Can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Back in April, I extolled the virtues of IKEA’s business model and pondered how it might be applied to other related endeavours. You can read that blog entry here.
Britain’s Daily Mail Online reports that IKEA is building an entire community near Olympic Park in London. Strand East will contain 1,200 new homes, 480,000 square feet of offices and a 350-bedroom hotel in Stratford, east London. Seems the development arm of the company has already been operating in a number of different countries, including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Holland.
Think I’ll have to take a trip to London to see it for myself. Forget Big Ben and the Tower of London. I’ll be looking for the yellow and blue.
2 responses to “IKEA Builds 26-Acre Community in London”
Remember this one?
“Corruption Stains Timber Trade
How “green” is IKEA, really? What type of forestry practices do they support?
Hi Ann – thanks for your comment. My argument is not about how ‘green’ IKEA is (identification of greenness of anything is extremely complex and not my area of expertise in more than a cursory fashion). Forestry practices is just one of a dizzying multitude of considerations.
IMHO, the greenest thing to do, in all circumstances, is for consumers to use less and take care of what they already have.
What I’m interested in is their model of delivery of their products and services, both from a potential of what other key products/services they can deliver but also in terms of quality, reduced waste and economies of scale that still permit mass customization. As with lego, you can built a cottage or a castle, all from similar components. Homes are being built in Europe and North America already on this model, but on a much smaller scale. I’m itching to see how IKEA is innovating beyond what we already know and how that can be leveraged to meet regional housing needs. What remote sensor technologies might they have up their sleeve? Are they integrating renewable resources in a particularly innovative way? What are they doing WRT multi family housing? Extended family homes? Seniors housing? Special needs housing? I’m expecting a lot from this clever company.