Kumo Homes

Collaborative Living

    Kumo Homes is a service for connecting owners of empty spaces with graduates looking for affordable living in London. Modular-personalised building-blocks transform the unused space into live-able homes, without the need of permanent structural changes to the building. The transformed space promotes collaborative living to enable a unique lifestyle that is beneficial for all.

    Kumo Homes is an online platform which allows graduates to find affordable living in London. The graduates can join a community of like minded group to create their own space within a disused property. Depending on how much they are willing to spend, they are able to flexibly modify the size of their "room" and morph it to use the space in a more communal way depending on the time of day. All bathroom utilities are provided through modular services that are currently available. The modular wall panels are integrated with lighting and some with heating.
    We partner with owners of warehouses and disused spaces to provide them with an opportunity to temporarily convert their space into habitable buildings. Without our service this is difficult for them because there are no utilities in industrial buildings for living in. After inspecting the building, and having confirmed the bookings, we are able to transport the modular blocks for the graduates to build on arrival.

    The online platform also aims at kick starting and provide a boost for the graduate's careers by creating collaborative knowledge sharing. The platform also allows for enhanced money saving by simplifying collaborative consumption and creating a sharing ecosystem for a community of trusted Kumo Citizens.


Royal College of Art
IDE
Collaborators   Julian Melchiorri + Peter Spence + Ashley Wiltshire

Duration   2 months

Date   Oct. 2013



About

  Yuki is an Innovation Designer and Technologist working on creating products and experiences that create positive futures. He is a Design Researcher at the EPFL+ECAL Lab, where he is working on Digital Innovation to bring emerging technologies from the research labs at EPFL to people who need it. Yuki is a graduate from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, holding an MA and MSc in Innovation Design and Engineering and an MEng in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently pursing a Masters of Advanced Studies at EPFL and ECAL in Design Research in Digital Innovation. He is passionate about using Design Thinking and Human Centred Design to create positive impact. Since his childhood he was inspired by technology and design. He is also interested in start-ups and getting new ideas to market. He is a Design London Fellow, which allowed him to attend Executive MBA lectures at Imperial Business School and to work on projects along side MBA students. With the Lines team he was fortunate to attend the European Innovation Academy and the Intel Make it Wearable Challenge to learn about patents, marketing, business and design.