A California startup is offering cocoon-like pods to allow 14 residents to share a single house as an escape from soaring rents and real estate prices
As rents and home prices soar to new heights, one California co-living startup is offering a novel sleeping-pod design to fit more residents into a single-family house.
Brownstone Shared Housing has two locations: the first is just minutes away from Stanford University in Palo Alto and houses 14, while the second sleeps 6 in central Bakersfield.
"We started with how can we house as many people as possible in an existing space in a way that preserves dignity and comfort and privacy," CEO James Stallworth, who co-founded the self-financed Brownstone with Christina Lennox, said in an interview with Insider.
What makes the concept different is the "fully equipped" sleeping pods that the company says are 40% larger than a traditional bunk bed.
The structure, custom-designed by Lennox, is crafted by a custom steel manufacturer before Lennox and Stallworth add the wood and electrical components themselves.
The cocoon-like quarters include power outlets, fold-down desks, lighting, and fans, and are larger than similar capsules found in some Japanese hotels.
