Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FLATPACK FURNITURE TAKES OVER THE WORLD
Ingvar Kamprad was 17 years old when he created Ikea in the city of Älmhult, in the craft-
focused province of Småland - and he has gone on to become one of the world's richest
men.
The Ikea name (a combination of Kamprad's initials and those of the farm and village
where he grew up) was officially registered in 1943. Initially selling pens, watches and
nylon stockings, the company added furniture to its products four years later, gradually
evolving into the Ikea-designed flatpack creations so familiar today.
There was almost an early end to the Ikea empire when the first Stockholm shop and all
its stock burned down in 1970. But, besides his devotion to work and obsession with cost
cutting, Kamprad also seems to have thrived on adversity - Ikea bounced back.
Seeking to bring simple, good design to the whole world, in an affordable way, Ikea has
had enormous influence. Cheap and innovative products were born out of Swedish mod-
ern design - the idea of the house as the starting point of good design, rather than the
end.
The clean-cut company was rocked in 1994 by revelations that Kamprad once had links
with a pro-Nazi party in Sweden (he later offered a public apology and expressed much
regret for this time of his life).
The famously frugal Kamprad has now taken a back seat in terms of running the com-
pany, but ownership is still within the family. Control over the empire is now divvied up
among Kamprad's three children and divided into a series of complex charity and trust
entities. Today Ikea has stores in 40 countries; branches first opened in Australia in 1975,
Saudi Arabia in 1983, the US in 1985, Britain in 1987, China in 1998 and Russia in 2000.
Key Turn-of-the-Century Buildings in Stockholm
Fredrik Lilljekvist's Royal Dramatic Theatre (1908)
Ferdinand Boberg's Rosenbad (1902)
Ragnar Östberg's Stockholm City Hall (1911)
Craft
The Swedish tradition of craft can be seen in all forms of design: architecture, textiles,
fashion, stonemasonry, carpentry and particularly glass. In the southern province of Små-
