WHO WE ARE

Ikonomo: Our Story

Hi there, I'm Harry, the founder of Ikonomo. I want to tell you how a simple passion of mine turned into a full-blown mission.

So, it all started with my love for carpentry and joinery. I actually spent my early career, from 2018 to 2020, as a trainee joiner with the National Trust, focusing solely on traditional carpentry and joinery work on their heritage buildings across the country.

Unfortunately, like many people, I was made redundant due to Covid-19 in 2020. I didn’t stop, though. I spent the better part of the next two years working independently across the UK. This is when I really started designing and building beautiful timber garden rooms and pergolas, transforming customers’ gardens into functional, sustainable spaces.

The Moment I Knew I Had to Act

After those two years of building and creating, I started to notice something that didn’t sit right with me. I was surrounded by waste—offcuts, packaging, and materials that had nowhere to go but the skip. At the same time, I’d see headlines about the growing housing crisis, the struggles of young people trying to afford their first home, and the damage plastic pollution was causing to our environment.

It became clear that all these problems were connected. We were throwing away so much that could be reused, while so many people were struggling just to have a place to live. I remember thinking: “There has to be a way to turn all this waste into something that genuinely helps people.”

That’s when I decided I wasn’t just going to keep building structures—I was going to build solutions.

Our Solution: The IKo-85 Scheme

The biggest issue that stuck with me was housing. As a 23-year-old myself, I fall directly into the group of people who are struggling to buy their first home because of these ever-increasing costs. It’s incredibly difficult for the younger generation to get on the housing ladder now, and I’m living proof of that challenge. That’s why I came up with the idea for the IKo-85 Scheme.

IKo-85 isn’t just about building homes; it was developed to tackle several of these issues at once.

Here’s how we approach it:

• Waste to Wonderful Homes:
  We work closely with our network of UK-based charities, organisations, and businesses to intercept waste before it ends up polluting our rivers, landscapes, and oceans. With the help of these charity partners, we collect and repurpose materials such as plastics, aluminium, and other recyclable components. This material is then transformed into high-quality building components for our affordable modular homes.

  What makes this process even more rewarding is that we financially support and reward those same organisations who help us from the very beginning. By reinvesting back into their work, we enable them to continue and expand their incredible efforts—creating a self-sustaining cycle of impact that benefits both people and the planet.

• Social Impact:
  The IKo-85 project is fundamentally about people. As we grow, we’re dedicated to working with those who need it most—not just giving them a home, but creating working and training opportunities alongside us.

• Closing the Loop:
  We’ve developed a range of products with high recycled content that are designed to be infinitely recyclable at the end of their life. We’re closing the loop on waste—because that’s what true sustainability is all about.

The IKo-85 scheme is bigger than just building houses. We want to engage with educational environments and find fun, meaningful ways for people of all ages to get hands-on with sustainability. It’s about building a movement, not just a structure.

Where We Are Now

And here we are today. To date, we’re proud to have over 50 incredible organisations, charities, and businesses working with us across the UK to make this vision a reality.

Our immediate goal is to have our first affordable housing site up and running, fully occupied, and making a difference by the end of 2026.

To reach this milestone, we’re currently seeking donations and funding support. If you or your organisation can assist—even with the smallest contribution—it will go a long way toward helping us achieve these goals and make a lasting impact for generations to come.