Could Robotic Furniture Help Solve The Housing Crisis?

By TYRONE TOWNSEND Robotic furniture may help people turn small spaces into comfortable homes. In a YouTube video published by the MIT Alumni Association in December of 2021, Ori CEO Hasier Larrea told interviewers that real estate has two big challenges today. “One of them is real estate sustainability and the other one is affordability,” Larrea said. “Those two challenges are really connected to one metric, square footage.” Ori was formed in 2015 by Larrea and a team of MIT academics who set out to build interiors that optimize the potential of usable space, allowing for a more extensive range of activities and settings inside dwellings, all within the same footprint. Larrea said they believe that robotic furniture and architecture…