This flexible, customisable garden dwelling by Samara brings functionality to outside space

Design brand Samara has rethought the potential of a garden with Backyard, a new kind of tiny home or garden dwelling that converts the outside into a functional living space.

Designed to sit in your garden, Backyard is fully customisable and comes with a choice of studio and one-bedroom layouts. Customers can choose their own windows, doors and decks, and pick from five colours and two roofs, when creating their own flexible design. 

Crafted from durable materials and engineered and assembled in a factory, the structure is designed to last, and adheres to environmental concerns by cultivating enough solar energy to power itself.

Inside, an emphasis on space and light makes for a free-flowing layout, with high ceilings, a spacious bathroom, storage and oversized windows creating a calm environment for work or rest. Carefully considered details result in a thoughtful functionality, with a whisper-quiet central heating and cooling system ensuring a peaceful atmosphere. A kitchen with custom cabinetry makes for a pleasant place to cook.

Samara, the brainchild of Joe Gebbia and Mike McNamara, began as part of the internal innovation team at Airbnb in 2016, who still back it today, before moving out of the company and becoming its own standalone business. Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb before co-founding Samara, draws on a background in graphic design and industrial design, as well as time spent as an artist, to an aesthetic shaped by Jean Prouvé, Charles and Ray Eames and the Bauhaus movement. McNamara, head of Samara since 2020, brings a sharp business expertise honed at Airbnb and as CEO of Fortune 500 company Flex.

samara.com/backyard (opens in new tab)