It was February. It was raining. And I think cold. We were talking about the new "drift" series of floating homes - cool little houses incorporated on log or concrete floats in sizes ranging from 400 SF up to 1400 SF in size - a combination of the speed and precision of systems building with the craftsmanship and skill of Portland's leading floating home builder, Marc Even.
A few days before that we introduced the new "minibox by ideabox" - a series of micro houses, tiny houses, little guys that offer all the modern design, fit, and finish of ideabox in a tiny, easily moveable footprint. We are building them to the RV code, and starting at 8' wide, one can transport them with a pick up truck. We will be writing more about these, as the applications for the "minibox" are clever, diverse, and a lot of fun.
Perhaps the most newsworthy event since our last blog post was the introduction of the new AKTIV design, our collaboration with IKEA Portland. What we learned was the true power of brand, the incredible distribution mechanism of information through social media, and just how popular what we are doing here at ideabox is with people all around the world.
a SCREEN GRAB of a perfect example of just how far social media can go!
For those who follow us, I won't go into the absolutely sensational case of misinformation disguised as news that occurred after we introduced the new AKTIV house at the Spring Portland Home & Garden Show. I will say we were so genuinely pleased with how well the AKTIV concept house was received at the show. The design is very clean, the IKEA stuff is very cool, and the layout incredibly functional. The subsequent misreporting that ran rampant is well documented now, but must admit it's kind of fun to have something we worked on appear on the Today Show, the Tonight Show, the cable news shows, and perhaps the capper, on the Ellen Show! (Thanks to KGW 8, Sustainable Business Oregon, Chicago Tribune, the Statesman Journal, Yahoo, and many others who helped us get the right story out!)
There is so much more to talk about - and we will - as there is a brand new version "northwest modern" house we're about to release, new clever versions of the "minibox series", and a whole lineup of "accessory dwelling units" we want to talk about. The AKTIV house is going on display in June & July and we definitely want talk about that. We're introducing new window options featuring colored frames and the latest in glazing technology. And there's a fun event that is in the works for August.
Thanks for reading. And thanks for following ideabox. What a great summer we're all going to have!
