No need to start hunting for the pile of allen keys in your man drawer. Ikea is doing the building this time. The Swedish furniture giant is creating its first neighbourhood in Britain.

 

LandProp Holding, Ikea’s real estate development arm is developing a 26-acre canal-side site near the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London. Strand East will have 1,200 new homes, nearly half will be family homes, with three bedrooms or more. The rest of the site will be a mix of offices, workshops, restaurants, cafes, bars and a 350 room hotel.

The first phase, Dane’s Yard, has a restaurant and exhibition space due to open in June 2012. Over 5 acres of open space will include a new waterside park. Landprop say that, ‘Particular attention has been given to the space between buildings, providing a variety a high quality open spaces – private, shared and public – which will encourage people to interact with each other and nurture a sense of community.’

Cars will be parked underground, there will be a water taxi and rubbish will be removed by underground suction tunnels.

Above is a picture of the site before redevelopment.