According to the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), one in every eight households lives in a condominium in Canada — approximately 1.6 million people in total. And considering the number of new developments I’ve seen in downtown Toronto alone, I can only imagine that number has increased exponentially since then.
Having been included in this statistic for well over a year now, I’ve realized there is one particular adjustment anyone living in “a box in the sky” must make: you learn to value your limited space. I am grateful to be sharing what is considered to be a relatively large condo (750 square feet) with only one roommate, but even that at times gets quite congested.
Since I often wish I had the ability to extend a closet or move a wall, I was happy to come across this remarkable robotic furniture by the MIT Media Lab and Ori with designer Yves Béhar.
The furniture will be able to not only move throughout your living space, but also collapse and extend in a number of ways — giving us, the users, the ability to change the layout of our homes with the touch of a button and to store even more without giving up more precious square footage.
The best way to fully understand the robotic furniture is to see it in action, so check it out the video below:
The line of architectural robotics is still in development but is slated to go through its first residential rollout by developers in Boston, Washington DC, and Seattle this summer.
Regardless of your current living space, this furniture has the potential to drastically change the way we live. Those currently living in an apartment or condo will be able to maximize the little space they do have, while those living in a larger home can use it as an opportunity to declutter and minimize.
Whether we believe it or not, we all have more stuff than we need to survive, and I was reminded of this when making the initial transition into a smaller living space. Not only did I decrease the amount I owned upon moving in, but even since then I have regularly donated more of what I initially brought in, recognizing how infrequently I used it.
Even if this robotic furniture isn’t for you, let this article be a reminder to go through what you have and set aside what you no longer use or need. If you are strapped for cash, look into selling these items, or if you’d like to help the less fortunate, find a reliable charity to donate them to.
SOURCE
via Collective - Evolution