7 ms·

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-dollar-ikea-house-re

by stove 11y ago

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-dollar-ikea-house-refugees-big-pic http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-09/thousand-do...

bane 11y ago
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 would be great as a sheds, or workshops in affluent areas. Heck, I'd like to buy one for my parents to use as a storage shed on their property. Equivalent sized sheds (without solar power, or good design) run >$2000. I see this all the time, nifty water purifiers, portable lights, radios, etc. There's some really interesting stuff being produced for refugees. Instead of crazy 2:1 schemes or whatever, why not just sell these on a 20% markup and donate the profit to buying more shelters? Or just sell them and push the price down due to the greater economies of scale? The refugee space always seems so weird to me.
- afarrell 11y ago
  LuminAID does this with their LED lights: http://luminaid.com/ http://luminaid.com/
  - bobdvb 11y ago
    Gravity Light sell their products, I bought one for my in-laws: http://gravitylight.org/ http://gravitylight.org/
- chmullig 11y ago
  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.
  - bane 11y ago
    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?
    - atwebb 11y ago
      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...
  - Retric 11y ago
    Don't forget about advertising which on it's own often adds 20% to niche items costs. Also, CC processing might be ~3% but it's added on at the end. aka 3% of manufacturing, 3% sales etc. Which can add up to 10% of the initial manufacturing cost.
    - systemtheory 11y ago
      Some companies minimize advertising budget but manage do do very well. Patagonia spends less than 1% of sales on advertising. (http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/brand-strategy-that-shifts-demand.aspx http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/brand-strategy-tha...)
  - jedrek 11y ago
    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.
novaleaf 11y ago
Wow. Seriously, I wish Ikea would sell these in stores!! I'd buy two.
- lozf 11y ago
  Build yourself a couple of Hexayurts[0] instead: [0]: http://hexayurt.com/ http://hexayurt.com/
  - novaleaf 11y ago
    thanks, though it doesn't look very usable where I am (Seattle, lots of rain). I actually ended up buying 2 car tents, and built floors/walls for it.
frik 11y ago
Last year on CNN there was a documentation about repurposing old shipping containers as temporary homes in Africa. I have no direct link, but this article is related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container_architecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container_architecture Due to the economic crisis, there are a lot of old shipping container in certain parts of the world (usually due to one-way shipping purpose "import-only").

by stove 11y ago

bane 11y ago

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 would be great as a sheds, or workshops in affluent areas. Heck, I'd like to buy one for my parents to use as a storage shed on their property. Equivalent sized sheds (without solar power, or good design) run >$2000. I see this all the time, nifty water purifiers, portable lights, radios, etc. There's some really interesting stuff being produced for refugees. Instead of crazy 2:1 schemes or whatever, why not just sell these on a 20% markup and donate the profit to buying more shelters? Or just sell them and push the price down due to the greater economies of scale? The refugee space always seems so weird to me.

afarrell 11y ago
LuminAID does this with their LED lights: http://luminaid.com/ http://luminaid.com/
- bobdvb 11y ago
  Gravity Light sell their products, I bought one for my in-laws: http://gravitylight.org/ http://gravitylight.org/
chmullig 11y ago
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.
- bane 11y ago
  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?
  - atwebb 11y ago
    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...
- Retric 11y ago
  Don't forget about advertising which on it's own often adds 20% to niche items costs. Also, CC processing might be ~3% but it's added on at the end. aka 3% of manufacturing, 3% sales etc. Which can add up to 10% of the initial manufacturing cost.
  - systemtheory 11y ago
    Some companies minimize advertising budget but manage do do very well. Patagonia spends less than 1% of sales on advertising. (http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/brand-strategy-that-shifts-demand.aspx http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/brand-strategy-tha...)
- jedrek 11y ago
  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.

novaleaf 11y ago

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

lozf 11y ago
Build yourself a couple of Hexayurts[0] instead: [0]: http://hexayurt.com/ http://hexayurt.com/
- novaleaf 11y ago
  thanks, though it doesn't look very usable where I am (Seattle, lots of rain). I actually ended up buying 2 car tents, and built floors/walls for it.

frik 11y ago

Last year on CNN there was a documentation about repurposing old shipping containers as temporary homes in Africa. I have no direct link, but this article is related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container_architecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container_architecture Due to the economic crisis, there are a lot of old shipping container in certain parts of the world (usually due to one-way shipping purpose "import-only").