Coming To The UK: Ikeatown

IKEA is taking their Marxist design ethic to the streets— literally. The Scandinavian furnishing giant revealed its plans to build at least 500 cookie-cutter homes across the UK each year, presumably to house the Proletariat. Dubbed the "BokLok" project ("live smart" in Swedish"), it turns the underlying principle of architecture on its head. "[We] find a plot of land for the building rather than a building for the plot of land," says product manager Lars Wild Nordlun. The interiors will be furnished entirely in IKEA as well (picture a low-budget version of  The Real World).

The project, first launched in Sweden back in 1997, has local builders fearing the creation of modernist Levittowns. "I’m against the homogenization of domestic culture," says Sean Griffiths of FAT, a Scottish architecture firm. "The extension of [the Ikea] operation into housing is disturbing." It’s all part of IKEA’s plan to take over the world. Now, if only they could make them float…

BD Online via Treehugger

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