Ideabox has turned to IKEA as their inspiration for a new prefab home - Aktiv. The homes are "designed by Ideabox, and appointed by IKEA". The kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom are all equipped with IKEA's state of the art cabinetry, flooring, appliances and furniture.
Aktiv is 745 square feet, and costs only $86,500. Here's the best part - you don't have to sit on your floor with a huge instruction pamphlet flipping it around to find the english section. The home, and everything in it, gets delivered to your lot in one or two pieces.
The home will be available across the United States. Do I think this will eventually migrate to Canada? Yes, it makes sense that IKEA will initiate a similar low cost housing model for us, but I don't particularly think that something similar to Aktiv will work in our metropolis. The home has striking similarities to those found in a trailer park. To me, that seems to be the only way you would have a home like Aktiv, without paying ridiculous prices for a lot.
IKEA has been manufacturing pre-fab homes in Sweden since 1997. Since then, they have grown in popularity and spread all over Europe. Their concepts have embraced row housing, and multi level units. They've minimized the lines between regular housing and pre-fab housing, and quality or design is anything but sub-par. I would love to see this in Toronto.
