Furniture giant IKEA is well known flat packed furniture and Swedish meatballs, no news there. They are also well known for social responsibility and environmental awareness and in light of this year’s global refugee crisis, IKEA stepped up their game even more with a brilliant refugee campaign in an effort to create awareness and drive donations.
25 m2 of Syria - a glimpse into the life of a refugee family
IKEA partnered up with the Norwegian Red Cross and created the ‘25m2 of Syria’ display in one of their Norwegian warehouses.
This unusual feature amongst otherwise well-organized and spotless room displays gives store visitors the opportunity to ‘visit’ the war-torn home of real-life Syrian mother Rana and her children and get a glimpse into their situation. The sparse apartment is a replica of their home outside of Damascus, Syria.
IKEA even utilized their recognizable price tags in a brilliant way – instead of giving the dimensions of a table or information about where to find the parts for a bookshelf, the price tags are used to tell short stories and to give information on how to donate.
IKEA’s flat packed refugee shelters
IKEA have also designed and developed a flat-packed emergency shelter back in 2013 as an alternative to the often used refugee camp tents. IKEA has shipped thousands of ‘Better Shelters’ around the world and many have been used for larger structures such as temporary medical facilities.
