Cheap furniture giant Ikea has teamed up, through the non-profit Ikea Foundation, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and housing-minded NGO Peacebuilding Solutions to produce new inexpensive housing for refugees, something far more practical than its recent foray into dollhouse furniture. Aimed at addressing a need for sturdier accommodations for refugees—many of whom are frequently forced to remain in supposedly temporary camps for close to a decade—the new modular structures incorporate rooftop solar panels to provide electricity. While prototypes are costing around $7,000 apiece, the team believes the unit cost could be reduced to just $100, a price even Ikea's penny-pinching billionaire founder could get behind. The tents currently distributed by the United Nations are designed to last just six months, while these new shelters are durable, portable, and, in what is probably a first for any Ikea product, easily assembled and dissembled. Watch a team of Peacebuilding Solutions volunteers assemble and dismantle one of the geodesic structures below.
· IKEA Designs New Refugee Shelters [The Takeaway]
· Finally, at Long Last, Ikea Introduces Dollhouse Furniture [Curbed National]
· The 7 Best Penny-Pinching Ways of Ikea's Ingvar Kamprad [Curbed National]
· All Ikea coverage [Curbed National]
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