BoKlok, a joint venture to provide quality housing at an affordable price formed by developer and construction firm Skanska and home design firm IKEA, both global companies based in Sweden, was formed in the 1990s to address rising costs of living.

To determine how much their homes should cost, the companies looked at the cost of living for a hypothetical single mother with two children, working as a nurse. “How much can she spend on clothing, transportation, living a good life? How much money does she have left to pay for living costs? That was our roof, and we needed to build a home that matches that maximum. We started the opposite way around, and it affects everything we do,” says Jenny Adholm, head of sustainability at BoKlok.

To meet that need, the company developed a factory-based, modular, all-wood home building system, and does everything in house from design and construction to purchasing land and selling homes, which keeps costs down enough to sell to low-income families and young or first-time buyers. Prices are fixed and no buyer can up the price to get a nicer home: “We call it democratic application: we want to give each potential customer an equal chance to buy our homes,” says Adholm.

The homes (both single-family detached/semidetached and multifamily apartments) are built through a proprietary, robotic building system, using FSC- or PEFC-certified sustainable wood, which creates efficiencies in energy use, prices, materials, energy consumption, and waste while offering safer working environments than traditional outdoor construction projects.

Each home is highly energy efficient, using solar panels (standard in Swedish markets), geothermal energy heat pumps, exhaust air heat pumps, triple-glazed windows, and air ventilation with heat exchange (standard in Nordic markets).

Life-cycle carbon emissions have been pared down to roughly 50 percent those of a conventional home. Homes have reached net zero operational carbon, though it is not yet standard, and the company is beginning work in 2023 on its first net energy positive project in Malmo.

From there, the company works with local municipalities to source affordable land in developed areas, close to services and transportation but not in expensive city centers, and builds open, publicly accessible communities with gathering spaces like playgrounds and parks.

Adholm notes that the return on investment for this approach is broad: “It gives us a competitive advantage, as we can target groups other competitors can’t. It also makes it easier to access land, as municipalities want to be able to offer this kind of home.”

She also cites the brand and reputation benefits, attractive lower operating costs for homeowners, and better financing opportunities from banks. “The [banks] are looking for green investments. I think this will become even more important when the EU taxonomy comes into force.”

August Williams-Eynon