MIT CityHome – Compact city living can feel… restricting. My last apartment barely measured 700 square feet, and some days it still feels painstakingly small. I couldn’t even imagine dwelling in a smaller apartment, it simply wouldn’t be all that livable.
A project by MIT Media Labs – known as CityHome– seeks to change that. CityHome is quite literally a house in a box. The machine is the size of a closet, and stows a bed, dining room table, kitchen surface, cooking range, closet, and storage container. Any of these elements can be called forth or retracted with something as simple as a gesture or a voice command. Not only that, once it’s installed, the entire module can move several feet in either direction, extending or compacting a room at will. Not only that, the entire process is impressively fluid; somehow, that adds to the device’s appeal even more.
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It’s not hard to see where one would apply a product like CityHome.
“This would work well in the 30 to 40 Innovation Cities where young people are priced out of the market,” explained lead researcher Kent Larson. “At $1,000 per square foot in Boston, the extra cost of technology is trivial compared to space saved for a furnished apartment.”
To my knowledge, CityHome hasn’t yet reached consumers, so there isn’t yet a market price for the device. I’d imagine it won’t go for more than a couple thousand, though – which is a small price to pay considering how much one could potentially save on an apartment. Expect more from the Changing Places team at MIT as this project continues to evolve. [via fastcodesign]
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MIT CityHome House In A Box | Gallery
