What’s Happening: The Airbnb founder has launched Samara, a startup that aims to provide high-design prefab accessory dwelling units, also known as ADUs. But with prices starting at $299,000, will the venture make a dent in California’s housing crisis?

The Download: California is suffering from extreme homelessness and overcrowding. In particular, Los Angeles recently counted 15,000 chronically unsheltered individuals—a figure forecasted to double over the next two years. In 2017, to help combat the issue, the state enacted legislation that overhauled barriers to residential permits that have long contributed to the state’s drastic housing shortage. The program legalized the creation of accessory dwelling units—commonly known as ADUs—that are small-scale, standalone residences built on properties zoned for single-family homes. Within a short amount of time, the state received more than 1,900 applications for ADU approval. Since then, building permits for ADUs in Los Angeles have tripled and now comprise a staggering one-fifth of permits issued for all homes.

Now, a new startup launched by Airbnb founder Joe Gebbia is getting involved. The venture, named Samara, plans to sell factory-produced prefab units to homeowners with the extra space. Starting prices for Samara’s initial range of ADUs, called Backyard, range from $299,000 for 430-square-foot studios to $339,000 for 550-square-foot one-bedroom units in the Bay Area, with lower prices in Southern California.

Each home is equipped with rooftop solar panels that generate more electricity than they use, which CEO and co-founder Mike McNamara described as a high priority in the design process. “Our first step toward sustainable energy production is to not use very much,” he tells Fast Company. “So, first, we made it really tight, really well-engineered, and really efficient.”

Samara began as an innovation lab inside Airbnb that ideates new products in pursuit of social change. Gebbia had long wanted to build ADUs on his land, but wasn’t impressed by any options on the market. Witnessing the grave condition of California’s housing crisis compelled Gebbia, who departed Airbnb in July, to explore designing and building tiny homes full-time. “It got to the point where we both realized this needs to be an independent company,” Gebbia told the Wall Street Journal. While Samara is an independent startup, Airbnb still owns a minority stake.

Skeptics have noted Backyard’s vaguely Scandinavian minimalist design scheme bears a resemblance to Airbnb stock images. With prices starting at $299,000, a rate still high for the unhoused, it remains to be seen whether Samara’s design-forward dwellings will help solve the problem. While accommodating relatives or complete strangers is indeed an option, Samara has also pitched its prefabs as suitable for a wide range of uses, such as secluded home offices or creative studios for the remote work crowd. The units also look like they’d be great Airbnbs, leading some to criticize Gebbia as “capitalizing on the problem” his former company exacerbated in the first place.

Samara is also hardly the first company venturing into the ADU market and faces steep competition, especially in California. Cottage, Adobu, Rent the Backyard, Homestead, and even Dwell magazine have entered the space after state lawmakers passed new regulations facilitating greater housing density, homeowners associations be damned. The state even launched a program offering a variety of pre-approved single-family ADUs designed by esteemed architects in order to fast-track securing construction permits, a months-long process often mired in red tape. It seems to be getting results: California issued nearly 20,000 building permits for ADUs in 2021, up from a mere 1,160 in 2016.

In Their Own Words: “California’s just a glaring opportunity,” McNamara says. “There aren’t enough housing units, and the cost of housing is extremely high. We have to find ways to get more units to the people and we have to find ways to get more units more approachable in price. So, that one is already here.”

Surface Says: Tiny homes addressing the housing crisis seem well and good on paper, but something tells us homeowners with the extra cash lying around will likely install ADUs for their own needs or to create Airbnbs—not long-term rentals.

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Though she never formally studied ceramics, Ellen Pong approaches crafting sculptural furniture with an experimental edge, often bringing unexpected materials into the mix and conjuring sensations felt within the arboreal wilderness of the Pacific Northwest where she grew up. The Queens-based designer’s latest pieces, an eclectic yet cohesive array of tables, mirrors, and lighting on view at Superhouse Vitrine, translates these memories into physical form, their hallucinatory textures evoking tree bark, mossy rocks, and frosty pathways.

Depicting a family overlooking a cliff as electricity surges through the sky, one of the Haitian artist’s most personal canvases yet reveals the dual anxiety and optimism felt after welcoming a child during a period of uncertainty.

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Bio: Didier William, 39, Philadelphia.

Title of work: Just Us Three (2021).

Where to see it: The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, until April 16.

Three words to describe it: New parent life.

What was on your mind at the time: This painting takes a bit of segue from the other works. My husband and I became parents almost exactly in line with the pandemic. The date marked as a kind of national shutdown was March 13. Our daughter was born April 22. In many ways, pandemic life and new parenthood has been wholly inseparable from one another. The more I thought about the past year and a half—the isolation, fear, anxiety, joy, relief, and fatigue—I wanted to think generously about how the complexity of that experience might be imaged.

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Fashion brands have embraced web3 in recent years, with Puma, Adidas, and Gucci all experimenting with NFTs as membership programs for perks, freebies, and exclusive access to new launches. Nike has been eyeing it since at least 2019 when it secured a patent for blockchain-linked sneakers called CryptoKicks. The sportswear giant acquired RTFKT—the virtual fashion maker founded by Benoit Pagotto, Chris Le, and Steven Vasilev—two years later, making Nike’s investment the largest of its peers.

Besides launching NFT footwear such as the Nike Dunk Genesis CryptoKicks with RTFKT, Nike has been fairly quiet about its web3 projects. That changed earlier this week when the brand announced the new virtual platform Swoosh. Though Nike’s plans are still largely under wraps, it teased something called “creator challenges” that will award winners with the opportunity to collaborate with Nike’s creative team to design virtual collections and earn royalties from sales. Another potential feature is a safe and reliable resale market that protects against some of the fraud seen on exchanges like OpenSea. The new offering is aimed at the “web3 curious” rather than those already in the space.

SP01 is an Australian design brand with a global outlook. Featuring a collection of beautifully detailed, hand-finished furniture and accessories, SP01 works with talented designers from around the world who share a passion for honest design, high-quality materials, and attention to detail. SP01 is made 100 percent in Italy by leading manufacturers.

Surface Says: SP01 fuses Australian spirit with Italian know-how, creating refreshingly attractive, practical furniture.

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