What the House of the Future Will Look Like, Room by Room

“What the House of the Future Will Look Like, Room by Room”

J.S. Marcus

The Wall Street Journal

https://apple.news/AXK1a8aOARN2yAaIDQLkfzw

This material IS protected by copyright. All Rights Reserved.

Original Article

“The detached single-family house has been the great constant of American life, from the saltbox farmhouses of 17th-century New England to the modern mansions of 2020s suburbia. For much of that history, home design has followed a steady throughline: the desire for increased comfort, typically aided by advances in technology.

These days, the rise of artificial intelligence is on track to transform the American house yet again. Many experts predict a markedly automated future in the coming decades, with smart appliances increasingly talking to each other and any available wall sporting a giant screen.

To find out what it’s in store, we spoke to a range of architects, designers, manufacturers and others to find what the American home could be like 20 years from now.”

“Most broadly, professionals agree that what is luxurious today will be mainstream in the years ahead. Aspen-based architects John Rowland and Sarah Broughton, whose residential projects can have budgets upward of $50 million, use virtual reality when previewing designs to their clients, adding $100,000 or more for the privilege. But by the 2040s, says Rowland, the price of generating this feature, which can exactly simulate what a building will look like, will be standard for ordinary home buyers.”

“More specifically, design changes will start at the front door. Set aside your keys. Most of us will use keypads, or rely on sensors, cameras and AI to open our doors automatically. And technology is also set to transform home security systems, says Michael Short, vice president of marketing operations and residential at Crestron Electronics, a Rockleigh, N.J., company specializing in automation systems. “Before you even get to the door,” he says, “cameras will know it’s you,” and those AI-assisted cameras will also be able to distinguish between friends, family, deliveries and threats.”

“Ali Malkawi, a professor of architectural technology at Harvard, says our current underfloor heating systems, which use pipes of hot water as a heat source, will give way to walls that radiate heat, using new, thermally sensitive materials that invisibly run through construction materials. Homeowners can also expect AI that adjusts home temperatures by anticipating occupants’ activities, says Malkawi, and heating and cooling systems may even be talking to your neighbors’ systems, to maximize communitywide energy efficiency, he says.”

Throughout the house, LED lighting systems will be able to mimic the qualities of natural light and adjust over the course of the day, according to residents’ circadian rhythms. Now an exotic (and expensive) luxury, they will eventually be standard.

What’s cooking

Kitchens may undergo the biggest transformation.

Broughton says that advances in technology and the current trend for disguising appliances mean that “kitchens are going to visually disappear,” with appliances capable of being “packed up and tucked away, so you’re not living in your kitchen.”

“Janina Forberger, vice president in charge of design at Miele, a German appliance maker, also sees traditional kitchen elements largely vanishing or merging. She cites induction stoves. It’s increasingly possible, she says, for induction elements to be combined with other kinds of surfaces—meaning a countertop that doubles as a stove. “You will put a pot on your work top. It will heat up, and afterward, you can remove it—and chop your onions on the same surface.””

“There is a lot of buzz about AI-outfitted smart appliances, says Søren Rye, president and CEO of Miele USA. “Say you have some things in your refrigerator that are expiring in two days,” he says. The refrigerator won’t only alert you, but “come up with recipes that utilize them.””

“Bill Darcy, global president and CEO of the National Kitchen & Bath Association, a trade group, sees AI-assisted appliances “making shopping obsolete,” with the kitchen figuring out what you need, or might want—and then ordering and coordinating deliveries. And Chad Jasinski, a Saddle River, N.J., automation consultant, believes that robot-like assistance in the kitchen, which might fill refrigerators, empty dishwashers and even prepare food “is a totally doable reality” by 2050. ”

“The big screen"

The future is set to completely remake home cinemas and home entertainment, says Jasinski. “All the cool and fun stuff that everybody wants but nobody needs” will lead to LED “video walls” spread around the house, and LEDs that can give an ordinary floor, say, the temporary outline of a basketball court.”

“Bedrooms are also on track for technological upgrades, says Tim Dilworth, president of 3Z Brands, a Glendale, Ariz., mattress manufacturer. The ordinary bedroom mattress will likely keep its familiar rectangular shape, he says, but evolve to monitor your health with integrated sensors and adjust your sleeping temperature by incorporating new materials into the mattress.”

“The bedroom will also be the focus of new ways of purifying air. Broughton, who designs homes that pump oxygen into high-altitude bedrooms, thinks this feature will become standard in the future. And Crestron’s Short says that heating, cooling and ventilation systems will go far beyond temperature and humidity. After cleaning, he says, your house may be full of chemicals, but sensors will alert you and start removing them from the air.”

“The bathroom of the future will have “embedded levels of technology,” says Kohler’s design vice president Michael Seum. Bathrooms will become beauty and wellness consultants, advising homeowners on everything from their hydration levels to warning signs in their stool. The American bathroom, he says, will become “a health coach.” On a more mundane level—but perhaps a leap in reducing marital strife—he expects AI-assisted toilets to do tasks like automatically lift a toilet seat for a man.”

“Though taking a shower or having a bath might not change much, the water itself is set for a house-by-house upgrade, says Jasinski. In purifying and perfecting their homes’ water, he says, homeowners of the future will demineralize and remineralize what comes out of the tap, and then pump it full of oxygen.”

“Stepping back, the meaning of the home itself could change radically, Glenn Adamson, author of “A Century of Tomorrows,” says. “We’re going to have a more fluid relationship to housing,” he says, invoking the Zipcar model of car sharing and the Airbnb model of short-term rentals. “People will be much more migratory, and more interested in monetizing their real estate.” He believes “we’re going to have many more people that live in different places and are flitting around, renting here and renting out there.””

“Though made more possible and more desirable by the latest technology, this way of living also recalls the country’s origins, he says, when many otherwise-private homes doubled as de facto inns or outright boardinghouses. “Back in the 18th century,” he says, “we were used to the idea of people just kind of coming down the road and staying over.””

“What the House of the Future Will Look Like, Room by Room”

J.S. Marcus

The Wall Street Journal

https://apple.news/AXK1a8aOARN2yAaIDQLkfzw

This material IS  protected by copyright.  All rights reserved.

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