Airbnb Plans to Start Building Homes Next Year

The company will design, build and distribute prototype homes through its "Backyard" project.

The founders of Airbnb, after building a $38 billion global company with over 5 million users are moving onto the " Next thing". The company plans to start building homes in 2019. The company recently announced their new "Backyard" initiative. “An endeavor to design and prototype new ways of building and sharing homes,” according to press statements.

The tech giant plans to start building these units for public use sometime in 2019. According to Co-founder, Joe Gebbia, “The project was born in a studio near Airbnb headquarters,” he says in an interview over email. “We always felt as if we were in Airbnb’s backyard–physically and conceptually–and started referring to the project as such.”

“Backyard investigates how buildings could utilize sophisticated manufacturing techniques, smart-home technologies, and gains vast insight from the Airbnb community to thoughtfully respond to changing owner or occupant needs over time,” Gebbia says.

“Backyard isn’t a house, it’s an initiative to rethink the home. Homes are complex, and we’re taking a broad approach–not just designing one thing, but a system that can do many things.”

The company plans to build eco-friendly homes, taking into consideration the environmental impact each unit will have. Eco-friendliness is not the only issue at hand. This new project will allow Airbnb to greatly diversify its revenue sources and balance out its reliance on independent homeowners.

The company's new units will be built to share. With multiple families or individuals occupying any single unit. Airbnb will presumably make these units available also as a business opportunity to folks interested in hosting or perhaps investing in these homes.