AirBnB has announced a major move into the architecture and construction industry, with plans to release a new housing prototype late next year. After WeWork and Katerra the next technology company is starting to offer architectural services with a mission to disrupt the built environment.

The architecture and building industry is one of the last industries which is not disrupted by technology yet. Over recent decades, the traditionally structured attitude of the industry has stunted its growth and natural tendency to explore new territory as innovative thinkers and city shapers.

Backyard will design and build houses

Read the Airbnb press release below: 

In late November 2019, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia announced Backyard, an initiative to prototype new ways that homes can be designed, built, and shared. Driven by an abiding passion for humanistic, future-oriented, and waste-conscious design, Gebbia is taking a bold step forward into a new domain.

Backyard investigates how buildings could utilize sophisticated manufacturing techniques, smart-home technologies, and vast insight from the Airbnb community to thoughtfully respond to changing owner or occupant needs over time. The initiative is being explored at Samara, the experimental product development team that Gebbia leads at Airbnb. The Backyard team is looking to test prototype units as soon as fall 2019.

“Airbnb challenged conventional thinking and pioneered an entirely new industry,” explains Gebbia. “We helped people activate underutilized space—from a spare bedroom or treehouse to your apartment while you’re away—and built a community that connected people around the world. With Backyard, we’re using the same lens through which Airbnb was envisioned—the potential of space—and applying it more broadly to architecture and construction.

” Starting from a deep understanding of the ways in which Airbnb hosts modify their homes to accommodate guests, Gebbia felt inspired to start from a blank slate.  “We began with a simple question,” he elaborates. “What does a home that is designed and built for sharing actually look and feel like? The answer is not simple at all. Other questions quickly emerged. Can a home respond to the needs of many inhabitants over a long period of time? Can it support and reflect the tremendous diversity of human experience? Can it keep up with the rate at which the world changes? Can we accomplish this without filling landfills with needless waste? It’s a tall order.”

The Backyard team surveyed the construction industry in search of practical solutions, ranging from eco-friendly building materials to fully prefabricated homes. “Simply put, nothing addressed long-term adaptability from a systemic perspective,” project lead Fedor Novikov adds. “The only way to close the gap was to work from first principles and imagine entirely new approaches for building homes.”

Gebbia is actively recruiting bold thinkers to join the effort. Since 2017, Samara has grown an eclectic team of industrial designers, interaction designers, architects, roboticists, mechanical and hardware engineers, material specialists and policy experts, all working on making Backyard a reality. “I love the team we’re building,” Gebbia adds. “We’ve spent a long time looking for exceptional people who seek out new kinds of challenges, are creative, and are deeply curious about the way the world is put together. We are always on the lookout for anyone who could make our team even stronger.”

With a decade of accumulated knowledge about how people travel, live, and share their spaces, Gebbia believes Airbnb has a unique responsibility and global opportunity to improve the way we build and share homes. “ Based on current projections from the UN, 2.5 trillion square feet of new buildings will be constructed worldwide by 2060,” Gebbia explains. “That’s the equivalent of adding another Paris to the planet every single week. In the US alone, we’re starting construction on an average of 3,300 new homes every day. For us, this goes beyond a business opportunity. It’s a social responsibility. 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.”

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2016 was an exciting year for architecture trends. While we still haven’t started travelling to space – though we are a step closer thanks to a successful rocket launch and landing SpaceX accomplished earlier this year – technology has been significantly impacting the way we inhabit cities.

Designers have been experimenting with innovative, intelligent building materials, car manufacturers are rolling out self-driving models, and urban infrastructure is relying more on connectivity to optimize everything, from commuting to working. Many among these are long-term architecture trends that have had breakthroughs in the last year, which promise to continue into 2017.

Here are the 7 most significant architecture trends affecting the built environment that will shape the upcoming year.

#1 – Urban Connectivity

Connectivity extends far beyond Internet access. In fact, several companies across the globe are currently working on integrating tech products into urban environments in order to improve transportation, social services, health and public spaces. We have already written about Sidewalk Labs, a “smart-city” company owned by Alphabet Inc., which creates digital products through public-private partnerships to provide ubiquitous connectivity, real-time sensors, precise location services, distributed trust, autonomous systems, and digital actuation and fabrication.

Several incubators targeting urban environments are creating funding opportunities for companies that greatly influence how we live, work and commute. Y Combinator already funded companies like reputable Airbnb, among others, while Impact Engine supports early-stage, tech-focused businesses that change neighborhoods and urban conditions in the Chicago area.

#2 – Autonomous Transportation

Self-driving vehicles are promising to revolutionize the transport industry, which will greatly impact the built environment. Car manufacturers are rolling out models that are already hitting city streets. Last August, Singapore has become the first country in the world to launch a self-driving taxi service, beating Uber by a few days to public road tests. US-based start-up called nuTonomy received permission from the Singapore government to test self-driving cars and start testing with passengers.

Last December, Uber brought a small number of self-driving Volvo luxury SUVs to San Francisco. Another interesting trend – drones – is getting into the transportation race. Chinese drone manufacturer Ehang has created a vehicle capable of autonomously transporting human passengers and their luggage. Aerial drone delivery companies like Flirtey and Matternet are also developing solutions for air traffic. It will be interesting to see what 2017 brings for autonomous transportation.

#3 – Space Sharing

The sharing economy is expanding to include an increasing number of industries. WeWork has come to the forefront of the “space as a service” trend as one of the fastest growing consumers of office space, transforming a real estate business. The company has recently begun testing its first residential offering – WeLive, which brings a “co-living” philosophy into the world of residential real estate. WeLive links tenants with living areas that share kitchens and bathrooms. According to company documents – as Nasdaq reports – WeLive is expected to bring in about 21% of the company’s total revenue by 2018.

Last December, Airbnb has started investing in Home Sharing Clubs – host-led local organizations – around the world, closing out 2016 with 112. The emergence of Club-like organizations is an important trend to watch in 2017.

#4 – AR/VR

Augmented reality and virtual reality are being used in architectural design and real estate with increased frequency. Architecture studios are embracing VR as a way to optimize communication with clients and speed up the design process. This trend is expected to grow in 2017, with firms like NBBJ developing new, immersive solutions. NBBJ has already developed a self-contained venture Visual Vocal to built a VR platform integrated into the firm’s design process. Computing chipmaker NVIDIA conceived a VR demonstration of the completed building powered by NVIDIA products. The VR headset allows Gensler designers to navigate the model of the structure and notice design flaws that could be easily missed in a 2D environment.

According to digi-capital, the virtual and augmented reality industries will be worth $150 billion dollars by 2020. Virtual home experiences are expected to dominate 2017, and can potentially get into architecture schools.

#5 – Entrepreneurship in Architectural Education

Speaking of schools, entrepreneurship seems to be increasingly taught to architecture students. Architecture schools across the world are starting to offer bachelor and master programs in entrepreneurship and real estate development.

The Parsons School of Design offers an undergraduate minor in creative entrepreneurship, while a Penn State-sponsored business accelerator program aims to help student entrepreneurs turn their innovative project into reality. Canada’s Ryerson encourages its students to participate in a variety of projects that allow them to gain skills in architecture that are not taught in class.

The School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P), one of five schools at MIT, launched an entrepreneurship accelerator, DesignX, which allows students to “make the critical leap from project to startup”. DesignX will include a four-month, for-credit accelerator workshop through which participants will get a chance to pitch to outside investors and industry partners.

#6 – Material Innovation

The Multiscale Materials Laboratory at Rice University is working on developing what they call “programmable cement” which can allow designers to control the kinetics of cement to get desired shapes, the morphology and size of the basic building blocks of C-S-H. This way they can self-assemble into microstructures with far greater packing density compared with conventional amorphous C-S-H microstructures.

Another common material that is gaining momentum is timber. Architects are increasingly using this rapidly renewable, carbon sequestering material that environmentally outperforms concrete and steel. In 2016, PLP Architecture and researchers from the University of Cambridge have revealed a concept for London’s first wooden skyscraper, architect Michael Green completed the largest mass-timber building in the United States – a seven-story tower in Minneapolis called T3.

Companies like Solar Roadways and Wattway are developing solar-harvesting road surfaces, while power-generating textiles are being experimented on at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This fabric harvests energy from solar and kinetic sources and is highly flexible, lightweight and consists of widely available, environmentally friendly materials.

 #7 – Sustainability

From energy to transportation and architecture, industries are steadily moving towards sustainable practices. 3D printed buildings, like the world’s first 3D printed office in Dubai, also influence the costs and environmental impact of the AEC industry. Cities are moving toward clean energy and a green economy.

After completing the Vertical Forest tower in Milan, Italy, architect Stefano Boeri has recently announced a similar design to be developed in China. This will be the first project of its kind in Asia.

Malaysia’s Forest City is set to become Southeast Asia’s largest mixed-use green development. Sasaki Associates designed the $40.9 billion master plan as an ecosystem that mimics the natural coastal ecologies of the region.

Urban Renewal and farming Projects are also a path to more sustainable cities. Some of the largest are The Los Angeles River Revitalization, Green Square – Australia’s biggest urban renewal project – while the Chinese megacity of Shanghai is set to realize the Sunqiao Urban Agricultural District.

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Over the last few decades technology has gone from impacting the way we communicate and work to affecting every aspect of our daily lives. It has started to spill into the physical world and change the appearance and structure of our cities. Architects are no longer free to choose the degree to which they factor in technology in their design processes. Its omnipresence has started to change the way architecture users experience built environment, requiring and expecting an increasing level of responsiveness and interactivity. By putting the power of choice into the hands of ordinary people, technology has forced designers to reevaluate their role and embrace the changes.

Architectural typologies such as multi-family housing, office spaces and urban design have seen drastic changes due to the fast-paced technological evolution. The proximity of living spaces and work, which has marked most of the 20th century, has become a loose concept. Cities are developing and spreading in way that is less dependent on topography and physical connectedness, while our houses are becoming smarter and more energy efficient.

Numerous companies and startups across the globe are recognizing the importance of these phenomena and are at the forefront of a new wave that is flooding city streets. Particularly noticeable is the shift towards the ‘sharing economy’ which allows individuals to become retailers and service providers by cutting out the middleman. Peer-to-peer businesses have crossed over from the virtual world into the physical realm.

Here we categorized the main areas of modern living most transformed by technology and the major companies that channel this change.

#1 – Housing and Real Estate

The “sharing economy” or “collaborative consumption” has had the strongest impact on the housing and real estate market. Similar to Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner which creates no content and Uber, the world’s largest taxi company that owns no vehicles, AirBnB owns no real estate. Instead, it functions as a peer-to-peer online platform which allows people to rent their houses and apartments short-term. By choosing this type of accommodation over hotels and hostels, travelers acquire a wider range of choices, while owners can make profit from underused assets.

A similar scenario is playing out in the work environment. Companies like WeWork provide shared workspaces for entrepreneurs, freelancers and startups by subletting office spaces, along with furniture and Internet. Signing up for an unlimited membership allows people to use WeWork locations around the world and provides an opportunity to chose an environment that suits individual preferences.

WeWork operates by taking out a cut-rate lease on a floor of an office building and reorganizing the space in smaller parts which it then rents out to small business and startups. Because of the higher crowd density-the number of people per square meter-the company boosts its Net Operating Income (NOI), making it easier for them pay higher rents in prime locations compared to conventional companies. This development, connected to the growth of self-employment, telecommuting and freelancing, is redefining the concept of office spaces and threatens to completely overpower large companies in the fight for urban space.

Residential architecture is also being transformed by smart technologies. The introduction of connected appliances and clean energy into both old and new real estate is restructuring the use of domestic spaces. Smart heating systems, energy-efficient thermostats and automatic smoke sensors are among the products offered by Nest, home automation producer of programmable, self-learning, sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled appliances that help save energy.

#2 – Transportation

Billion-dollar transportation company Uber has saturated the private transportation market with on-demand drivers, removing complicated logistics, parking tickets and maintenance hassle from the commuting equation. Hybrid companies like Tesla and Google, mostly operating in automotive and media industries, have already transitioned into different areas of technology.

Google is already testing their self-driving cars, outfitted with cameras and sensors and detailed maps of streets, traffic signals, curb heights and other information required for an unmanned vehicle to operate. It was recently announced that Tesla plans to build fully-functional autonomous cars by 2020, and Uber is planning to buy 500,000 of them.

Meanwhile, Uber has also introduced UberPool-carpooling service that cuts private transportation costs by almost 50%. Commuters are paired through Uber’s logistic engine with other commuters with similar pickup and drop-off locations. By making urban transportation more convenient and less expensive, Uber is making it less attractive for people to buy individual cars and could eventually reduce the number of cars on the road in a city.

Many predict that, because of Uber, millions of people will forgo owning a car in the next few decades. Fewer personal cars would make for less congested, less polluted cities, making taxi cabs, limo services, traffic congestion, accidents and public parking a thing of the past.

#3 – Commerce

eCommerce is slowly removing the need for brick and mortar retail, and threatens to drive the modern shopping mall to extinction. Rising fuel prices, suburban sprawl and worsening automotive traffic increase the rate at which people are turning to online shopping and websites like Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and Instacart.

Shoppers can easily find products online instead of dealing with large retail establishments. Reports indicate that over 200 shopping malls across the United States are suffering 35 vacancy rates or higher. Although e-commerce, along with catalogue and direct mail, makes up less than 9% of total retail sales, this new development is expected to create a huge revolution in retail trends over the next decade.

When it comes to the built environment, this would entail the disappearance of an entire architectural typology which has marked the last century. It will also affect inner city areas by putting a great deal of pressure on small retailers. The migration of retail from the physical world to the virtual one will impact the amount of available urban space, creating new opportunities.

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Private transportation and the real estate market may be experiencing the most immediate effects of technology, but this new trend is becoming increasingly important in the areas of urban planning and mass transport as well. Urban priorities are changing through mobility and the introduction of new frameworks for local and regional governance. Project developers and architects are facing new challenges in creating dynamic, evolving places that respond to the complexities of modern life.

What other companies do you think will impact the future of our cities?

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