Älmhult house model in yellow (Click image to enlarge)
Swedish home furnishing innovator Ikea and the Skanska construction group have come together to create BoKlok: a new housing concept providing functional and comfortable space-saving, high quality properties at affordable prices. Meaning ‘live wise/smart’ in Swedish (the motto is ‘Bo bra, bo billigt, BoKlok’: live well, live affordably…), BoKlok was pioneered in Sweden and will soon be available in the UK under an exclusive licence to the property company Live Smart @ Home (see article below).
First flat-pack home is unveiled
January 30, 2008
BBC News
The first flat-pack home designed for people on low incomes has been unveiled on Tyneside.
A two-bedroom show apartment was opened as part of the 93-unit complex near Gateshead International Stadium. The timber-framed BoKlok structures will cost up to £149,995 and will only be available to first-time buyers earning between £15,000 and £35,000. Six homes are nearing completion with the first residents expected to move in by March. The homes will be sold by furniture giant Ikea, with a one-bedroom flat starting at £99,950 and rising to £124,950 for a two-bedroom apartment. Houses will start at £132,500 for two beds, and £149,995 buys a three-bedroom home.
‘Viable solution’
Alan Prole, managing director of Live Smart@Home, said: “For the first time in the UK, people will be able to experience what it could be like living in a BoKlok home. “This is a very exciting time for everyone concerned in this development and we are now looking forward to welcoming our first residents.”
Councillor David Napier, Gateshead’s housing chief, says: “Opening the show apartment is a major landmark in this much talked-about development. I’m sure I am not alone in being genuinely excited about being able to see what the inside of a BoKlok home actually looks like. What is already clear is that BoKlok seems to offer a new and viable solution to the affordable homes problem.”
The show home will be open to the public from Saturday.
Sarah Badr © MMVIII
See also: BoKlok
sarah badr | pieces at random 
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