IKEA in the Philippines has been preparing for the opening of the world’s biggest branch at the Mall of Asia complex later this year, ABS-CBN News reports.
The preparations have included exploring the homes of Filipino residents since 2016 to better understand people’s needs, dreams, and challenges to scope out what new markets need.
Georg Platzer, IKEA Pasay City store manager said in a statement, “We’ve always been fascinated about people’s lives at home. So we ask how they live their life at home. This helps us do what we do—create modern furniture design that helps people to not just survive at home, but thrive.”
The Swedish furniture maker discovered that for Filipinos the home is not just a physical space “but the people they share it with,” as some live several generations together while other families live with their kids. Rising property costs and diminishing land spaces have also resulted in many Filipinos turning to smaller spaces and there also Filipinos who love to DIY their homes, including those that live in condominiums.
According to Georg Platzer, IKEA hopes to learn what Filipino needs for their dream home and the furniture maker plans to continue to explore how Filipinos live at home. The stories of Filipino homes can be viewed on IKEA’s “Life at Home in the Philippines” page.
IKEA’s Filipino branch is scheduled to open either in the third or fourth quarter of this year but no updates have been disclosed on whether or not the timeline was affected by the recent COVID-19 lockdown.
