Innovative News

9 October 2009

Redifining the House of the Future

Posted by Terry under: Economy; Energy; Home .

Picking up a book called “Weird Florida” while on vacation there, I came across the story of the former Xanadu house in Kissimmee, Florida. The Xanadu House, reportedly named for the summer residence of Kublai Khan, was the brain child of builder Bob Masters and architect Roy Mason.

Masters was primarily concerned with showcasing his technique for rigid foam construction, but Mason’s vision of the future turned the unusual show-house into a tourism phenomenon, attracting more than 1,000 visitors a day at its peak.

Apart from its unusual domed shapes, the house was filled with the latest in technology items and connected together in ways that only a visionary could have foreseen at the time. The 6,200 square foot house had fifteen rooms; of these the kitchen, party room, health spa, and bedrooms all incorporated computers and other electronic equipment into their design. The intent was to show how technology would make the house of the future a truly wonderful place to live.

The kitchen was run by “autochef”, an electronic dietitian which planned and automatically cooked meals. Food could be ordered via a theoretical tele-shopping system, inventories kept on the kitchen computer. Other computers ran the household calendar, records, and home bookkeeping. A living-room sofa was connected to a computer that could act as an impromptu psychotherapist and the home office featured access to e-mail, stock quotes and news - virtually unknown at the time.

The Xanadu house got me thinking about how we envision the “House of the Future” now as compared to what we saw back then.

The early 1980’s was a time of big dreams for technology. The personal computer was only a few years old, and the promise of ever-more-powerful hardware and software to lighten the domestic burden was in full swing. It’s no wonder that the house attracted so many visitors. Homeowners were anxious to find out how technology was going to make their lives easier in the coming years.

Five decades before Xanadu House, at the 1933 Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition at the Chicago World’s fair, the country was introduced to air conditioning, forced air heating, circuit breakers and electric eye doors. The exhibition focused mainly on materials, such as molded masonry and other pre-fab techniques. Technology didn’t play a large role in the display, with a helicopter pad winning the award for the most futuristic concept.

The depression-era Exhibition at the World’s Fair was highlighted by the themes of affordability and rapid construction, rather than fancy displays of technology.

Flash forward again to the mid 1990’s and Microsoft’s Home of the Future. Started as a project to stimulate internal and partner product development, by 2006 the model home had become a mish-mash repository for all of the promised technology of the 1980’s.

A 2006 Seattle PI article noted: “Nearby, in the teenager’s room, a projection system simulates digital wallpaper that displays a multiwall collage of images that can be posted using a hand-held computer. When Grandma visits, the walls can be changed quickly to reflect her color choices and photos. In another adaptation, the walls display icons for different online services that can be browsed and accessed by twisting a motion-sensitive orb. A play area includes a computer that senses, through RFID tags, when a toy is returned to the proper bin — awarding points when a child cleans up the room”.

Meanwhile down in California, Sunset magazine and Popular Science were riding the real estate wave to showcase their “House of Innovation.” Opened on Sept. 8, 2006 in Alamo, CA, the 6,500 sq. ft., five-bedroom house included such necessities as the GE Monogram collection of cooking appliances, a Slingbox, so you can watch your home’s TV while you’re on the road and a Crestron Adagio system so that you can listen to six different music sources in six zones of the house. The $5.5 million home included rooftop solar panels as a nod to sustainability.

The Xanadu promise of “making life easier” had turned into one of “making life overly-complicated”. The evolution of the house of the future, it seemed, had run out of ideas for simplifying and had gone full bore into exploring the fantasy worlds of techno-geekdom, far beyond the needs and utility of the average citizen.

Nearly three years forward from the ongoing real estate crash it’s time for builders and developers, architects, technologists and visionaries to reassess their idea of what constitutes today’s “House of the Future”. Without a doubt our priorities have changed, some of them by desire and some of them out of necessity. Whatever the underlying reasons, it’s clear that yesterday’s Future Home no longer captures the hearts and minds of today’s home-buyer.

So, if you were building a House of the Future today, what would it look like?

Smaller - small means less of everything. Less resources, less waste, less energy use and for the beleagured buyers less maintenance.

Sun - homes that don’t incorporate the use of the sun for passive heating, hot water and energy should be a thing of the past.

Earth - take advantage of the earth’s natural ability to regulate temperature, especially in extreme climates.

Water - rainwater catchment for the household and grey-water reuse for plants and gardens.

Locally obtained materials - homes made from local resources are always best, whether it’s wood, stone or dirt.

Reclaimed or sustainable materials - whatever can’t be obtained locally should be low-impact.

Zero-energy footprint - there’s plenty of incentives, both monetary and socially to self-generate.

High efficiency - doors, windows, appliances and lighting need to be highly efficient, even when you can afford more power.

Low water landscaping - junk the lawns and put in native plants, xeriscapes, or better yet - put in a garden.

Connected - being green doesn’t mean being a caveman, but technology should be deployed where it makes sense. Forget the refrigerator computers and put in fiber to each room so owners can junk their Wifi.

The best part about our House of the Future is that you can build it today. It doesn’t take $5 million dollars to realize a dream home that not only makes economic sense for it’s owner, but makes sense for the future of neighborhoods, cities and the planet.