Figure A--The Monsanto Chemical Company, along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, premiered a house of the future at Disneyland in 1957. The home was made mostly of plastic, a high-tech building material at the time, and featured such space-age appliances as an "ultra-sonic dishwasher."
Figure B--Researchers at George Washington University are studying how environmental changes might affect the construction of houses of the future. The think-tank at GWU predicts that the world's population will stabilize at around 10 billion people, most of whom will live in industrial societies.
Figure C--The home of the future may look very much like today's homes, but what's underneath the shell is likely to undergo revolutionary changes. Most of those changes will be because of the rapidly increasing power of the computer. Computers double in capacity every 18 months, and by the middle of the 21st century, computers could be 8.5 billion times more powerful than those at the beginning of the century. Experts predict that specialized computers will be found in every room of the house in the near future, including the kitchen, children's rooms and living room.
Figure D--Architect Gisue Hariri envisions a home of the future in which computers are used not only as tools for building a home, but are also integral parts of a home's construction. Walls would be made from giant liquid-crystal display panels, allowing a "virtual chef" to assist with the preparation of dinner.
Figure E--Some clues as to what homes of the future might look like can be found in cutting-edge designs of the present, such as the steel and glass wonder that Southern California architect Ed Niles calls home.
Figure F--Niles deliberately eschews traditional elements in his designs, resulting in sharp-edged designs that are not for everyone's tastes. His philosophy is that no matter how creative an architect might be, nature is still a far more powerful creative force, so why design homes that mimic nature when they're doomed to be pale imitations of the real thing?
Figure G--Engineered lumber, polymers, quartz and rubber will join glass and steel as common materials in future houses. New materials will challenge designers to find new ways to build homes. Another change already taking place is the growing use of modular construction, in which large portions of a home are built in a factory, then transported to the building site, where they are assembled into a complete house.
Figure H--Designed by architect Clark Stevens, the Carlson Reges house is located in an industrial area near downtown Los Angeles. The home makes extensive use of recycled building materials, an idea that may become more mainstream as natural resources become depleted in the future.
Figure I--As envisioned by Phillips Electronics, the living room of the near future will still feature a large screen conveying information from the outside world, but electrical cords will disappear into the background. Music discs will be stored in a central location, and leather folders containing booklets from the discs will be used to play back selections.
Figure J--Future homeowners may not need to change homes to meet lifestyle changes. Architect Rex Beasley's "fluid architecture" designs adapt to a homeowner's needs by using rooms that expand or contract. The bedroom, for example, could slide out like a drawer and become part of the outdoors so the owner can enjoy the natural beauty that comes from living near a national forest.
Figure K--Perhaps the ultimate convenience item in the future will be a home robot. While they do not resemble the humanoid shape of science-fiction fantasy automatons, robots such as this vacuum cleaner are already at work today.
Figure L--Energy conservation will be a major goal of homebuilders in the 21st century, and one building material that may play a part has been around for decades. Structural insulating panels (SIPs) consist of a hard core of insulating foam surrounded by two layers of engineered wood. Homes constructed with SIPs are vastly more efficient than those built with traditional methods, but the high cost of the panels have limited their use thus far.
Figure M--Architect David Hertz paid close attention to efficiency when he built his California home. He made extensive use of a material he developed called Syndecrete, an advanced cement-based composite using natural minerals and recycled materials. The environmentally friendly material contains recycled industrial waste products such as metal shavings, plastics, recycled glass chips and scrap wood chips.
Resources Probable Tomorrows : How Science and Technology Will Transform Our Lives in the Next Twenty Years
by Dr. Marv Cetron and Owen Davies (contributor) (ISBN: 0312154291)
St. Martin's Press, 1997
Order this
title.
St. Martin's Press
175 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212-674-5151
Toll-free: 888-330-8477
Fax: 212-254-8175
E-mail:
inquiries@stmartins.com
Website:
www.stmartins.com
Guests Gisue Hariri
Architect, Hariri and Hariri-Architects
18 E. 12th St.
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 212-727-0338
Email:
hariri@spacelab.net
URL:
www.haririandhariri.com
George Beylerian
Founder, Material ConneXion
4 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-445-8825
Fax: 212-445-8950
Email:
info@materialconnexion.com
URL:
www.materialconnexion.com
Rex Beasley
President, Futurespace Corporation / Environmental Designer
1001 Main St.
Venice, CA 90291
Phone: 310-399-7186
Fax: 310-399-7286
Email:
rex@fs-c.com
David Hertz
Architect / Founder, Syndesis
Website:
www.syndesisinc.com
Neil Denari
Director, Southern California Institute of Archtecture
350 Merrick St.
Playa Del Rey, CA 90013
Phone: 213-613-2200
Fax: 213-613-2260
URL:
www.sciarc.edu/
Edward Niles
Architect/Designer
29350 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA 90265
Clark Stevens
Principal, RoTo Architects
600 Moulton Ave.
Suite 405
Los Angeles, CA 90031
Phone: 323-226-1112
Fax: 323-226-1105
Email:
roto@rotoark.com
URL:
www.rotoark.com
Dr. William Halal
Professor, George Washington University
Department of Management Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-5975
Fax: 202-994-4930
Email:
halal@gwu.edu
URL:
gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~halal/
Dr. Chris Luebkeman
Director of Research and Development, OveArup and Partners
13 Fitzroy St.
London, England
W1P 6PQ
Phone: 011-44-207-755-3003
Email:
chris.luebkeman@arup.com
URL:
www.arup.com/homepage.htm
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