Introducing the YO! Home. Basically, Simon Woodroffe has decided that it is time that we redesign the studio home in an affordable and ergonomic manner.

His concept is simple: rooms are “hidden”, but then appear at the touch of a button, or with the ease of sliding a panel from one side of the room to the other.

Your bedroom comes down from the ceiling, and your wine cellar from below the floor. Likewise, your full-size kitchen, sunken sitting room, bathroom, home cinema, workspace and “second” bedroom, all “appear”.

Said Woodroffe, a former a star of the BBC’s Dragon’s Den:

I think homes help shape our lives. They are our refuge, and our rock. Since the invention of the city centre apartment, we’ve never really re-invented it. YO! Home is that new invention.

Twelve moving parts draw on a wealth of engineering technology taken from fields as diverse as yacht and automotive design and the mechanics of stage production, allowing the transformation of an 80 sq/m space into a much bigger home.

The technologies we have used are already established in car design, super-yachts and theatre, their application in the home is long overdue.

His inspiration came from stage design, as well as Japanese living – where space comes at a premium.

Like we said in the headline, it’s one of those ideas that you wish you thought of.

The time-honoured architecture of the stage brings with it the basic principles of counter-weights and moving parts, allowing safe, easy and low-energy movement of large elements such as the bed and wall.

More high-tech elements, such as sensors and electronics, will make the concept easy to use and family-proof.

The price? Well that’s not available yet, but Woodroffe says it has to be affordable otherwise people might as well just buy a bigger home.

[Source: Yahoo]