Airbnb is expanding into the home design space with its new
Backyard project.
The program is being spearheaded by Airbnb's Samara
division, an experimental product development team led by Airbnb co-founder Joe
Gebbia.
According to Airbnb, Backyard is "an initiative to
prototype new ways that homes can be designed, built and shared." The
project will seek to innovate on a variety of design and construction fronts,
including manufacturing techniques and smart-home technologies.
Backyard will also take feedback from the Airbnb community
into consideration, in an effort to improve how home design can "thoughtfully
respond to changing ... needs over time."
The Backyard team plans to start testing prototype units as
early as fall 2019.
Airbnb has not released specifics on the prototypes or plans
to expand Backyard, but a company spokesperson said that the project "is
not an initiative to manufacture or sell homes at scale."