IKEA GOES GREEN
by Jill Fehrenbacher, 10/24/05
In a move sure to please college students everywhere, home furnishings colossus IKEA is making attempts to green-ify and hip-ify its business through a new line of eco-friendly (and yet still cheap!) designer products. With the tagline “What if?” IKEA challenged 28 designers to produce socially and environmentally responsible products using green and recycled materials. The resulting collection is a mix bag of quirky items – all of which have a lot more personality than your standard IKEA products. The eco-friendliness of the pieces makes them even better.
I particularly like the HANMEDA (above), a collection of boxes made from recycled Indian newspaper, the AXVALL (above), a simple chair made from rubber bands around a steel frame, and the modular BODA storage solution shown below.
Also noteworthy (although less overtly green) are the lovely Hella Jongerius JONSBERG vases, and GERSBY and GARDSJO linen curtains:
Although people love to hate on IKEA, I think the company should be applauded for bringing environmentally conscious designer products to the masses. We get a lot of unhappy commenters here on Inhabitat bemoaning the high cost of the boutique, hand-crafted furniture that we write about (and believe me, we are as frustrated as you – we can’t afford this stuff either). On that note, I encourage all of you who are looking for truly affordable designer furnishings to check out the IKEA PS line. A lot of this stuff is beautiful, and you can get it at a fraction of what you would spend at a boutique shop. As Josh over on Coolhunting points out, you can get a hand-painted Hella Jongerius vase for $39.99, almost $7000 less than you would pay for a very similar (although limited edition) Jongerius vase from Moss. Yay for mass-production!
The PS line is only available in IKEA stores, and the PS designs are being produced in small numbers. So if you like anything on the website, you better make the trek out to IKEA quickly, to snag your treasure before its all gone.
Via Coolhunting
Some interesting things i found on this really cool website!
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