FREEING UP FLOOR SPACE
As we’re all currently spending a great deal more time at home, the idea of freeing up more floorspace sounds very appealing — particularly if you live in small quarters. The answer lies in the ceiling, says Sankarshan Murthy, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Bumblebee Spaces, whose company has received a lot of attention lately for its voice-activated modular-design system that stores your home’s furniture and accessories — from bed to desk to closet to kitchen utensils — in the ceiling; with these items dropping down only when needed.
“When you’re working, you just need your desk. You don’t need your bed, or nightstand or dresser. You can make them all disappear and just be single-minded about working,” Murthy says. “When you’re working out, you can have everything else out of the way and just think about doing that. When you’re sleeping, you can just have your bed and nothing else. It gives you this peace of mind that you’re not living in stuff.”
Murthy was previously an engineer at Apple and Tesla, but says he’s always been interested in the home space. Like many design innovations, Bumblebee Spaces was inspired by a personal frustration, says Murthy, in moving from the
U.S. east coast (Maryland) to the west coast (San Francisco) and having to make do with less space.
“What you paid for a two- or three-bedroom home would only get you a one-bedroom or studio on the west coast, and the houses aren’t any better in any manner,” he says. “They’re made from the same drywall and concrete; there’s nothing new about them. You just pay for the location.”
With a growing family and parents coming to visit, Murthy saw he needed a really big space only for a short duration. Inspired by the kids cartoon Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (most parents can relate), Murthy started prototyping a new kind of floor plan, in his home garage.
“I started thinking about how Mickey’s clubhouse transforms from a cooking space to Minnie’s showroom, and very soon I realized that before you can move rooms, you need to move shoes, clothes, cellphones out of the way,” he says.
The ceiling is truly dead space, says Murthy, and Bumblebee Spaces unlocks it, while also “liberating the walls,” which creates better air circulation in the house. And with less furniture and clutter in the space there’s more natural light, he says.
The company’s modular system works with any nine foot or higher ceilings which meet standard building codes, says Murthy. Bumblebee uses anchors to distribute the weight evenly across the whole ceiling, and then with a retrofitted furniture fixture (that takes up about a foot in depth), the modules are added in.
The software created for Bumblebee also allows people insights into what they’re using in their homes and what they’re not, he says, because the patterns of use become obvious.
“It changes the way you think about possessions, because you think about, ‘Oh my goodness, I haven’t used this for this long. My child hasn’t played with this toy for however long,’” Murthy says.
The newer Bumblebee modules include desks that come down as total work stations, says Murthy, on which you can leave everything out — from pen, to computer, etc.
“It only comes down when needed. So when you want the desk you have a hundred per cent of that, but when you don’t need it, you have zero per cent of that item occupying a footprint,” he says.
Ultimately, Bumblebee is a “space” company, says Murthy, because that’s what it’s giving people.
“When you have space, your mental space is better. You can do things, you can move around, you can jump around, you can have a life without your things getting in the way,” he says.
There are also financial benefits to living in smaller spaces, says Murthy.
“Every month where does most of your money go? Rent or mortgage. And if you can really make a difference to that every month, it has a ripple effect,” he says.