THE MAGAZINE FOR THE PROPERTY INDUSTRY
YO! HOME Simon Woodroffe, the man behind YO! Sushi, reckons he could be about to revolutionise the apartment for the first time since its invention.
Also inside... Andy Donnell talks about his vision and ambitions for Westway Services in pioneering the Technical Building Services sector
PROCUREMENT FOR ALL PAGE 48
COSTA COFFEE PAGE 54
ISSUE 410
PROPERTYAND DEVELOPMENT
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12 PROPERTY AND DEVELOPMENT Housing: YO! Home
REDEFINING
HOMES YO Home! provides individuals with an innovative, articulate and flexible living space to refine and redefine what a “home” represents.
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Following on from the success of YO! Sushi and YOTEL, YO! Home emerged as a creation from Simon Woodroffe. Aiming to transform the way in which people live, YO! Home provides individuals with an innovative, articulate and flexible living space to refine and redefine what a “home” represents. Originally established at the 100% Design London show, YO! Home uses a specialised counterweighting system reminiscent of theatre staging to allow for innovation and space utilisation in a way never thought possible. Through the use of moving elements, YO! Home allows for the “hiding” of spaces, rooms or concepts in an overarching “cleanly” designed space, thus maximising the overall utilisation of space while providing a sense of artistic perfection. Focusing on the future and futuristic technology, YO! Home looks provide technological developments to even the building industry, comparing the evolution of building techniques and designs to electric auto-guidance cars, personal planes and many other originally thought “impossible” concepts that are now developing into obtainable products. “The future is unfolding at a quantum rate now and you will see things that we cannot even imagine, so why not the building industry? YO! Home is just one of many of the world’s techno developments – as the song says you do what you do and Que Sera Sera, whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours to see!” Exclaims Simon.
Reminiscent of the company’s esteemed foundation, Simon Woodroffe explains: “Soon after we opened YOTEL, four years ago I started thinking about YO! Home, and what it would be, but got caught up in other things. Then after New York – our 700 bed hotel there – opened, I thought , ‘well this is establishing itself - maybe now is the time’, and I got out my pen and paper out, and started doodling, which led fairly quickly, with the help of first John Ruddlesdin a super-yacht designer and then Georgina Cox, who does interiors of yachts, to a prototype that we launched at 100% Design in September, 2012. Since then we have been working through the 101 things that you do and come up against when developing something new, with our architects Glenn Howells Architects, and Sam Curson, another yacht designer. My time in theatre as a young man and designing stage sets for Rock Shows in the ‘70’s and 80’s taught me a lot about moving parts and especially about counterweights which is how the Victorians did theatrical magic tricks and how we have been able to lift the bedroom away in YO! Home.” Simon, who is and always has been an innovator, inventor and developer of new ideas, takes his time when bringing his ideas to fruition so that there are no mistakes and every box has been successfully ticked. This approach has allowed YO! Home to develop with little to no challenges within the market, however the need to “try and test” the successfulness of designs was made immediately obvious so as to promote individuals in repeating the immortal words: “This is so
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14 PROPERTY AND DEVELOPMENT Housing: YO! Home obvious, why didn’t someone do this before?” Explains Simon, whose ideas are borderline revolutionary, yet simultaneously elegant in their simplicity and straightforwardness: “I would be a fool to say I knew how big this could be, but anyway, for the first one there are enough Austin Powers out there to get going and the price is right too – you could say this is Candy Brothers for everyone.” Having spotted a severe gap in the market for the reinvention of the traditional city-centre apartment, YO! Home enables individuals to have double, triple or even quadruple both the usable and perceived space by transforming the footprint of apartments into wall-free, yet divided activity areas for differing pursuits and purpose. This is accomplished through innovative and creative design for space utilisation on a similar level to that used in the automotive sector. “I set to and developed a whole series of moving devices so that one space using nearly the whole footprint of the apartment (other than the bathroom) can be transformed into different activity areas without walls,” explains Simon.
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Continuing the ever-prominent goal of the YO! Company brands, YO! Home aims to provide innovation and quality at a low cost easily achievable by the mass market, which Simon explains as: “Giving to everyone what rich people have.” With even the possibility of student accommodation and low cost homes being a prevalent option for the future development of YO! Home, Simon is determined to make his designs and solutions available to everyone with a keen artistic eye and a need to develop their current living space into what will come to be known as the modern living solution. Working with Urban Plash founder, Tom Bloxham, Simon aims to confirm an official partnership to take YO! Home to the next level, delivering powerful messages across the world and giving people a true taste of the future. Though the deal has not yet been confirmed, Simon is eager to begin work with Tom, whom he has the utmost respect for: “He is an innovator and knows the power of delivering quality at the right price to his audience. We are currently building the production prototype and from there using modern Pre-Fab which has at last come of age, so we can move very quickly to build anywhere in the UK or indeed the world,” explains Simon,
who is resolute in the use of pre-fabricated units which will essentially improve speed, quality control and overall safety during projects: “After years of talking about it, Pre-Fab of buildings in the modern age are coming, so the timing is good – never be too far ahead of the game has been a motto of mine but be ready when it comes.” In supporting low-cost homes and technological innovation, Simon and YO! Home truly open up the modern living solutions to the future, thus proving both himself and the company as pioneers of technologically inspired building and space solutions. For those with an eye for innovation, keen an eye on the YO! brands. www.yo.co.uk