Whether you’re looking to share your midcentury modern designs with travelers or explore mid mod homes across the country, Airbnb has always been a reliable option for travelers and home design enthusiasts alike.
The popular home-sharing platform has announced on its experimental product development page, Samara, that it will be introducing a new initiative this year, called “Backyard”.
“Backyard is an initiative to prototype new ways that homes can be built and shared, guided by an ambition to realize more humanistic, future-oriented, and waste-conscious design,” reveals Joe Gebbia, co-founder and chief product officer of Airbnb. Essentially, this new project allows the company to build new homes that are designed to be shared.
“Backyard uses the same lens through which Airbnb was envisioned—the potential of space—and applies it more broadly to architecture and construction,” Gebbia has said. The new Airbnb homes will be designed to include eco-friendly architectural features that can cater to the various needs of all of its potential inhabitants over long periods of time.
“The way buildings are made is outdated and generates a tremendous amount of waste. 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.”
Although the cost and appearance of these homes are still shrouded in secrecy, many avid users of the website are already eager to see the big reveal and whether the prototype will live up to Airbnb’s reputation of high standards and fresh designs. For many midcentury modern architecture lovers, this plan could introduce new ways to explore the popular design trend when planning a vacation.
“With a decade of accumulated knowledge about how people travel, live, and share their spaces, I believe Airbnb has a unique responsibility and global opportunity to improve the way we build and share homes,” says Gebbia.
The initiative was launched in 2016 and the new housing prototypes will be released later this year.
