Architectural models as part of the Backyard prototype. Courtesy of Samara

A leader in the home-sharing industry, Airbnb has big ambitions, two months ago the company announced new initiatives aimed at the corporate travel market, and in 2016 Airbnb built a community center in a small Japanese town as the first project of its “innovation lab” called Samara. Today, the company announced Backyard, an ambitious but so far vague new project from Samara.

Backyard is “an endeavor to design and prototype new ways of building and sharing homes.” Airbnb wants to use sophisticated manufacturing techniques, smart-home technologies, and its experience in the vacation rental industry to “reimagine the design of homes”...