Reconfiguring the Home: Co-Designing the Future of Adaptive Domestic Environments

Paper Title

Reconfiguring the Home: Co-Designing the Future of Adaptive Domestic Environments

Publication Info

• Topic area: Adaptive and reconfigurable domestic environments
• Keywords: Reconfigurable spaces, co-design, spatial HCI, adaptive environments, robotic furniture, human-computer habitation, domestic design, interactive systems, room-scale prototyping, participatory design

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Current research on reconfigurable domestic environments often focuses on discrete elements (e.g., furniture, walls) or specific scenarios, rather than holistic room-scale adaptability. There is limited understanding of how everyday users experience and negotiate reconfigurable spaces.
• Significance: As homes shrink and must accommodate diverse functions (e.g., work, rest, socializing), reconfigurable environments are critical for maximizing utility and supporting human needs in constrained spaces.
• Motivation and related work: Prior work in architecture and HCI has explored dynamic systems like robotic furniture and kinetic walls, but these often lack participatory insights into how users configure and experience such spaces. This paper addresses the gap by investigating the design space and lived experience of reconfigurable rooms through a full-scale, manipulable prototype.

Solution

• Proposed approach: The "Robot-Room" prototype—a full-scale, manually reconfigurable room used as a co-design instrument to explore spatial configurations and user experiences.
• Novelty:
  1. Development of a spatial design pattern catalogue for reconfigurable rooms.
  2. Identification of experiential themes related to reconfigurability, such as stability, personalization, and shared authority.
  3. Introduction of three affordance-based design dimensions: empowering vs. restrictive, utilitarian vs. hedonic, and futuristic vs. practical.
  4. Demonstration of agile, room-scale prototyping as a methodological approach for spatial HCI research.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted 12 co-design sessions with 30 participants using the Robot-Room prototype.
  • Participants engaged in brainstorming, bodystorming, and role-playing activities to explore room configurations.
  • Data analysis included annotated portfolios, inductive coding of interviews, and synthesis of spatial design patterns and experiential themes.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Eight spatial design patterns emerged, including the use of wall-floor junctures for functional furniture, corners as personal retreats, and central floors as versatile spaces.
  • Participants envisioned reconfigurations at both whole-room and furniture scales, supporting transitions like work-to-rest and individual-to-collaborative activities.
  • Five experiential themes were identified, such as the importance of stability, emotional anchors, and shared authority in reconfigurable environments.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Unlike prior work focused on discrete elements, this study provides a holistic understanding of room-scale adaptability and its experiential dimensions.
  • The use of a full-scale, manipulable prototype enabled embodied exploration, revealing insights not accessible through digital simulations or small-scale models.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Sessions involved 30 university students (22 females, 8 males; mean age 21.1) who lived in small, shared spaces.
  • Participants physically manipulated the prototype to create and reconfigure room layouts, followed by reflective interviews.
  • Data analysis included clustering design outcomes, coding interview transcripts, and generating a heat map of preferred reconfigurable surface locations.
• Limitations and future work:
  • The prototype lacked embedded sensing and actuation, limiting insights into automated interactions.
  • The participant pool was primarily university students, excluding other demographics like families or older adults.
  • Future work will involve higher-fidelity prototypes with sensing and actuation, and studies with diverse user groups and intact households.

Summary

This study introduces the Robot-Room prototype as a tool for exploring the design and experience of reconfigurable domestic environments. Through co-design sessions with 30 participants, the authors identified spatial design patterns, experiential themes, and affordance-based design dimensions that inform the development of adaptive spaces. The findings highlight the importance of balancing flexibility with stability, personalization, and user control. While the study focused on manual reconfiguration, future work will integrate sensing and actuation to explore automated interactions. This research advances the field of spatial HCI, providing a foundation for designing interactive, human-centered reconfigurable environments.