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Airbnb has revolutionized the ways we live and travel with its innovative home-sharing business model—and now, it wants to take things a step further. Samara, Airbnb’s futures division, has announced the launch of Backyard, a new initiative “guided by an ambition to realize more humanistic, future-oriented, and waste-conscious design.” Simply put: Airbnb wants to make you a newer, better house.
According to a statement by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, Backyard is not just focused on creating more homes, but on how homes can be better made, both to support their occupants and cause less damage to the planet. “The way buildings are made is outdated and generates a tremendous amount of waste,” he says. “In order to meet the demands of the future, whether it be climate displacement or rural-urban migration, the home needs to evolve, to think forward.”
Though Gebbia has not offered a ton of details about what these homes could actually look like (or what they’ll cost), we’re set to see them soon: prototypes will be made public in 2019, and in them, consumers are expected to find new, eco-friendly, innovative spaces to call home. And if Airbnb’s vast collection of jaw-dropping homes, castles, cabins, and the Yoshino Cedar House (a space developed in partnership between Gebbia and architect Go Hasegawa) are any indication, Backyard’s upcoming developments will likely have with plenty of covetable designs, too.
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