"IKEA-houses" - the future of new homes?

Engineered wood floors, tiled bathrooms, open-plan living spaces, fitted Ikea kitchens - they're not unlike the homes you see in Ikea catalogues, but then, each new BoKlok owner does receive an Ikea gift voucher as a housewarming present. Homeowners are also grilled on what exactly they like and don't like about their new homes after they've settled in, so that BoKlok can get it even more right next time. For example, in response to comments about noise, the gravel on the footpaths has given way to a finer grade.

Such research-led design tends to generate mixed feelings. It may offer domestic solutions, but also suggests a depressingly mechanistic view of humanity, hinting at a monotonous one-size-fits-all suburban future. At what point does responding to society's needs become a form of social engineering?

Needless to say, BoKlok's brains have grappled with the conundrum. For one thing, they have been careful not to swamp the market. In Malmo, there are two more BoKlok sites - but in other areas of the city. The apartment blocks are built in groups of no more than seven, making 42 units. "We're constantly improving the designs, and there are new versions coming up, so you shouldn't get too many of the same design in one place," says Magnusson. "When you come home, you should be able to recognise your house immediately."

The same concerns could well apply to Britain, where Live Smart@Home plans to roll out "hundreds if not thousands" of BoKlok homes to achieve the necessary economies of scale. After the initial 36 apartments, another 117 terraced BoKlok houses are planned for the Gateshead site, laid out in a more conventional street arrangement, and costing £120,000-£150,000. Additional UK sites will be announced this year (Glasgow looks set to be the next). "We'd be hugely disappointed if we didn't become a major provider of housing in the UK," says Alan Prole, managing director of Live Smart@Home. "That is our intent."

The BoKlok apartments in Gateshead will be neither stark, white and modernist, nor Swedish pastiche. They will be more contemporary, more detailed in their facades, says Prole, although the internal layouts will be fundamentally the same. "We've almost taken every single component apart and put it back together to make it suitable for the UK. We are taking significant input, but keeping an intrinsically Scandinavian flair to it."

Is Britain ready for Scandinavian living? The question is redundant, says Prole, pointing to the way Ikea already dominates the UK's home furnishing market with a mere 15 stores. "It's not just a retail outlet, it is more of a lifestyle or a culture - which is why people go there. Because there is that strong association [with Ikea], people can see the lifestyle they'll be buying into. But they also see Scandinavian style as being greener and more liberal, more community-based. Certainly, those are elements we are encouraging."

Faced with the alternative, a red-brick terraced Wimpey or Barratt home, buyers are likely to see the appeal of BoKlok. Even if the Wimpeys and Barratts are upping their game and exploring similar affordable, sustainable options, they face a run for their money. You can now find an Ikea glass, bookshelf or shower curtain in practically every British home. It may not be long before you'll find a BoKlok development in every British town.

Ikealand

Where an Englishman's home is his Bo Klok

Martin Wainwright
Thursday January 31, 2008
The Guardian


Britain's first "Ikealand" opened its metal-panelled pine doors yesterday in an experiment designed to spread the company's off-the-shelf principle from wardrobes and sofas to entire houses.
The first of 93 flatpack homes designed and equipped by the household goods store went on show in Gateshead on Tyneside, where scores of would-be buyers are being vetted to ensure that their savings and income are modest enough to qualify.

"The principle of our stores is 'goods for the many'," said Peter Jelkeby, the deputy head of Ikea in Britain. "Now we are hoping to provide houses for the many." Using instruments of social engineering, such as the Mando doormat (£11.99), the firm is keeping costs down to target buyers with total annual incomes no higher than £35,000.

Prices on the cul-de-sac off Marigold Avenue, where each unit comes with 22 Skimmia shrubs and an apple tree in the garden, range from £99,500 for a one-bedroom flat to £149,000 for a three-bedroom house. A range of shared-ownership options are within reach of people earning £15,000, says the development's marketers, affordable housing specialists Home.
The money buys a high-ceilinged, big-windowed Scandinavian prefab - which comes already assembled. Allen keys and Swedish-English instructions are not part of the deal, although fitted Ikea kitchens and bathrooms are.

With rows of identical-looking buildings, Home says the risk of residents coming back to the wrong house will be reduced by traditional English taste. Although every buyer will get £250 in vouchers and furnishing advice sessions by Ikea consultants, they will be free to move in antique dressers for example.

The homes, known as Bo Klok (Swedish for "smart living", pronounced "boo-klook"), were pioneered in Stockholm and Malmo in the 1990s, when cheap, but good quality housing was at a premium. "That's an issue in Gateshead and there's certainly no shortage of interest in these houses here," said David Napier, the local council's cabinet member for housing.

Stringent resale conditions were another attraction for the council, whose 1930s estates flanking the Bo Klok houses have lost their affordability. Ikealand properties can only be sold back through Home, which will repeat the vetting process on buyers, and take a share of the value to keep prices down.

The first flatpackers will move in to Marigold Avenue at Easter. Home is applying for planning permission to plant Ikealands in other British cities, with Glasgow expected to have the next.