If you could design a house for 2050, what kind of innovative ideas would you include?
I would like to see a digital music system that has speakers in all parts of the house, including garage, garden and shed. All controlled by a handset. So if you want to listen to MP3 tracks in the bathroom this can be keyed in, while simultaneously listening through the same system digital radio in kitchen. While listening to another station in garden.
You might say just get seperate radios, and systems as we do now, but there needs this development to provide the same quality, reception and ability to increase or decrease the controls from this one handset.
Don't tell me it already exists....
(This design idea is being run by the University of Essex as part of National Science Week, and have aimed this project at school kids in particular, but why should they have all the fun?)
It does already exist Ossie, sorry. It's my next toy on my list of 'swanky' gadgets. Bang & Olufsen do the best looking setup and they will install it all for you.
I think that fibreoptics in walls is something for 2050 design, ie. you can change the colour of your walls at the touch of your remote according to your mood. Ive seen a place with it already but think it will be standard practice in 2050.
I would love not to have to plug things in and have wires trailing all over the place. I know that you can have wireless computer systems and no doubt other high tech items but I mean everything - lamps, vacuum cleaners, TVs, irons etc etc.
Some device that changes quilt covers automatically. This is one of the few household chores I still struggle with! Maybe its something that men just struggle with!
I am tired, I am weary. I could sleep for a thousand years.
Something which sorts all of your rubbish into the right types e.g. your kitchen waste goes onto your compost heap, your papers go into the recycling box, your aluminium cans get crushed etc.
Also a system which minimises energy usage - e.g. automatic lights which go on and off when you enter a room, switches everything off rather than standby etc.
I'd also like to see all houses designed with some form of renewable energy e.g. solar panels, wind turbines etc.
Basically, I'd like to see more environmentally friendly houses.
Maybe a house with some sort of high-tech letterbox – function would be: (a) to accept packages / groceries / goods ordered over the Internet in a secure way while the owner is out; and (b) to work as a filter (a sort of TPS for your letterbox) rejecting junk mail and advertising leaflets. There is obviously some scope for incorporating various upgrades – a cat flap function would seem obvious .
I think another interesting question is whether we would be happy with houses as consumer products, i.e. more like cars, kitchens, and TVs - think maybe Ikea flat pack, or prefabricated systems based on bolting together specialized modules - that you throw away and replace every few years, or whether there still merit in the idea of something more permanent that is repaired and patched over a long period. Essentially two different outlooks on owning things – are houses different from ordinary consumer items?
Wow there are some brilliant ideas, I particularly like the fibre optic walls.
I wonder whether these walls could also change into full size 'pictures of pleasure', I could see lounge furniture changing towards the beach style if the image placed you on a sun soaked beach with lapping waves and a gentle breeze blowing through the palm trees. Or is this too much like Star Trek TNG's Visualisation Room.
I wonder too whether security might play a heavy role in the house of the future with those horrible 'Panic Rooms', I hope not.
I do like the way however the internet is now being introduced into the kitchen. Today I was offered an 'internet ready microwave oven' to download recipes. I wonder whether in time we might see microwaves with a mini-(Star Trek) transporter in it so you call up the recipe and it magically materialises cooked in the oven ready to eat?
Originally posted by MattW: Some device that changes quilt covers automatically. This is one of the few household chores I still struggle with!
Turn the quilt cover inside out and put your arms inside, grabbing the top corners. Then grab the top of the quilt with your cover-covered hands and shake it down the quilt to turn it the right way out.
That is really, really badly described but it does work.
Originally posted by MattW: Some device that changes quilt covers automatically. This is one of the few household chores I still struggle with!
Turn the quilt cover inside out and put your arms inside, grabbing the top corners. Then grab the top of the quilt with your cover-covered hands and shake it down the quilt to turn it the right way out.
That is really, really badly described but it does work.
Thanks Joolz! . I really do have something a Homer Simpson moment when it comes to changing the quilt covers.
I am tired, I am weary. I could sleep for a thousand years.
Ikea duvet covers have little gaps in the top seams to put your hands through. Pull through the 'rabbits ears' tuck the other corners in and shake. Easy!
----------------------------- Lift up the receiver I'll make you a believer
I'm all for high-tech gadgets, but I'd rather that houses of the future are first a little better made than those of today. For starters, I'd love a house with concrete first floor (no creaky floorboards). High pressure hot water system would be good too. These things seems to be prefectly normal in other countries and I'm amazed that they're not normal building practice here
Originally posted by Ossie: I would like to see a digital music system that has speakers in all parts of the house...Don't tell me it already exists.
Not only does it already exist, but my parents had something very similar in their house when they had it built...in 1978! Admittedly it was radio only, and with no remote control, but there was a central control panel in the kitchen and speakers in every room which you could turn on or off depending on if you were in the room. Very futuristic at the time and a great talking point!
Just thought having been there and done that, lost keys.
How about designing into the house of the future locking mechanisms activated by eye and finger print recognition. No more keys hidden under those realistic (not) rocks.
Just catching up reading this forum and thought i'd reply - better late etc.
The house of 2050 will be exactly the same as today, look back a similar timescale and see the 'ideas' that were going to be the 'house of the future' Gadgets, yes. We are a consumer society so gadgets are a must but this is not architecture.
Anyway, in the future although houses will 'look' the same they will be made from Structural Insulated Panels (SIP's), these are super insulated 'tight' structures that require minimum energy consumption. Energy costs in 2050?.... now theres a good topic.
Originally posted by Ossie: Just thought having been there and done that, lost keys.
How about designing into the house of the future locking mechanisms activated by eye and finger print recognition. No more keys hidden under those realistic (not) rocks.
I found a solution to this problem at the NEC Smart Home Show last weekend. It was a remote house central locking system that take away all requirements for keys! It uses the same principle as car central locking, can be retro fitted to all properties, is wireless and apparantly easy to fir. And also links to a dialler unit which unlocks your front door for you with your mobile phone!
Interesting idea, but I can immediately see two problems. First, the key fob is actually more bulky that a house key... And second, the codes transmitted by key fobs can be ‘seen’ by anyone with a scanner, and although these are disguised by a crude random sequence, there are plenty of people around that know how to decode it. And you would need to carry a manual backup key anyway, in case of a power cut.
Originally posted by phugoid: Interesting idea, but I can immediately see two problems. First, the key fob is actually more bulky that a house key... And second, the codes transmitted by key fobs can be ‘seen’ by anyone with a scanner, and although these are disguised by a crude random sequence, there are plenty of people around that know how to decode it. And you would need to carry a manual backup key anyway, in case of a power cut.
I thought exactly the same, and asked them those questions at the NEC. Their answers were as follows:
The system can not be scanned into. This is because the software they use is actually from the European Military, and they pay commission to them on all sales they make. It is also a three way communication. You press the key fob, it then asks the main door to unlock. The main door sends a calculation to the key fob to work out. It then has to give the main door the correct answer. There is then 1.3 billion diffenent combinations too. If you scanned into the system you would only get the answer to the previous sum so the door wouldn't open! It's appartently more secure than all car locking systems.
The system is battery opperated, so power cuts would not be an issue. The batteries last for two years. Then for the last month each time you use the key fob it beeps for five minutes to let you know that you need to change the batteries.
You also don't have to use the key fob. You can always use the dialler unit, which unlocks your door with your mobile phone!
Ah, it looks like they’ve done it properly, with a challenge-response type cryptosystem - this will be much more secure than a standard key fob, but then the ‘bad guys’ are quite clever as well. It all depends on the length of the ‘key’, and a commercial version might be temped to use a shorter one so that the engineer could still get in if there was a problem.
My houses of the future would all be built with lower ground floor accomodation and this is where the bedrooms would be. I can't think why builders don't do this more already - in my previous multi-level flat the bedrooms were in the basement where it was lovely and snug in winter and blissfully cool in summer. I never had any problem sleeping during heatwaves unlike my exhausted colleagues! I know you could argue than air con would solve this, but basement bedrooms are a more 'green' option don't you think?
Marksm – You appear to be promoting this diy2go central locking product on the “Profit from Property” forum, and have incorporated into your sales pitch, exactly word-for-word, the favourable part of my comment above, but, oddly, claim that it’s what the company told you in response to your question at the NEC exhibition. The diy2go website only gives a vague and unconvincing account of the technology, so we don’t actually know what sort of cryptosystem it uses.
You also say that “some security companies ... give discount premiums for using it” but the FAQ in the diy2go website only goes as far as saying that they are “currently in negotiation with leading insurance companies”, not quite the same thing.
And what about the Victorian conservatory you claim to have purchased from diy2go and had installed by a builder? Will you be telling us how good your new teak garden furniture is, and how well it complements your new flatbed gas BBQ?
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