores, with more First-World accessories, at a price that would generate another unit for refugees (OLPC model). First-Worlders could use them as vacation domiciles on available property. Better than a tent, but still movable and reusable.
3. I could see an enthusiastic community of people trading tips and tricks about raising off-ground, increasing the PV energy capacity, etc.
4. In the US, homeless now in tent cities could have a little step up in shelter in return for going to whatever services are needed to get them back on their feet.
And a question: What limits their durability to 3 years?
Looks like it might make a nice temporary workshop or temporary garage structure as well.
(Not a daily use garage, but the type of thing you could use for longer term storage / project cars, or even assemble/disassemble around a car if you had to.)
Hopefully they make these available for purchase by the general public!
So now the IKEA employees can afford someplace to live, they'll be buying these shelters.
And tested in the Winter? Those windows are mighty small, I'll bet that thing is like an oven at night in most of the locations it might be used.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
.. trying to put that thing together! Attach section 1123 to section 453 using parts 345 and 598... nuts to that!
Given now successful they are (our local one is always busy, and packed on weekends) -- I don't get the hate. They make affordable things, with well-thought out space-saving designs, and I've had no problems with durability. From their kids' stuff, to kitchen items to storage units, we've made good use of IKEA in our home without spending a fortune like you would at say some overpriced places like Restoration Hardware (gag...)
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
I've always wanted to go to Burning Man. It might be worth dropping the $1200 on a Better Shelter to take it there. Any Burning Man attendees have thoughts on this? Would it be reviled coming from Ikea?