What's Hot: More Down Than Up: A Look at Detached Home Prices Around DC | Inside Bradley Beal's $10 Million Bethesda Home
Airbnb Wants to Build a House in Your Backyard

After building a network connecting people to short-term rentals around the world, Airbnb is planning its next venture.
As reported by Fast Company, Airbnb has announced the launch of Backyard, an initiative to create and build innovative housing prototypes of all kinds. This means that not only could the company begin constructing accessory dwelling buildings in people's backyards, but also single- and multi-family homes as well.
The vision is to leverage existing and innovative technologies to build homes that are on the cutting edge of sustainability and environmental responsibility, whether through use of materials or construction methods. The dwelling units Backyard develops will also incorporate adaptability, a concept recently explored in the National Building Museum's "Making Room" exhibit and in technologies such as Ori (Fedor Novikov, Backyard's project lead, is a former robotic building researcher for NASA).
story continues below
loading...story continues above
“Backyard investigates how buildings could utilize sophisticated manufacturing techniques, smart-home technologies, and gains vast insight from the Airbnb community to thoughtfully respond to changing owner or occupant needs over time,” Airbnb chief product officer and cofounder Joe Gebbia says. “Backyard isn’t a house, it’s an initiative to rethink the home.”
Airbnb isn't entirely unexperienced in this realm, having endeavored upon a community revitalization effort in Yoshino, Japan. The centerpiece of this community has become the Yoshino Cedar House community center/Airbnb co-living experiment, also the first "house" the company has built.
Expect to see the first wave of Backyard prototypes next year.
See other articles related to: adaptable housing, airbnb, airbnb housing, backyard, modular, modular housing, prefab, prefab homes, smart furniture
This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/airbnb-wants-to-bring-housing-to-your-backyard/14749.
Most Popular... This Week • Last 30 Days • Ever

The change would allow for an 80-acre portion of DC's 272-acre Armed Forces Retiremen... read »

The Capitol Hill home has been listed for sale that has a number of serious security ... read »

The listing will hit the market on Wednesday, according to the Washington Business Jo... read »

Today, UrbanTurf looks at what we think will be the metrics that will determine the d... read »

Located in the heart of Shaw, Intersect at O includes five elevator townhomes. The fi... read »
- 3,000 Units, 20 Acres of Open Space: Zoning Change Looks to Pave Way For DC's Biggest Development
- A Secret Room, A Safe Room and Quite a Security System on Capitol Hill
- Inside Bradley Beal's $10 Million Bethesda Home
- Listings, Rates, Prices: The 3 Most Important Charts For the Fall Housing Market
- Only One Townhome Remains at Shaw's Unmatched Intersect at O
DC Real Estate Guides
Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market
We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!
First-Timer Primers
Intro guides for first-time home buyers
Unique Spaces
Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro