http://www.boklok.com/
Posted on 05/13/2007 11:41:59 AM PDT by WesternCulture
Having succeeded in filling homes around the world with affordable Swedish design, furniture giant Ikea has taken the logical next step: making the homes themselves. Ikea has built more than 3,500 apartments and houses across the Nordic region and is now planning its first UK developments.
In the late 1990s Ikea teamed up with Swedish construction company Skanska to develop BoKlok (which means Live Smart in Swedish). The concept aims to provide stylish but inexpensive new homes for low and middle income families, and is said to be popular with Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea’s notoriously thrifty billionaire founder.
BoKlok’s marketing manager Ewa Magnusson says: “We want to create better homes for the people, which is an extension of the Ikea vision of creating a better life for the people.”
SINGLE NURSE, ONE CHILD
When the BoKlok project started, they used the same basic process used in the design of any other new Ikea product. Magnusson says the first two questions they asked were: who is the customer? And how much can they afford to pay? They decided that their target customer was a nurse who was single with one child.
“Then they asked a bank to calculate how much this nurse could afford and still be able to pay for the other things she needs, save some for a vacation and still live a good life,” says Magnusson.
Buyers have a choice between models, though the basic idea remains the same. The exterior looks surprisingly solid and sturdy and belies its low cost. Inside, it doesn’t exactly scream top quality, but it is light, airy, well-planned and functional.
ALLEN KEYS NOT NEEDED
Marie Christiansson, 36, lives in a BoKlok apartment in Malmö with her partner and two children. When she moved in two years ago, she spent the SEK 3,000 Ikea voucher given to all new tenants on bedding and bits and pieces for the kids’ room, and got free advice from an Ikea interior designer on color schemes. She loves her apartment. “It hasn’t been built with lots of dead space – you can use every spare meter,” she says. “But it could be a bit bigger.”
The houses and apartments come complete with oak floors – sorry Britain, no fitted carpets –Ikea kitchens and tiled bathrooms. In Scandinavia the houses are built indoors and then transported to the building site on the back of a truck.
In the UK, where they do not yet have the volumes to make indoor production feasible, they will use a procedure familiar to Ikea shoppers the world over; the homes will be made in flat pack sections and assembled on site. But banish all thoughts of exasperated workmen with picture instructions in one hand and an Allen key in the other – the builders will be experienced professionals.
The airy interior is the result of open spaces and natural light in every room. Photo: MediaBanken 1.2 2007
NATIONAL TASTES
The designers have had to make a few minor adjustments to the Scandinavian models to account for British tastes: there will be a bathtub rather than a shower, and instead of a full wooden façade which requires painting from time to time – a chore that is part of Swedish life but unpalatable to the British – it will be part rendered and part low-maintenance wood.
But Scandinavian standards will apply for other areas, such as the laundry facilities. Common practice in the UK is to have the washing machine in the kitchen, but BoKlok said no. “We pointed out that clean clothes and cooking don’t go together in the same place,” says Magnusson.
The homes will also feature Swedish building techniques – which could prove popular in these energy-conscious times – such as insulation in the walls which is three times as thick as the British norm.
The original Swedish BoKlok houses underwent some minor adjustments prior to their UK introduction. Photo: MediaBanken 1.2 2007
THE GREAT IKEA CAMP-OUT
Ikea is well known for queues, camping and commotion outside its new stores, and BoKlok has been no exception. When the first apartments went on sale in Stockholm at a city store, people camped outside for two days. BoKlok came up with a typically egalitarian Swedish solution.
“Our target group is small families, and do they have the possibility to camp outside an Ikea store for days? Probably not,” says Magnusson. “So we felt that the lottery was a democratic way to ensure that everyone has the same chance to get an apartment.”
It has been estimated that one in ten babies in Europe is today conceived in an Ikea bed. Should its homes prove as popular as its bookcases, those children could soon be growing up in Ikea houses.
I hate to be a spoil sport—but I can’t imagine buying much at IKEA. I guess I’m not into the “Swedish Style”.
It has been estimated that one in ten babies in Europe is today conceived in an Ikea bed.
Okay -- that's a surprising fact I have never heard.
Advice from Sweden:
View IKEA only as a complement store. People who fill their homes with IKEA furniture are pitiful.
A trip to IKEA is a great way of keeping your family happy.
Allow your wife to buy some new bedclothes and then go have a beer with the boys.
Works in Sweden anyway.
http://www.boklok.com/
“I love Ikea. I was there last night buying a lamp I needed. Also, eating a hot dog. Their food is very good.”
- No doubt IKEA is a great place to shop.
On the other hand, even tough I’m Swedish I have to admit some of their stuff is of disappointing quality, but all the same most of their products offer great value.
I hope IKEA will continue trying to revolutionize the building industry. So much to be done. In many countries housing costs are ridiculous.
Little Boxes
by Malvina Reynolds
Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There’s a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses all went to the university
Where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same,
And there’s doctors and there’s lawyers, and business executives
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children and the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp and then to the university
Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
Did IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad write this?
Seriously.
I guess she didn't read the part where it said the apartment was intended for a single woman with one child.
The Ikea in Minneapolis has a great 99 cent breakfast.
"I beg to differ."
(Yes, I know how it's spelled). :-)
“The Ikea in Minneapolis has a great 99 cent breakfast.”
- Incredible.
IKEA meals are very affordable in Sweden too.
I don’t know exactly what IKEA breakfasts cost here in Gothenburg, but if the price is anywhere near that of their Minneapolis store, a Swedish Volvo worker would have to work a mere 2 minutes just to survive.
Despite certain disagreements in the field of international diplomacy the last decades, I believe the US and Sweden are two countries that have a lot to offer each other.
If there were no journalists and no MSM’s, Europeans and Americans would be the best of friends.
SWEDISH NATIONAL ANTHEM:
mms://stream.episerverhotell.net/nationalanthem
Translation of the lyrics:
“Thou ancient, thou freeborn, thou mountainous North,
In beauty and peace our hearts beguiling,
I greet thee, thou loveliest land on the earth,
Thy sun, thy skies, thy verdant meadows smiling.
Thy sun, thy skies, thy verdant meadows smiling.
Thy throne rests on mem’ries from great days of yore,
When worldwide renown was valour’s guerdon.
I know to thy name thou art true as before.
Oh, I would live and I would die in Sweden,
Oh, I would live and I would die in Sweden.”
Not for long.
I like REAL wood furniture.....not the crap they sell....sorry....
“I like REAL wood furniture.....not the crap they sell....sorry....”
See post 4.
Soon Malmo will be FREE OF INFIDELS!
Times are changing. People no longer buy a furniture set with the thought of bequeathing it to their heirs. Now days, such sentiments seem rather quaint. First of all, are YOU going to like that piece of furniture enough so that it lasts the rest of your life? Second, do you really think your kids or grandkids would appreciate it?
We’ve bought a few Ikea pieces and although they’re not overbuilt, their excellent designs combined with just enough quality leads to a smart purchase.
How Swedish police have to work while operating in Rosengård, Malmö, the toilet of Scandinavia:
Send these idiots back to Northern Africa and Malmö will once again become part of the most democratic, civilized and affluent part of the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJfFXIz3p4o&mode=related&search=
(I wonder what would have happened if these policemen wouldn’t have produced their weapons?)
“First of all, are YOU going to like that piece of furniture enough so that it lasts the rest of your life? Second, do you really think your kids or grandkids would appreciate it?”
- Honestly, my answer would be a plain ‘no’ to both questions.
On the other hand, I am taking good care of furniture and other things my grandparents bought in the 1940’s and 1950’s. They were rather well off and they were also quality minded.
A fortune.
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