The great American humorist Amy Poehler once said that IKEA is Swedish for "argument," which makes sense, though we always thought it meant "frustration." Indeed, an incident with a bookshelf's missing hardware on a 100 degree August day during Georgia Tech freshman move-in compelled us to forswear IKEA forever, irresistible snacks and cheap, aesthetically-pleasing furniture be damned. When the internets lit up with word that an Oregon pre-fabricated design firm and IKEA were collaborating on aktiv house, we felt compelled to jump on the bandwagon, if only to caution our fellow man about the dangers lurking therein. As it turns out, IKEA really has nothing to do with aktiv, other than their Portland store's interior "designers" helping the folks at IdeaBox select some furniture for their newest pre-fab house. Of course we generally support all of the things driving aktiv's creation...energy efficiency / sustainability, modern design and the further hipster appropriation of the trailer park lifestyle. And we suppose that if the all-IKEA furnishings came assembled with the home (thereby obviating the need for an actual trip into IKEA), we could see to lifting our warning. But the entire enterprise still strikes us as risky. We're sticking with Craigslist for dwellings and furnishings.
· IKEA NOT Selling $86,500 Prefab Home, But..[CleanTechnica]