Hat tip to Sol and daytrip for sending in news about Ikea/Ideabox collaboration, this from psfk.com:
Swedish furniture company IKEA, has collaborated with Oregon architectural firm Ideabox, to launch its first line of prefabricated houses in the U.S., named the “Aktiv.” The IKEA-themed dwelling is a one-bedroom home centered around space-saving furniture and products. The hip and modern house was outfitted taking into consideration the demands from Pacific-Northwest homeowners, and is designed to be eco-friendly.
It is equipped with facilities such as a dual-flush toilet and energy-star electronics. A combination of fiber-cement siding, corrugated metal, and a standing-seam metal roof make up the exterior of this all-in-one home. It is 745sf.
According to Jim Russell, president of Ideabox, the complete home “brings all the fun and design of Ideabox houses together with all the function, design, and personality of IKEA.” The home will be furnished with a complete IKEA package that includes Tundra maple flooring, Pax wardrobes, and Abstrakt cabinets. The Aktiv, Swedish for active, is expected to be priced at $86,500.
Ok, but what will it take to get them permitted and installed? Can you get financing? Mortgage Insurance? Home owner’s policy?
This is new? I think someone already discovered the mobile/modular home concept.
$79,500 is a pipe dream. Add a foundation, utilities, permits, site assembly, delivery, sales tax, a garage/storage, landscaping… not to mention the lot.
The thing that makes this appealing is the clean lines – but more the $100,000 in landscape design/art to set off what is nothing more than a trailer. The structure is just a box and, as with most things Ikea, the interior won’t stand the test of time. I can’t imagine someone lovingly restoring a 100 year old “ideabox” no more than I can imagine someone restoring a doublewide. Throw away houses are not “environmentally” conscious.
But, then again, it’s Portland – one of the few metropolitan areas that can support a store that sells nothing but Birkenstocks.
Found this:
http://www.ideabox.us/process/
But am lery of the process in high-regulation Southern California.
Walking through a bedroom to get to the bath is functional obsolescence at its finest. Switch the bedroom and the bath, open a hall between the bath and laundry, and have the storage open into the bedroom as a closet makes more sense. And yes, it’s a trailer, which is all a lot of folks will be able to afford in the future.
I want a house I can buy when single…then add on to when I get married…then add on when I have kids…then shrink when they leave.
Wait until FEMA gets wind of these.
Luxury disaster housing. Optional deep fryer would be helpful. They also need an option axle-tow package.
Kinda makes you look forward to the next time New Orleans floods or the winds pick up in flyover land.
Great Job, Brownie !
“I want a house I can buy when single…then add on to when I get married…then add on when I have kids…then shrink when they leave.”
Then buy a few shipping containers and connect them together as you need them.
http://www.shippingcontainerhousedesign.com/
Re #6 if FEMA were smart it would buy some of the surplus containers in LA and make them up so that they could be easily used for emergency housing. A standard container is like 7’7″ inside, by 39’3″ by 7’9″ high. So the unit shown is more like a double wide.
Re: “Re #6 if FEMA were smart….
That’s a big “if”.
“8.Re #6 if FEMA were smart it would buy some of the surplus containers in LA and make them up so that they could be easily used for emergency housing.”
Why go to all that trouble when IKEA is one toll-free phone call away? We can always use the Federal Government-Taxpayer credit card, order up, say 2500 of these little darling gems at a time and if we run out of cash we’ll have The Bernank make up as much as we need, whenever we want. Blanket Purchase Order.
See, No Problem.
*Pray for Rain if you own IKEA stock. Almost as good as Halliburton or GE when the wind blows hard and long enough. All funds routed through Chicago for security reasons.
I would buy a lot next to a river and then tell people- hey I live in a box down by the river.
“Why go to all that trouble when IKEA is one toll-free phone call away?”
The Aktiv model is a collaboration between IdeaBox and IKEA. IdeaBox is the builder and marketer of this model, using IKEA appointments. IKEA has no plans to sell this home.
“The Aktiv model is a collaboration between “IdeaBox and IKEA. IdeaBox is the builder and marketer of this model, using IKEA appointments. IKEA has no plans to sell this home.
Sol”
Thanks for straightening me out.
In that case, I’d like to up the order to 5,000 units and put the 2″ ball on all of them.
“In that case, I’d like to up the order to 5,000 units and put the 2? ball on all of them.”
Be sure to mention, right up front like, that you aren’t an actual agent for, nor have any real purchasing authority for FEMA when you make the call. That’s called “disclosure”.
It’s called a “double wide” where I come from. You don’t need a foundation – just some metal braces and a small plot of land.