As a long-time fan and customer of IKEA, I receive daily Google Alerts about the company, from business finances to design trends. When I read this piece on IKEA’s work on a home designed for people who were homeless, I paid special attention to learn about the concept of trauma-informed design.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the publication Retail TouchPoints and the author of the story, Adan Blair, for covering this project. The story has lit a lot of lightbulb inspirations for me in thinking through the role housing plays in human health and well-being, and also to inform my upcoming CES 2025 panel on Health at Home: Where Health Meets Smart Living.

Blair asks and then explains:

“What is trauma-informed design (TID)? It’s a philosophy that supports healing, reduces the risk of re-traumatization and promotes overall wellbeing. TID emphasizes safety, trust, beauty, joy, choice, empowerment, community and connection, and translates these traits into physical form — in this case, a small home (with a 365-square-foot interior) modeled on a cocoon, ‘an incredibly safe space from which the butterfly emerges,’ said James Andrews, Design Director of WestEast Design Group which specializes in TID.”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to IKEA’s discussion of the project on the company’s website. The photo here illustrates the model of part of the small home, featured in the company’s Live Oak, TX, store. It is built with sustainable materials and based on trauma-informed design principles.

IKEA conducted research in the Live Oak model space to learn more from end-users — showing good adherence to user-centered design principles. The company is also training company staff on TID and empathy-led approaches to design.

The company is collecting data to learn more about the direct impacts of people living in the pioneering space and will advocate for TID to be an industry standard that helps people heal and find stability in their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IKEA donated the small home to the community of Towne Twin Village in greater San Antonio in October 2024. The exterior of the home is shown here, with its clean lines and attractive facade in a nature-inspired, comforting color palette.

“At IKEA, caring for people and the planet is at the heart of everything we do, and we see an opportunity to build on the work of those who are already leading in trauma-informed design and use the approach to build resilient communities and create supportive spaces for the many,” Sam Eisenman, IKEA’s Sustainability Business Partner, explained in one of the company’s press releases on the program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  While mental health issues were already mainstream across health citizens around the world before the COVID-19 pandemic was termed a “pandemic” in March 2020, peoples’ mental well-being eroded during the public health crisis and since then, more people have put a name to their situations and sought care — especially via virtual platforms through telehealth and other distance-platformed therapy.

Trauma-informed design can underpin housing and other services, programs, and products that Everyday People source and consume. It’s another riff on principles “by-design,” such as equity-by-design, privacy-by-design, and other mindsets that people who envision, design, commercialize, and implement things for people focused on health and care should consider as a first principle.

 

 

 

 

 

What health citizen doesn’t want to feel a sense of joy, hope, peace, connection, safety, and empowerment?

IKEA has clearly learned a lot with this program, in collaboration with WestEast Design Group (a Social Impact Studio), working with the Ingka Group, IKEA’s retail business partner.

“We want to continue the conversation around TID, and through the research, show the impact of what a TID space can do,” Eisen told Blair in Retail TouchPoints.

To my point about trauma-informed design as an important lens for spaces and places that could benefit many people, she said she’d, “like to see more conversations around it so that it could become more of a standard versus a nice-to-have. Imagine what the world could be if spaces could be built that intentionally support wellbeing for everyone,” with my bold emphasis added here.

As IKEA’s Eisenman explained, “It’s not just four walls and a roof; it’s a space where you can create memories, and can discover and nurture yourself and others within that space. The TID approach supports all of that.”