Tag Archives: city home

This transforming robotic furniture descending from the ceiling to take your home from bedroom to living room!

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‘The Smile,’ a new apartment complex in East Harlem designed by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) features smart furniture systems comprised of stow-away storage units, bed frames, workspaces, and wardrobes that rise into and fall from the ceiling on command.

Technology is changing the way we live in cities. Electric scooters and bullet trains are replacing city buses, while public spaces are relying on AI and smart technology for contactless services. In New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood, a new apartment complex called, ‘The Smile’ from BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) integrates a smart, modular furniture system from Bumblebee Spaces into each apartment to take full advantage of each living unit’s full cubic space.

Built around a grid that’s mounted to each unit’s ceiling, the modular furniture systems are comprised of storage cabinets and bed frames that rise and descend according to the changing needs of each resident. When a component of the system isn’t in use, it rises and disappears into the ceiling to enlargen the unit’s available living space. Then, when one is needed, the furniture system recognizes voice commands, remote controls, and programmed settings to initiate a component’s descent from the ceiling to the unit’s floor.

For example, after waking up in the morning, residents can command the bed to merge with the ceiling to conceal it from view. Then, in the same way, residents can instruct for modules like customized workspaces and drawers to lower down from the ceiling for access during the day. Crafted from wood, the furniture system brings a touch of comfort to each unit, giving the apartment’s industrial backdrop some organic warmth. Like a robotic housekeeper, Bumblebee’s furniture system also remembers where residents left certain pieces of furniture or smaller belongings so looking for your keys won’t keep you from getting a move on.

BIG’s ‘The Smile,’ located in New York City’s East Harlem currently features 163 market-rate and 70 affordable apartments, the latter group reserved for mid and low-income residents. While the furniture system, designed by former Tesla and Apple engineers, is currently only available in five units, the future of smart living is surely on its way to every city.

Designer: Bumblebee Spaces x BIG

Each module can be outfitted for specific purposes, from workspaces to wardrobes. 

Integrated organizational systems make each module easy to navigate. 

Residents can control their smart furniture system from their smartphones.

This tiny home panelled in corrugated steel was built in ode to Tokyo’s ever-changing cityscape!

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Tokyo is a city known for mixing the old with the new– architectural relics still stand planted where they’ve been since they were built centuries ago, while ultramodern skyscrapers and towers bloom between temples and the cracks of ancient pavement. Tokyo is as resilient and ever-changing as ever a city can be. An ode to Tokyo’s multifarious and evolving landscape, Unemori Architects constructed House Tokyo, a 50m2 tiny home stationed in a narrow alleyway.

The house was built with an aboveground main floor and lower basement stationed one meter beneath the ground. The home’s simple floor plan keeps the bedroom and bathroom areas in the semi-basement, while the main floor opens up to the dining room and living areas, implementing high ceilings due to the extra headroom granted by embedding the basement beneath ground level. With such a large internal volume, the tiny home located in Tokyo’s side alleyways packs high ceilings that span from 1.9 meters to 4.7 meters in height.

Punctuating the uneven cubic roof levels are large windows that work to augment the home’s overall living space, providing views of both the open sky as well as the bustling city streets. Constructed from wood, House Tokyo features corrugated steel paneling on its exterior that gives the home a distinguishable industrial look. Inside, sunlight pours into the home through its many windows and brightens up House Tokyo’s interior walls made up of different finishes and coats.

Home to a couple of 40-year-old city workers, House Tokyo was built as a temporary abode to accommodate the pair before they return to the countryside where they will rejoin their parents in rural living. In Tokyo, the couple enjoys their city lifestyle, frequenting the public bathhouse and restaurants often. To grant access to Tokyo’s most urban wonders, Unemori Architects constructed House Tokyo to be both open and compact, designing the house for the couple to take full advantage of the city life before returning to the countryside.

Designer: UNEMORI Architects

Wrapped in corrugated steel panels, House Tokyo exhibits a distinguishable industrial look.

Inside, sunlight bounces off natural wood accents and off-white plastered walls.

Large windows and warm tiled floors complement the sophisticated minimal interior design.

The main floor above House Tokyo’s semi-basement keeps the home’s dining and cooking areas.

Multileveled roofs grant access to different terraces throughout the home that grants access to skylights and city views.

Downstairs in the semi-basement, the home’s residents can find the bathroom and laundry facilities.

Positioned right outside the basement’s bathroom and laundry facilities, the couple can find their main bedroom.

This tiny house in Tokyo boasts of a funnel-shaped roof that doubles as a skylight!

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Moving to Tokyo with his wife, architect Takeshi Hosaka found a tiny nook of the urban world to build his modest, single-story, micro-home. The tiny home, called Love2 House occupies a total of around 30 meters of Tokyo pavement in the Bunkyo district, decreasing the total area of their previous living space by seven meters. Hosaka designed his Tokyo-based micro-home with both simple pleasure and realistic practicality in mind.

Inspired by Roman villas, Hosaka aimed to bring the restful repose that comes with country living to the city world, so he focused on how he could create a home that catered to studying, bathing, the theater, music, and gastronomy. The micro-home is equipped with a bathroom, which includes a toilet and washing area, a bedroom that shares an entry with a small, outdoor garden space, a practical kitchen area to concoct healthful meals, a study and dining table area for lounging or productivity, and finally a storage area where the laundry facilities and bulkier, electronic items are found. Love2 House embraces the natural bustle of the Tokyo lifestyle by easily slipping into a vacant alcove between two traditionally urban living spaces, and also encases a full, 19 meters of living space between its reinforced concrete walls. Crowning the concrete micro-home is the main event, Hosaka’s funnel-roof.

Hosaka had to prepare for three months of winter, during which his Love2 House would not receive any direct sunlight. Hosaka’s solution was a curved roof whose exposed vertex produced a pocket of skylight to fill up the single-story micro-home with plenty of natural bright light from the sun, no matter the season. On the winter daylight dilemma, Hosaka says,  “In the winter, the two skylights effectively bring soft sunlight into the house and in the summer the house is filled with brilliant sunshine like in a tropical country.” The roof is also protected from weather changes and forces for the exterior panels are clad with galvanized aluminum, which helps preserve metallic surfaces from rusting due to corrosion and oxidation. The unexpected largeness of the micro-home comes through with the slightly curved, tall ceilings that seem to expand the entire floor space with lots of open-air and natural sunlight. While living in one of today’s busiest cities, Hosaka managed to attain the pleasures of country living by architecturally sculpting and designing both into and around the 30 meters of Tokyo pavement where Love2 House nestles.

Designer: Takeshi Hosaka