Do they come with the hex key?
Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
91–100 of 127 posts
Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#92There'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…
How many of those can you fit in a shipping container? It looks like it is rigid, whilst the Ikea ones are flat pack.
Logistics is everything in disaster relief.
Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#93I think a flat-packed boat with the autopilot set for Italy or Australia would be far more popular.
Most Australians and Italians would object to this. Unfortunately most White Christians are irreparably racist. I would suggest a tolerant liberal nation like Israel as the destination.
This has to be a joke, right?
Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#94[deleted]
Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#95How easy are these things to heat and cool?
How well do they keep insects and other pests out?
Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#96Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#97I'd love to see a similar approach to San Francisco homelessness problem. At $1000 per unit, housing costs for all homeless people in SF will be below $100M.
Homeless people don't have any land on which to put these, and they aren't going to move away from the city they obviously prefer.
Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#98Earlier 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.
> No, absolutely not. This is the same mistake the one laptop per child people made.
No absolutely not. The mistake the OLPC people made was trying to make people believe that throwing underpowered overdesigned overpriced laptops at kids would solve any problem other than providing employment to Nicky Negroponte and his gang.
Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Also: warrantees and exchange policies.
It's funny, so many American consumers complain about having to pay for car or health insurance, saying that people should pay for what they use... but they would be livid if a store dropped prices by 10-15% but got rid of all exchange policies and warranties. And yet, that 10-15% is effectively insurance against buying a defective product, or even one you're just unhappy with.
btw, I'm extremely happy with IKEA's policies. We bought the wrong bed (with delivery - $20) and only figured it out while I was putting it together. My GF went to IKEA, paid the $10 difference, the delivery company came by the next day, took the wrong bed, brought the right one and confirmed that we had everything we needed. No double delivery charges, no discussion, and all that on a $150 product.
Re: Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production
#100There'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…
How long are the beds? I'm 6' tall and find that many things are too short. From the pictures, they don't look to be tremendously long (but it is hard to tell). Also, what's the longest period of time that 4 of you have lived out of one of the prototypes? They look pretty tiny for 4 people. Especially when someone decides they need to get out of one of the upper beds in the middle of the night.
I'm going to assume you've never stayed in a European hostel.