How Can We Double the Living Space in Our Homes? BEYOME: The Flexible and Modular System with Robotic Furniture
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BEYOME, led by Project Consortium together with the architects of Enorme Studio, seeks to transform traditional dwellings by providing a greater degree of flexibility in their spaces, so that they can adapt to contemporary lifestyles, taking into account the different uses that their inhabitants give to them. But how can we make the same space capable of adapting to different uses? What strategies could be developed to double the surface area of our homes and make better use of them?
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need to incorporate new habits into the way we live. Architects around the world have set out to develop dynamic designs in dwellings, either through partitioning elements or mobile furniture to optimise even the smallest spaces. In Spain, according to the INE, 32.3% of homes are under 65 m2. Implementing new designs, technologies and its own robotic furniture system, BEYOME is a project developed in the Lavapiés neighbourhood of Madrid that proposes to double the surface area of the home from 45 m2 to 90 m2.
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Focused on improving the habitability conditions of the dwellings and responding to the demand for being able to carry out more than one activity in a single space, these sustainable dwellings are designed with re-configurable spaces that not only permit a greater degree of adaptability to different circumstances but also improve accessibility between spaces, energy efficiency and work-life balance. Studio_01’s Barcode Room, which allows users to customise the size of the spaces, adapting them to multiple uses, or Estudio BNAA’s Minimum Common Multiple Space, which converts the same space into several at the same time, are just some of the examples that demonstrate how it is possible to bring flexibility, movement and adaptability to the spaces we inhabit.
Derived from “Beyond Home”, this flexible living system has two bedrooms, one of them with a dressing room, and also two closed work or study areas, a living room, bathroom and a kitchen of up to 30m2. The use of two movable walls gives the possibility to rotate and unfold the different areas of the house according to the needs of its inhabitants. In turn, these walls are equipped with mobile furniture including fold-out bed systems, dining or work tables, seating and various storage equipment and shelving.
It is a modular system that is fully configurable and is intended to respond to all types of public with both manual and robotic drives. Regardless of the movement system that is implemented, whether linear or rotating, the focus is on a single objective, which is to achieve flexibility in housing, providing a response to 95% of the traditional and rigid typologies that currently exist on the market.
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Project: BEYOME // Lavapiés
Design and construction: BEYOME
Location: Lavapiés, Madrid
Date: March 2022
Video and photographs: Javier de Paz García
