There’s a new amenity being offered for apartment dwellers in Bridge Park in Dublin — a robotic furniture system that allows a bed to be hidden and converted into a living area with a touch of a button.
The system, made by Massachusetts-based Ori, Inc, will also be available in the 11-story building planned for the corner of South High and West Cherry streets Downtown.
“We’re doing a pilot program where we are testing pre-production units with real renters, and Crawford Hoying is our partner in Columbus,” said Ori CEO and Founder Hasier Larrea.
Crawford Hoying is the developer of Bridge Park and of the Downtown project, known as Cherry and High.
The Ori unit was recently installed in a Bridge Park model apartment, where potential renters can check it out for themselves.
“We plan to have as many people go through it as possible in next few months, both to gauge interest and to start to figure out how much to rent it for here.” said Allison Srail of Crawford Hoying. “We were in the early stages of the High and Cherry project when we connected with Ori…we already had micro-units planned, but we made some changes to the floor plan to better accommodate the system.”
The tweaks included moving a kitchen island that had served as a room divider off to the side, because “the Ori acts as that room divider, and allows for a better utilization of the space than an immobile system,” added Srail.
Larrea said that the final launch for the product is scheduled for later this year. For now it is only being offered to real estate developers, not to individual condo owners, although that could change in the future.
“It’s a win-win situation,” he added, “the renter gets an upgraded studio – something that almost functions as a one-bedroom – for a price that’s closer to a studio, and the developer is getting more price per square foot.”
The latest Ori model is the result of years of development and testing, most recently by Airbnb renters in Boston.
“The design is based on three big problems people have with studio apartments,” said Larrea. “The division of space (especially with couples sharing a studio), the bed being in the way, and a lack of storage.”
Srail said that Crawford Hoying has 20 of the units on pre-order, and “as they bring production up, we look forward to seeing how many more we can find places for.”
“The future is now,” said Larrea, “the more scarce and expensive apartments are, the more sense it makes for technology like this.”
For more information, visit www.crawfordhoying.com.
