One more "better mousetrap".
Think of the great cat video possibilities.
6
What happens in an earthquake?
6
I can see this thing putting a pillow over my head one night. Screw you terminator, you are not getting me!!!!
13
I had thought that my comedic elevator pitch for a new startup, 'Uber For Dog Walkers" was too fantastic, even for the many idiots looking for the next Unicorn. Then one day, while watching a soccer match...there it was...Wag. As I was exclaiming that they had stolen my concept, I couldn't stop laughing!
Now this. The many arguments that come immediately to mind as to why this 'thing' is insane are too numerous to list. When the 250lb bed lands on top of the yoga mat was the first image. Draw your own pictures.
I invent mechanical systems. I look at them in 3D in my mind and wonder.."Now what could go wrong?" These mooks could have saved themselves a few thousand hours of brain cramp if they had called me first.
But the con of this 'thing' is that investors will clamor to give over money. Consultants will be hired. Company presidents will be paid. Suppliers will be formed and their presidents will be paid.
And the next flock will approach the shop door and exclaim.."Oh...hotels and ...motels ..and short leases..Who do I make the check out to?" The flock will look right smart in their new haircuts.
4
Ummm. No. Just no. Who would want to live like this? Is this what happens when marijuana becomes legal...people invent this nonsense?
Then re-criminalize it. This sort of thing must be stopped.
(Full disclosure, I voted to legalize it and am not opposed to its use by people who are not pre-disposed to having moronic ideas. Like this one.)
14
Maria Masi, senior vice president of development for Brookfield Properties, says "you effectively don't need a separate bedroom anymore"
How many people working for Brookfield, including Ms Masi, live without bedrooms, I wonder? Maybe I am misreading the emphasis on the word "you".
9
This article reminds me of a Ray Bradbury story called "The Veldt". Anyone else remember that story?
5
Thank goodness, there is no possible way any of this could go wrong.
15
Why is Tuft and Needle mentioned twice... the first time simply gratuitously, when simply saying that a mattress is suspended from the ceiling would have been enough?
Sounds press-release-ish.
6
Ceiling height is an issue. Standard is 8', put those boxes on the ceiling and perhaps you have 6'. So you would have to be on the petite side and not have any tall friends come over. A Murphy bed would be a better solution for most people.
11
For safety sake it must have hooks or some redundant support so that when a primary strap fails, the heavy thing does not drop straight or swing quickly and kill or cripple a person or child in the room.
Industrial equipment such as fork lifts that use steel cables are known to randomly fail and instantly drop the entire load. This is no different.
11
"Hello, 911? Please come rescue me. The power is out and I can't put on any clothes."
20
Leave it to the teach people to come up with a dystopian future. Pay $3,000/month to live in closet with 6' tall ceilings and suspended boxes that open and close to access your cloths, bed or camping stove.
Lovely. With the added benefit of packing even more people in a urban environment already destroyed by over-population.
13
Japan is good at robots, but a low tech solution to the space issue has been used here for many centuries. Futons are taken out of the closet at night, on to the tatami floor, and back in in the morning.
13
@Carl Kay
Japan is far more advanced in many ways. The futon & tatami floor is just one-
I've never understood the concept of a Murphy bed. Why bother. A huge heavy cumbersome contraption seems really outdated & awkward. & getting it up & out of the way? Why??When all you need is to convert a clean line, minimalistic "board" with a dense firm cushion to sit on & voila, there's your bed. Add a few pillows to sit back on & remove if needed...sit on it/ sleep on it.
Why have a couch/sofa & bed - both in the same small space. One is all that's needed. The "sofa" IS the bed-
4
For some reason, this reminds me of the Black Mirror episode where everyone has a job where they ride exercise bikes all day to power humanity and they all live in little compartments.
5
Also see Soylent Green. The movie, not the gasp, current product. Bike generators.
2
Big whoop. If you’ve ever lived in or visited an NYC studio apartment you’ve probably seen this and better.
2
Another solution to the ever-shrinking living space is free and open access to birth control for everyone. At some time, probably sooner than later, the world will have to come to terms with over-population which causes depletion of resources and open space, say nothing of civility and sanity. The "tiny house" movement and robot furniture may have their charms, but when living things become too crowded, stress and conflict take over.
17
Already bumped my head
2
Wow.
Alexa, pick up the puppy droppings, wash your hands and make dinner for two, raise the bed to the ceiling, take the door off the cabinet, cover it with the bedsheet, set it with the red wine glasses, turn over the laundry hamper for us to sit on, go down to the garage, take 2 hubcaps off the Tesla, set the tines on the Swiss Army Fork to medium and serve dinner with the lights down low. If the romance clicks and we get within scoring distance, I'll ease her into the hallway while you shove everything back into place and lower the bed from the ceiling. Leave the puppy in the drawer for now and text me a reminder to let him out in the morning. Oh, Alexa, shake out the table cloth before putting it back on the bed.
33
"Get In Bed With Skynet"
Well, if the singularity is anything like what is envisioned in the Terminator world, we will certainly be ________. Hard to imagine that if machines really become that much smarter than humans that they would see much benefit in relying on us. Most governments now, with the support of many people, aren't taking the steps needed to keep our species around in good shape.
2
Ironically, I think the only interest in this idea is environmental, because it allows more people to live downtown rather than moving further away to have more space: driving your car just down your block uses more energy than elevating and lowering all your furniture (which is about 10-20 seconds of running a small generator, compared to running a very big engine with your car).
In terms of quality of life however, nothing is certain. Market forces mean that when supply is outstripped by demand, prices increase until life becomes so miserable for renters/buyers that they leave and/or stop coming. If that thing is used to make existing tiny studios more liveable, you are just encouraging demand and raising prices. The only way it would work is if developers and landlords use it to offer smaller places, in effect decreasing demand for space. Obviously not a great prospect for the affected cities…
How about we just build more housing instead?
2
To me it seems the apparent purpose of this use of technology is to procure and exploit capital. Millions will soon be flowing feverishly to these start-ups - the tech gold-rush continues. It wiil all make perfect sense over dinner in San Francisco’s hottest restaurant du jour.
2
this is not new... On our first trip to Hungary we discovered that, before globalization, Hungarians had but three types or room: a bathroom, a kitchen and rooms. Every room had a bed hidden inside other furniture. Even the enclosed entrance porch had a murphy bed tucked in the walls. No they didn't have robots using precious energy to set up your needs, you pulled, or pushed, or straightened, and a couch or an easy chair became a very comfortable bed. The cushions on the side unrolled into a duvet. The living room, the kitchen, the dining room, and even the porch, became sleeping rooms upon request.
9
Having that stuff hanging on the ceiling would feel oppressive to me. No thanks. But what stood out for me about this technology is its ability to alert people to potential clutter (tennis racket example). Now that is something interesting. Making people wake up to all the junk they surround themselves with and hopefully lead them to feel lighter and freer when they finally get rid of it, is life changing in my book.
10
One of the definitions of elegance is "The simplest solution for a given problem." This is not that. This is complication and gadgetry defined.
I read, down in the comments, about a Japanese home. In that design tradition, the bed and everything else can easily be rolled up and tucked into a cabinet.
For reasons of economies of all sorts, this is definitely not the way to go.
Oh, I am a home builder, carpenter, and designer by trade in Colorado. I would laugh someone off the planet if they presented this to me as a solution for anything.
17
@Justin Chipman My first thought: what if someone hacked into a "robotic" apartment?
4
@Justin Chipman I think these spaces are better.
1
"It could also, for instance, justify charging higher rents for no-bedroom units"
Ah, yes. The real purpose for this fad.
36
I'm sorry to be negative here but this
has the look and feel of the 1939 Worlds Fair. Getting out of the bad looks to be something of an obstacle course when the draws are halfway down as pictured. Wham! Smack in the Kisser in the middle of the night. " Siri, please call Ambulance."
11
To all of the tech people who want to design furniture, loose the white! Try some birds eye maple, maybe some walnut. Nobody wants to live in the set from "2001 Space Odyssey." You will scare people off before you start.
Or better yet hire an interior designer, preferably one who does not do all white.
17
I would like to see the kitchen. Does it have one?
3
As Americans cram into ever-tighter urban living arrangements? Nonsense. Some do but most of us have plenty of space.
2
Once Boris McRussianBreacher finds a way to raise that bed into the ceiling as the owner sleeps in it, this will finally elicit the NOPE NOPE NOPE it deserves, with a side of "No one could've possibly saw this coming!"
7
It's clever. I realize this is designed for interior spaces but, as mentioned, a version for garages would sell well in places like SoCal. The issue is actually the same. You have all these things which you want to store and you need space to live. In the garage situation it's just that your vehicle needs a space to live. There are storage solutions for garage ceilings but they're clunky and hard to access -- you have to pull out the ladder and root around.
Also a great idea for offices that you'd like to convert to a guest bedroom.
Not the target market but also possibilities.
2
@Don Retractable garage storage has been available for quite some time. Not as pretty as the furniture shown in the article but definitely functional. No ladders required (after installation).
2
I still don't see why anyone would choose this over a regular murphy bed, models which are becoming more and more multi-functional and require no electrical gadgetry. Personally, my pullout sofa works just fine, thank you.
21
yea..you cant go wrong with the pull out sofa, especially if your guests are on the heavy size.
Anyone remember poor Sam and his darkly-neurotic automated apartment in the movie, "Brazil"? A masterpiece of engineering!
6
@michele Yes! Just yesterday I was also thinking of his desk....
1
I can only imagine all of the parts, wires, metal and gadgetry, straps and associated junk sitting in a landfill eventually. A waste of energy on all levels.
9
@Lucinda Carr
No worse than the existing mattresses, dressers, plastic toys, and associated junk currently sitting in the landfill.
3
@Pundette, yes, worse, because electronic waste is especially environmentally dangerous.
1
What do you do with an empty room with the bed in the ceiling? Or if it is furnished where do those furnishings go when the bed comes down? And could the bed accidentally go up when you’re in it? People died this way in the early days of Murphy beds.
14
I knew a woman in the 1970s who lived in an empty room. Japanese mats, cushions, and built-in storage.
1
I have a friend and neighbor (he’s coming over in a few to hang out) who has one low table that he moves around. Can stand on end to take up even less room. A couple of floor pillows that I gave him, and a couple of those pillow things with backs. That’s IT. It’s a large one bedroom apartment with an empty foyer and mattress on the floor in the otherwise empty bedroom.
I *hate* his apartment. It’s so cold, so inhospitable, unwelcoming and it has ZERO personality. No art on walls. No color.
Then he complains about depression. !!
I invite him over often. ;)
11
@Just Julien Yes indeed. My friend had just come out of religious school, she liked the look of appearing to have nothing. At that time I had my bed on a platform with a desk underneath.
I can see a good use of this suspension system in areas like garages for items that we do not use every day. Before reading this article I never thought that I would fall in love with inflatable beds again.
4
Perfect for those in need of more hang-ups.
18
I would love to live in a apartment like the one in the Fifth Element, not.
4
Maybe there should be a lottery to pick the date when the first person will be seriously injured by this.
4
Overhead- isn't that where overheated air, smells, excess moisture, smoke go clubbing? None that bodes well for stuff living in those boring, incomplete elevator cabs.
5
@RKP
I was going to say that we don’t smoke and the ceiling fan redistributes the air, but you couldn’t have a ceiling fan, could you?
3
@Pundette
Depends how you feel about those things hanging over your head.
Every video produced today seems to include obnoxious music. Even videos with people speaking contain a background of loud and obnoxious music.
Second, I was in NYC last week. You can keep your cramped spaces, wall to wall people, and traffic that spanned for miles. Humans weren't intended to live in tiny boxes and pay outrageous rents.
11
@Henry J
I'd much prefer to live in a McMansion in the suburbs, because we really 'need' 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms - with dual vanities - and 2 cars ... so we can drive to the grocery store, drive to the dry cleaner, drive to the chain restaurant, drive to the shopping mall, etc.
I'd hate to have neighbors from all over the world ... walk out my door on a beautiful tree-lined street on the Upper West Side ... walk my kids to their school 2 blocks away ... stroll down to a fantastic coffee shop ... hit the farmer's market on my street each Sunday ... pop into Central Park anytime ... and walk 20 minutes to and from work each day, while saving hundreds of dollars of month on car payments & insurance. (Which helps offset the high rent or mortgage) That would be horrible.
Sorry, but I've seen it too many times where people come to New York, hangout in Times Square or Midtown the whole time ... and then say, 'How can people live like this??!??!'
New York takes a lot of patience - and it certainly drives me nuts at times - but I'll take it over many of the alternatives 8 days a week. (And I've lived in various places all over the world, by the way ... Midwest, U.K., Asia, Australia)
I've also visited Sante Fe, which is gorgeous. Enjoy.
13
Isn't it a more high-tech and expensive version of the old Murphy bed with the addition of the electrical stuff hanging from the ceiling ? Not pretty
4
Since the space underneath the furniture needs to be empty, you either:
a) better be willing to shuffle your room around a lot; or
b) really enjoy empty space.
7
A murphy bed, from decades ago, is safer, cheaper, more aesthetic, and accomplishes much of what this does.
3
In the realm of nonsense technology,I’d still prefer a flying armchair. Come on,antigravity researchers,get to work!
6
I have to tell you, Buster Keaton had a system like this in his movie "The Scarecrow" almost 100 years ago.
3
Gosh we already live in a world that is moving towards lesser privacy, now it will intrude into our home space in a bid to make us more comfortable. Imagine wicked people holding up an apartment complex by hacking in....no guns, just a threat to drop the bed or closet on the poor unfortunate occupants.
Besides a person like me would perpetually walk like chicken little, except the ceiling just might malfunction and cave on my head.....
How about an actual origami bed that is mechanical? This wizardry is like sleeping in a car wash......and that is one space that should actually evolve.
1
The idea is spatially interesting. However, all technology breaks down eventually. I wouldn't want to be around when the motor on a hanging bed goes south. The more complicated the technology, the more you need to rely on specialists to fix problems. Also, what you do when you need to move? Hauling a mattress down three flights of stairs is a pain. I can't imagine disassembling a robot attached to your ceiling and throwing it in the trunk of your car. Presumably this technology is mostly for landlords interested in renting smaller units.
41
@Andy
Like other items permanently attached to a house, they become part of the house and you leave them behind when you move. Only problem becomes finding a buyer who wants the smart furniture as part of his purchase.
1
@Andy: I agree, and I am troubled by the continuing movement -- especially big expensive blue cities -- to pressure people into living into smaller and smaller and SMALLER spaces -- some of literally prison-like -- but filled with luxury amenities to "distract" the tenant from the fact they are crammed into a shoebox.
3
This is antithetical to having a small carbon footprint. Everything requires power to operate, or you could be locked out of your own underwear drawer! Having all that unsightly apparatus on the ceiling is ugly and very perceptable.
60
There are trade offs, though. The more space you occupy the more heating and cooling it requires. Living in cities without a car is the most efficient and having the smallest living space you need is ideal.
2
"Oh it was tragic, she was crushed by her ceiling bed while doing yoga."
35
@Peter B
#commentoftheweek - and it's only Monday. Well done Sir!
2
If you need technology to remember you haven't played tennis recently, perhaps divert some funds toward a doctor's visit.
2
Even discounting the unconscionable reliance on more electricity for daily tasks, when you live in a small space you need a high ceiling so that you don't feel claustrophobic.
13
It's clear from that Ori video that Alexa can't make the bed--she can only slide it away. By the end of that Ori video I thought that couple must be tired of living in that tiny space, because I was already bored looking at it after 55 seconds.
I'd still pick that living space over the sword of Damocles arrangement from Bumblebee. There is no way I could ever relax in a space where my so much weight is literally hanging over me.
23
I like minimalism and multi-purpose furniture both for the aesthetic and the ease it creates. The suspension lines and equipment hanging from the ceiling are unattractive, however, and have the potential to create as many complications as they seek to eliminate. Will it break down as often as a home treadmill or elliptical trainer? We've simplified greatly merely by choosing to live in a smaller house, donating or selling all the stuff we weren't using, and buying tables and other furniture with plenty of hidden storage space. Were I single, I'd downsize further still and look at purchasing a studio or tiny home and replace the bed with a trundle or Murphy bed.
9
Not for me, thanks. Small is fine and multipurpose is good, but I don't want to live inside an iPhone.
22
A murphy bed takes up 18" more floor space than a ceiling suspended bed, without the risk of having a bed free-fall on you from 8 or 9' if something goes wrong.
Also, not sure what the maintenance and inspection requirements are on something like this, but in workplace settings overhead hoists have at least annual inspection requirements.
26
Personally I think this could be a great idea for:
1. Converting some empty malls and buildings into village like housing at affordable low cost in over crowded cities.
2. As an artist I wouldn't mind having one installed instead of having shelves filled with boxes of supplies, and what-knots that goes into creating.
3. I wouldn't mind the boxes and closets lowering along the wall but I would opt for a murphy bed rather than having something so heavy hanging over me.
I think it would have to be better presented at first. Yes, there are people that like industrial look. But it looks like the garage door opener system. I think it would only feel safe if it was permanently installed. I certainly would allow any child in a room like that unless it was guaranteed safe and shown to never malfunction. What happens with the electricity goes off? Does it stay on the ceiling or does it lower itself to the floor? Can the speed of the decent be controlled? How high does the ceiling have to be
9
@Susannah Allanic
The ceiling has to be at least eight feet--according to the article.
This ism brilliant, but not necessarily original. Remember the Murphy Bed which folds up into the wall? It was and still is the same principle. Anyway, I think this is great!
@Easy Goer I remember "Auntie Mame" and like the movie being great may depend on your age.
3
I see ceiling storage working well in pass-through spaces such as entrances, hallways. In more frequently-used spaces, however, it is unsightly, and feels unsafe. The first major equipment failure is the end of this company. (I appreciate the effort to innovate, but gravity has been with us for many hundreds of years and is difficult to overcome.) Also, who has the ceiling heights to make this truly useful, without only making the space more cramped, claustrophobic? For the extra money it costs to rent one of these apartments, I'd rather just look for a larger space.
19
@Maddy
Right!
The ceiling heights are everything. 8ft is cramped enough if you are 5 1/2 tall let alone 6 ft. Developers can't make the heights higher (except in super-luxury buildings) because then they would have to add to the height of building or go with fewer units and the won't or can't do that in NYC.
5
@Maddy: anyone here remember THE SEGWAY? and how it was a revolutionary design that would completely change cities? or how the OWNER of the company was killed when his malfunctioning Segway ran off a cliff?
You don't hear much about Segway anymore.
2
Talk about using more energy than you need. This system is the opposite of what we should be doing.
45
The house of tomorrow’s yesterday today!
28
Straight out of Popular Mechanics in 1933
12
@Mr. Grieves: I WAS very humorously reminded of the 1960s cartoon "The Jetson"s -- the title sequence alone is priceless (and probably on YouTube) where we see the Jetson's mile high "sky apartment" complete with self-cooking stove and a robot maid, and a treadmill for walking their dog, Astro.
3
@Concerned Citizen
Except, like all cartoons of the era (and I am an expert by virtue of my 60s-70s childhood), there were miles and miles of generic repeating background space that flowed by as characters ran top-speed across the screen. The critical difference between “The Jetsons” and today is the wide open spaces, interior as well as exterior.
I think everyone who develops these sorts of technologies and living arrangements should be, by law, required to live in them indefinitely. Then they would be able to see the punishment they inflict on others.
53
It seems to me that the most useful item in this article is the suspended bed. If this were marketed at a fair price it could become the must-have item of every tiny home. Especially if all those mechanicals on the ceiling were hidden above a canopy.
4
@CS is a hanging bed any better than a Murphy bed though? (Genuine question - I've no experience of either).
1
@CS: is this in any way more efficient than the 100 year old idea for a "Murphy Bed" stored in the wall?
Murphy beds were the source of all kinds of humor in old silent movies, as comedians got stuck in them!
I can see endless new humor opportunities here!
Where oh where is the 21st century version of Woody Allen's "Sleeper"?
2
Poor brave new world... Everyday less human.
33
The room of the future is carpeted?
41
@E Sims--
I noticed that as well--you’d have to vacuum every time you raised the bed or have those bed outline marks to look at all day. And what do you do with the space if you haven’t jumped on the silly yoga bandwagon? And what if you want to lie down periodically? Up and down, up and down. Sounds like a pain.
3
Why would I want to lie in bed and stare at all that ugly equipment? No way. The zen of a space is totally destroyed with junk suspended all over the ceiling. I like to look up and see open space, not boxes and cables. And requiring electricity just to fall in bed when accelerating climate change means we need to lessen our energy dependence is gross negligence.
What a total waste of talent and resources when so many other real pressing problems are facing humanity. No one asked for or even needs this.
67
@left coast finch
I don't think I've laid in bed and stared at the ceiling since I learned to turn from my back to my stomach, which enabled me to pull myself somewhere else until I could go through the whole spectrum of standing, climbing, walking, and getting a book to read in bed.
Still. All they need to do is put a plate cover over it and then there is plenty of opportunity for artistic applications. Just like there are murals painted on ceilings. They moved one step ahead too fast in showing this. They should have called in some designers.
8
@left coast finch: perhaps this ethos is based on the idea that in the future we have endless FREE energy courtesy of solar and wind power?
2
@Concerned Citizen
Okay, you both, I see your points. Artwork to cover the machinery is a great idea but it won’t change the knowledge that machinery is still hanging above you as you sleep. I’d still worry a bit, especially when that initial tell-tale rolling shake of an earthquake tremor wakes me in the middle of the night. It takes just one small piece of metal to hit you in the eye to ruin your life.
And as for the endless solar power, yes! That’s totally possible and should be our future but we are not there yet. Why not just a great mechanical pulley system that only requires human power?
1
Pandering to a millenial demographic with a high level of disposable income, enough to live in the rarified atmosphere of San Francisco or Manhattan, this article is a signpost. It's dismissive of whatever came before, as all advertising since at least the 1920s has been. To everyone else in the USA who doesn't enjoy the intrusion of electronics into every intimate corner of our lives. What's next for people of my demographic, a glowing review of robotic undertakers and burials?
29
this is hilarious. millennials are living at home and delaying having children because we're broke from student loans. a very small percentage of us have any money. thank you boomers.
5
@gdf
Many boomers are getting by on little more than Social Security--we’re not all rich either.
2
@Pundette
Meanwhile, we Gen-Xers are sandwiched between two mammoth, entitled generations and ignored.