When you see something different emerging in two places at the same time, and being sponsored by significant but different types of organisations, you have to conclude that it could be an emerging issue. So it is with flat pack housing, currently the subject of an exhibition at New York’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

There’s more about the houses on display at Cooper Hewitt at FlatPak, and the key factors seem to be cost (far lower than conventional costs) but combined with a fair degree of variation.

Meanwhile, IKEA’s Swedish flatpack housing partner, BoKlok, has gained planning permission for a UK development which would import their successful Scandinavian model.  The two or three bedroom apartments will sell at around £100,000 – again much cheaper than conventional housing. BoKlok is a joint venture which was launched in Sweden in 1996  in response to similar issues as are currently seen in the UK housing market: demand outstripping supply, rising prices, and not enough affordable homes being built.