Ikea’s creation of a new type of refugee shelter has won a major design award
Given the number of expatriates in the UAE, it is a solid bet that many of our readers will have some experience of assembling Ikea furniture, and thus understand intimately their pros (the price, the small packaging) and cons (what do those pictographs actually mean?).
The company, or more accurately its charitable arm the Ikea Foundation, used the same knowledge to create a flat-pack refugee shelter that could be used to create a private, temporary structure to be used in areas of need around the world. Last week, London’s Design Museum named it the Design of the Year. This is worth applauding. The world is facing its most serious refugee crisis since the Second World War, and anything that companies can do to help is welcome.
The usual joke about Ikea furniture is that everyone ends up having the same stuff. We hope, therefore, that one day soon this is one item that no one ends up needing.
