A few years ago, a delightfully surreal movie came out called Kitchen Stories, in which a team of 1950s Swedish home economists crossed the border en masse and installed themselves in the kitchens of Norwegian bachelors. Their objective was to analyse domestic routines, in a very Scandinavian quest to maximise the efficiency of "the modern housewife". The film's defining image was of a strait-laced Swede with a clipboard sitting in the corner of a kitchen, studying a Norwegian making his breakfast.

Kitchen Stories was only a mild exaggeration of actual studies carried out in Sweden. Today, half a century on, it's no great stretch to imagine the people from Ikea doing the same when they were devising BoKlok.

BoKlok (pronounced "book look", Swedish for "smart living") is Ikea's biggest idea yet. Having seized the market for affordable home furnishings in the past decade, the Swedish retail giant is now planning to provide the homes themselves. They've already built some 3,500 BoKlok dwellings across Scandinavia - and now they're coming to the UK.

Last month, planning permission was approved for the first British BoKlok development: 36 flats in St James Village, Gateshead, due for completion by the end of the year. Each apartment, with two or three bedrooms, is expected to cost less than £100,000. More will follow - many more, probably, since BoKlok is quick to build, energy efficient and aimed at households earning between £15,000 and £30,000 a year. Who's to stop them?

Jokes about homebuyers being handed a pile of flatpack boxes and one of those fiddly little Allen keys are greeted with forced "haven't heard that one before" smiles at BoKlok's HQ in Malmo. "Yes, we get a lot of that, even though they're built in factories by skilled craftsmen," says Ewa Magnusson, BoKlok's marketing manager. BoKlok, she explains, is actually a joint venture between Ikea and the Swedish construction giant Skanska, and is being built under licence in the UK by Live Smart@Home, a subsidiary of the Home property group.

Expansion into the UK is a big step for BoKlok, but a logical one. It was conceived in 1996 in response to similar housing conditions to those of present-day UK: demand outstripping supply, rising prices, not enough homes being built at the affordable end of the market. Initially, the BoKlok team turned not to architects but to researchers. They tracked trends in the dwindling size of the average Swedish household, and identified the model BoKlok homeowner: a female single parent with one child, no car and an average income. They then studied how much she could afford in rent, and set their budgets accordingly. Surveys conducted at Ikea stores across Sweden revealed their potential customers' housing priorities: the desire to live in secure, small-scale surroundings; proximity to the countryside; contact with neighbours; and homes that were light, well-planned, functional and furnished with natural materials.

BoKlok homes don't exactly come in flatpacks, but they're not far off. The timber-framed buildings are almost entirely prefabricated. They are usually brought to the site on the back of trucks as pre-assembled units, like Portakabins, with the interiors already fitted out. Each apartment is made up of two of these units, which are simply moved into position by crane. Put on the roof and exterior wall cladding, plumb and wire it in, and it's ready to live in. The typical BoKlok arrangement is an L-shaped, two-storey block with three apartments on each floor. One such block can be put up in a day.

It sounds crudely straightforward, but the underlying design principles appear rock solid. Each apartment gets windows on three sides. On site, the L shape is often extended into a U, with a low-rise building containing storage space for each dwelling, thus creating a semi-enclosed courtyard. Each block, Magnusson explains, also gets its own apple tree - "something they can take care of together" - and what she describes as a "conceptual bench", a place outdoors where neighbours can meet.

The bestselling BoKlok design in Sweden has an exterior of blood-red weatherboard, square white windows and a pitched roof; it wouldn't look out of place in a typical Swedish town. There is a limited choice of colour and cladding types, plus national variations. Danish ones are dressed more fashionably, for example, with black cladding and steel balconies, and they have found it easier to build straight blocks rather than L-shaped ones on Norway's hilly terrain. The one in Malmo that Magnusson takes me to, though, looks anonymously modern, with plain white walls, tall windows, wooden balconies and walkways. Typically, it is situated among other housing types in a suburb of the city.

Initially, BoKlok sold its apartments out of Ikea stores, but they were so popular that people camped outside for two days to get one - hardly the sort of thing a single mother was likely to be able to do. So now the company chooses the residents by lottery, making the mix of tenants random: plenty of single parents, but also elderly people who have moved out of bigger houses, young couples and families. The residents are mostly at work when we visit, and, what with the immature planting around the houses, it feels a little stark and empty. But, sure enough, there's the young apple tree in the courtyard and the "conceptual bench". It looks just like a real bench.

Inside, the apartments are hardly generous in terms of floor area, but higher-than-average ceilings allow for larger windows and the impression of space. "They can be changed in many ways," Magnusson says. "You don't want to go into the neighbour's living room and see an exact replica of your own."

Engineered wood floors, tiled bathrooms, open-plan living spaces, fitted Ikea kitchens - they're not unlike the homes you see in Ikea catalogues, but then, each new BoKlok owner does receive an Ikea gift voucher as a housewarming present. Homeowners are also grilled on what exactly they like and don't like about their new homes after they've settled in, so that BoKlok can get it even more right next time. For example, in response to comments about noise, the gravel on the footpaths has given way to a finer grade.

Such research-led design tends to generate mixed feelings. It may offer domestic solutions, but also suggests a depressingly mechanistic view of humanity, hinting at a monotonous one-size-fits-all suburban future. At what point does responding to society's needs become a form of social engineering?

Needless to say, BoKlok's brains have grappled with the conundrum. For one thing, they have been careful not to swamp the market. In Malmo, there are two more BoKlok sites - but in other areas of the city. The apartment blocks are built in groups of no more than seven, making 42 units. "We're constantly improving the designs, and there are new versions coming up, so you shouldn't get too many of the same design in one place," says Magnusson. "When you come home, you should be able to recognise your house immediately."

The same concerns could well apply to Britain, where Live Smart@Home plans to roll out "hundreds if not thousands" of BoKlok homes to achieve the necessary economies of scale. After the initial 36 apartments, another 117 terraced BoKlok houses are planned for the Gateshead site, laid out in a more conventional street arrangement, and costing £120,000-£150,000. Additional UK sites will be announced this year (Glasgow looks set to be the next). "We'd be hugely disappointed if we didn't become a major provider of housing in the UK," says Alan Prole, managing director of Live Smart@Home. "That is our intent."

The BoKlok apartments in Gateshead will be neither stark, white and modernist, nor Swedish pastiche. They will be more contemporary, more detailed in their facades, says Prole, although the internal layouts will be fundamentally the same. "We've almost taken every single component apart and put it back together to make it suitable for the UK. We are taking significant input, but keeping an intrinsically Scandinavian flair to it."

Is Britain ready for Scandinavian living? The question is redundant, says Prole, pointing to the way Ikea already dominates the UK's home furnishing market with a mere 15 stores. "It's not just a retail outlet, it is more of a lifestyle or a culture - which is why people go there. Because there is that strong association [with Ikea], people can see the lifestyle they'll be buying into. But they also see Scandinavian style as being greener and more liberal, more community-based. Certainly, those are elements we are encouraging."

Faced with the alternative, a red-brick terraced Wimpey or Barratt home, buyers are likely to see the appeal of BoKlok. Even if the Wimpeys and Barratts are upping their game and exploring similar affordable, sustainable options, they face a run for their money. You can now find an Ikea glass, bookshelf or shower curtain in practically every British home. It may not be long before you'll find a BoKlok development in every British town.