MIT has managed to fit a bed, dining room table, kitchen surface, cooking range, closet, and multipurpose storage comfortably inside a 200-square-foot apartment, with room to spare. So, how did they do it?
A research group involved in the MIT Media Lab’s Changing Places project has developed a house-in-a-box device called CityHome, which they claim can stretch the space in a tiny apartment to make it feel three times as big.
CityHome is essentially a mechanical box, about the size of a closet, with customisable compartments that respond to gestures, touch, and voice.
Internal motors respond to simple commands by fluidly ejecting individual compartments from the central structure.
In a matter of seconds, a table and kitchen can appear to transform the apartment for a dinner party.
Following dinner, the pop-up dining room can be efficiently packed away and a hide-away bed summoned from the compartment underneath.
The entire module can also move a few feet each way, extending or compressing a room at will to reveal or conceal a bathroom.
The project’s lead researcher Kent Larson informed Co.Design that the CityHome is more than just a concept and that he plans on bringing it onto the market as soon as possible.
Watch how CityHome is used to transform an apartment in the video below.
Courtesy Co.Design