Space-saving transformational furniture isn't necessarily a new thing. We've all seen a murphy bed. And people like Graham Hill (of LifeEdited) have been designing and building out small urban apartments that magically transform for what seems like a decade. Perhaps it's even longer than that.
But I wouldn't say that robotic and transforming furniture has hit the mainstream yet. There is, however, an argument to be made that it's kind of inevitable. As the price of construction and housing continues to increase, there will be a continued push to do more with less space.
Enter companies like Ori, which offer robotic and tech-enabled furniture for both end-users, as well as developers. Ori is already in 57 buildings across the US and, at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it was also announced that they have partnered with Marriott to start rolling out their furniture in the hotel space.
This to me feels like a perfect use case.
Last week was CES in Las Vegas. Some or many of you were probably there. One of the things that was announced at the show was a project by Bjarke Ingels Group for Toyota called the Woven City. Situated at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, the development sits on a 70 hectare site and will eventually house some 2,000 people.
The objective is for it to act as a living laboratory for a number of new city building initiatives, ranging from autonomy and mobility as a service to multi-generational living and hydrogen-powered infrastructure. Woven City is intended to house not only residents, but also researchers who can test out and learn from these new ideas.
Below is a short video from Dezeen. It's entirely visual. No words. There's also an official website, but not much is up there yet. Hopefully there will be more soon. Construction is set to start next year (2021) and it'll be BIG's first project in Japan.
https://youtu.be/MsuX2OyHRvI