Ikea's flat-pack refugee shelter is entering production • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by bane » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 1:42 AM UTC

chmullig wrote: post #69

bane wrote: post #55

Earlier 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.

That's an interesting idea. I suppose the UN takes care of all the shipping and logistics and that cost disappears from the cost of the shelter?

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

#72

Post by ChuckMcM » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 1:53 AM UTC

These look pretty functional. A bit sturdier than the typical Army tent and no external guy wires. Given that they have been testing these, how do they hold up in the field to wind? I was recently asked how I would provide shelter for people working on a pipeline in the middle of no where, and this looks like it would fit the bill.

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

#73

Post by swatow » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 2:03 AM UTC

This is really impressive. The problem is highly constrained. Because a house is a sturdy structure, large amounts of physical material are involved. Furthermore, there are quality/safety requirements.

It's great to see Ikea applying their deep expertise in producing sturdy structures that can be shipped cheaply, to this area.

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

#74

Post by ThinkBeat » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 2:04 AM UTC

adamesque wrote: post #24

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…

Electric / digital smart locks that you unlock via a watch or is it bluetooth or NFC?

That does not seem like a rational inclusion in a project intended to be deployed in crisis situations.

Um well our refugees cant get in right now because our generators stopped working or the batteries ran out.

KISS is an extremely important attribute of gear that needs to be deployed fast in under emergency circumstances. By definition it is not known what the conditions will be nor the nature of the catastrophe.

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

#75

Post by bryanlarsen » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 2:09 AM UTC

Sanddancer wrote: post #51

danudey wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but then you have to find some place to put it. The house I'm living in is worth $25k, but the land it's on is worth $1.6m last I checked. It's not always about a place to put your things, it's about where to put the place to put your things.

Depends. There's a lot of cheap land in the western US once you get away from the city where $5k-$10k will get you a place you can plop a few of these things down when you wanna get away from things. You'll have to bring your utilities with you, but water tanks, solar panels, etc aren't horribly expensive these days.

There are towns in rural Saskatchewan Canada that will sell you a serviced lot for $1 if you agree to build a house on the lot and live in it for three years.

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

#76

Post by novaleaf » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 2:14 AM UTC

stove wrote: 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...

Wow. Seriously, I wish Ikea would sell these in stores!! I'd buy two.

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

#77

Post by swatow » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 2:15 AM UTC

smegel wrote: post #45

I 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.

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

#78

Post by yurylifshits » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 2:33 AM UTC

I'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.

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

#79

Post by YokoZar » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 3:16 AM UTC

mahyarm wrote: post #13

euroclydon wrote: post #4

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.

Your house down payment is usually mostly the value of the land underneath the structure, not the structure itself.

This depends very much where you live. In some places with very expensive property markets the structure can be as low as 20% of the cost of a home (a typical downpayment amount) -- conversely, with low property/land values, the quality of the building itself can be most of the value.

A side effect of high land values is that the relative cost of teardowns/rebuilds is much lower, so you tend to see more replacement of the buildings themselves unless there are other regulations in place blocking that.

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

#80

Post by atwebb » Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 3:34 AM UTC

bane wrote: post #71

chmullig wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's an interesting idea. I suppose the UN takes care of all the shipping and logistics and that cost disappears from the cost of the shelter?

Might be tax incentives for any loss of money/lower charge, but I get what you were saying and with Ikea being the one producing these much of the marketing and logistics would be taken care of, right? Though customer support may cost a bit more...