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Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

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Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#61

These things are great. But at the same time - so weird. Helpless victims of failed states, social injustice, greed, hatred, etc can now rely on high tech structures to take care of them. Genocide ? No problem, we've got you covered. We've got just the perfect structures for $1000 a pop for you to take shelter in. I mean, it IS the right thing to do, but at the same time, I don't know.. I guess would prefer that some…

by providing these solutions we're making the crimes less grave, more acceptable

How often do first-worlders seriously consider these problems? How often do you seriously consider these problems? How do you get more invisible than invisible?

a technical matter rather than a moral one It's a false dichotomy to suggest that it should be one or the other (or even a mixture of only these two). Human interaction is incredibly complex, and it doesn't boil down to being operable on only one philosophical space

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#62
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be really great if they sold these such that one purchase could cover the cost of one for charity. It would be even better if there was enough demand to drive the production cost down further.

> It would be really great if they sold these such that one purchase could cover the cost of one for charity. No, absolutely not. This is the same mistake the one laptop per child people made. Just sell the shit out of them to everyone who can use one. Economies of scale will bring the price down. The "buy two, get one!" approach deters people from buying them and shoots economies of scale in the head.

Depending on how much they cost as well as how much IKEA wants to profit from their sale, it could be well within their reach to charge (for example) Americans what one would expect for an IKEA garden shed, writer's shed, whatever you want to call it. If you search prefab outdoor sheds on Sears, you'll see that prices vary from around $300 to $2000 depending on size and materials and taking sale prices into account. One advantage IKEA has is that they thrive on people buying in to their systems, even when it's not necessarily cheaper than the alternative. That can be attributed to better design, integration/continuity (i.e. "everything just goes well together"), or just shopper's fatigue after a day of wandering through an IKEA store. How much would you be willing to pay for it? That's the only question IKEA needs an answer. If the can sell it for cost x 2 without an average IKEA shopper batting an eye then they're golden. Whether they want to try squeezing a profit in there is up to them but by no means necessary. They get publicity and a new product line.

To address what you've said about OLPC, I don't think it's a good comparison at all. Problems with the OLPC in this case: huge restructuring due to the economy, never intended for consumers, and in an already massive product field (PCs > Laptops > Netbooks). Still, the Give 1 Get 1 campaign netted 83,500 sales. That's pretty good, considering the cost was $400 in the same year that the MacBook Air became available for $1800 (which people thought was pretty high then). How many of those people expected to actually use their OLPC? How many people do you think would buy an IKEA shed just for it to sit around and make them feel charitable or something?

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#63

If my wife and I had lived in one of those for our first two years of marriage, we could have saved up one heck of a down payment for our first house.

Likely but the real problem with doing so is actually land. Even if you own some many cities take issue with non-permanent domiciles that are lived in for long periods (not least of all because you escape housing tax, and aren't up to "code"). However several people have done what you're suggesting by: - Living on a boat (either out at sea, moored just off-shore, or at a marina). This can range from being cheaper, to…

Cheapest way to live in Berkeley, CA is on a boat.

$7.74 per foot at the marina, and you get access to bathroom and showers. If you're willing to do some DIY, you can get a boat for a few grand. Plus, you get to sail around the bay!

Obviously not everyone is cut out for that, but it's worked for a Ph.D. I know.

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#64

This could also be used to provide housing to Sweden's rapidly increasing population of homeless beggars http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&art...

Or they can put the manufacturing in Romania so the beggars never have to leave home and amass debts they'll never be able to pay off as career beggars.

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#65
post #55
post #7

These units seem to be priced at $1,000 for anyone else who was curious. Source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-09/thousand-do...

10,000 of these are contracted to the UNHCR. I've always found it curious; often innovations in the refugee arena would often be very welcome in other venues: camping, cheap structures, etc. These things are always priced really cheap, but we never see them really entering into the commercial market -- or when they do, they're always going for some kind of 2x the price scheme. For example, these 188 sqft shelters wou…

LuminAID does this with their LED lights: http://luminaid.com/

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#66
I'd buy one of these this summer no question - my wife's family lives on a small, mostly uninhabited island, and has some space set aside for a cabin for us. But building much of anything there is crazy expensive, so this would be awesome.

Sell these in Canada/America, please!

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#67

There's a startup in Austin, TX aiming to compete in a similar space: http://www.reactionhousing.com Full disclosure: I work there. ;) And if you find this sort of mission compelling: we're hiring software engineers! (firmware, backend) http://www.reactionhousing.com/careers/#embedded-firmware-en... http://www.reactionhousing.com/careers/#software-engineer Our design is quite different (and geared towards a shorter l…

I'm sorry but you don't seriously think the Exo is comparable to this. The idea of the UNHCR program is to supply low cost, easy to install, easy to maintain housing. The product you've just described doesn't meet any of these requirements when compared to the Ikea solution.

It's a great product and perfect for many use cases e.g. events. But I wouldn't say that you could use it for the millions of desperate refugees in the world.

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#68
post #45

I think a flat-packed boat with the autopilot set for Italy or Australia would be far more popular.

They wouldn't make it to Australia. The government would force them to Nauru or Cambodia where they would be locked up in basically a prison until the tried to commit suicide or were beaten/raped by staff. Or until they gave up and decided to go back to where they came from.

Australia truly is a lovely, compassionate country.

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#69
post #55
post #7

These units seem to be priced at $1,000 for anyone else who was curious. Source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-09/thousand-do...

10,000 of these are contracted to the UNHCR. I've always found it curious; often innovations in the refugee arena would often be very welcome in other venues: camping, cheap structures, etc. These things are always priced really cheap, but we never see them really entering into the commercial market -- or when they do, they're always going for some kind of 2x the price scheme. For example, these 188 sqft shelters wou…

Have you considered that maybe actually selling them to end users is > double the cost?

Massive amounts of risk, supply chain, logistics, all eliminated when selling to the UN like this.

Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely but the real problem with doing so is actually land. Even if you own some many cities take issue with non-permanent domiciles that are lived in for long periods (not least of all because you escape housing tax, and aren't up to "code"). However several people have done what you're suggesting by: - Living on a boat (either out at sea, moored just off-shore, or at a marina). This can range from being cheaper, to…

Cheapest way to live in Berkeley, CA is on a boat. $7.74 per foot at the marina, and you get access to bathroom and showers. If you're willing to do some DIY, you can get a boat for a few grand. Plus, you get to sail around the bay! Obviously not everyone is cut out for that, but it's worked for a Ph.D. I know.

I looked into this, the problem was, there were no marina slots available for a 30 foot boat. Not that I could find, and the waiting lists at that point in time were on the order of years, not months.
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