Move Over, Modular: Robotic Furniture Has Arrived
Move Over, Modular: Robotic Furniture Has Arrived
Ori
Modular furniture is great and all, but one small annoyance is that you still have to move those parts around yourself—and your average sofa is no lightweight. That’s why we were thrilled to hear about the arrival of a new generation of furniture that makes “modular” look as old-fashioned as a butter churn: robotic furniture, which can convert from a bed to a couch to an office and beyond all by itself!
Called Ori—a play on the word “origami”—this wardrobe-size contraption was created by Swiss designer Yves Béhar and Hasier Larrea from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. Push a button on the control panel (or your smartphone), and a bed glides out from the bottom. With more button pushing, up pops a couch, a desk, an entertainment center, and a sizable closet. And just in case the whole unit is still in your way, it even glides across the floor to open up even more square footage right where you want it—no back-breaking hauling of heavy furniture required.
Ori was created to serve the growing number of people who live in cramped quarters. According to a statement by Béhar, it makes “studio city living a practical, comfortable, and beautiful experience.” Yes, even beautiful! Kinda like living on the USS Enterprise on “Star Trek.”
The first Ori systems are slated to debut this summer in Boston, Seattle, and Washington, DC, with a full rollout anticipated for early 2017. No price is listed yet, but we’d wager it’s well worth the space—and headaches—it saves its owners.
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