Taylor Morrison’s Ladera housing development in Bee Cave, Texas, looks like any other neighbourhood across the country from the outside. However, all buyers need to do is step inside to realize that the homes are something completely different. .The houses form part of a social community that Taylor Morrison calls interactive homes. In what is a first for builders, the revolutionary design of the homes is being crowdsourced through Pinterest. Ladera says that every house that exists on their development will have gotten some inspiration from the social based digital pin board site.
Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networks in the world and has ballooned to 16 million users, most of whom are women thanks to the beauty and inspiration sections. The entire site features compelling and beautiful photos of what people online want. When users find something they like, they pin it and in turn showcase the item to others and also let them know about their interests through their choices. It represents self expression in the most basic form.
As can be expected, many boards on the site contain design elements for homes and gardens. A marketing manager at Taylor Morrison named France, a Pinterest user, has a “My Next House…” pinboard. Her 77 pins and heavy use of the site inspired her to use the elements in the homes her company was making. She explains that, “We were doing our frame walk. We always pick out of floor plans and what we’re going to build before anything happens.” She continues, “We were walking through this house and got to the steps, and I said, ‘We’ve got to make that a children’s nook under the stairs,’ because I knew that we had to make it a functional space. I pulled the image up on my phone, and everybody agreed.”
She did the same for the kitchen and craft room by consulting her pinboard for inspiration. She adds that, “We’re showing people that they can have these homes. I think that’s what Pinterest does. Your hopes and dreams of what you could have or could create: We’re trying to make that a reality for people who can’t visualize it.”
Taylor Morrison now has plans to develop 260 houses in their neighbourhood with designs from Pinterest. The company is not taking any specialized requests but they believe that the fact that people will be able to see their dreams being developed will be a boost to business. France says that, “After years of hearing people say, ‘I wish you had done this’ or ‘I wish you had done that,’ this has helped create the solution. We’ve revamped a lot of our floor plans in the last two years basically to cater to all those requests.
“We made those decisions based on what’s popular and what these pinners are requesting. We could show that the room upstairs could be a study or craft room or baby’s room. These visuals help people move into them.”
Source: Mashable
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