IKEA and Helsingborg join forces to assemble the sustainable city of the future
Today, IKEA reveals the first details of its ground-breaking partnership with the Swedish City of Helsingborg, to create community solutions for a better life at home. The project, called H22, will explore the definition of ‘home’ by developing new living, community and retail ideas co-created between IKEA, the citizens of Helsingborg and other local and global partners.
The City Expo will take place from 30 May to 3 July 2022 at three sites in and around Helsingborg, which was recently named by the European Commission as one of Europe’s most innovative cities. Each site will explore a specific challenge associated with city living, from affordable homes to health and wellbeing, whilst exploring how IKEA can contribute and become an active partner in developing communities and neighbourhoods.
Ingka Group Chief Creative Officer, Marcus Engman, will lead the collaboration and says:
We firmly believe that home is more than four walls – it’s also our neighbourhoods and communities – and so the opportunity to be a co-creator for H22 is hugely exciting. Over the next three years we will use the full potential of the IKEA Business model and embrace radically different thinking. By 2022, we want to present real solutions for sustainable cities that are affordable and practical for people, planet and society.
Three areas of Helsingborg will become the location for a range of collaborative solutions. In the Drottninghög suburb, activities will focus around three sites: ‘The Garden’, ‘The Market’ and ‘The Kitchen’. The Garden will promote urban farming and grow fresh produce to be used to prepare delicious local meals in The Kitchen, which will be sold along with The Garden’s produce at The Market. The new development aims to foster the social aspects of inclusion as well as encourage employment and entrepreneurial activities.
Meanwhile the city’s Harbour area will become a hub for ambitious, innovative ideas around the future of retail, manufacturing and the home. Interactive exhibitions of the latest store and product concepts from IKEA will showcase the technologies, functions and products that will shape the home of the future. They will also bring visitors closer to the manufacturing process by opening up IKEA textiles and printing technology.
Finally, the city forest Fredriksdalsskogen will act as a connector for the fair. Here, students from different disciplines and institutions will co-create solutions for alternative, sustainable temporary housing that promote inclusivity and self-reliance, and connect the city with nature.
"I am delighted that IKEA is one of the city’s partners in the H22 City Expo. Together we will explore innovative solutions as we co-create the sustainable city of the future. We know that IKEA has many exciting ideas in regards to this. Through our collaboration with IKEA, Helsingborg is looking to find solutions to challenges we share with so many other cities around the world," says Peter Danielsson (Moderate Party), Mayor and Chairman of the Municipal Board of Helsingborg.
To help tell many of the stories behind H22, IKEA will launch a podcast series called ‘The Oracle’, exploring everything from the future of affordable homes and city retail to food and togetherness, and health and wellbeing. This series of one-hour episodes will be hosted by industry leaders and local Helsingborg heroes. To learn more about H22 and The Oracle, visit h22.ikea.com.
For further information, journalists and media professionals can contact us at press.office@ingka.com or by calling +46 70 993 6376
Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 379 IKEA stores in 31 countries. These IKEA stores had 706 million visits during FY20 and 3.6 billion visits to IKEA.com. Ingka Group operates business under the IKEA vision - to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford it.
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