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Reconfigurable, Modular Dream Home
ssyladin writes: "CNN is reporting a new dream cyber home being designed by the Brits for use in Hong Kong. It combines smart home technologies of touch panels for lights, heating, water taps, with the ability to move the interior wall partitions around with a basic toolbox and about a half day of labor. No more LAN parties in the garage! The homes can also be built faster and with less waste too. Bit skimpy on the details, but its an exciting prospect if its ever finished." Concepts like this probably fill a lot of napkin doodles around the world -- what do you think this particular one should do differently?
Reminds me of my father's friend back in grade school (oh, like 1960's) who had invented furniture that hid behind walls and then could be inflated and unfolded as needed.
Last I ever heard of it...
"You can control your temperature of the flat, you can control lighting," said Donald Hughes with the Hong Kong Housing Society.
...
Just imagine
Wait a minute. That sounds like a cubicle. 'Cubicle' and 'dream cyber home' do not belong in the same article, ok, guys?
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Has anyone been able to get CNN video clips, like the one in the story, to work in Mozilla? I'm using 1.0 and all I get is a new little window and then nothing. I've got Real installed, and I think the plugin is installed. What gives?
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Does it use x-10 wireless cameras? :)))
Do you think maybe, just maybe this might be a little overkill for the problem they are trying to solve?
does the dining room table have a built in ethernet hub?
When do we get this here? (NJ/US)
[o]_O
Big Whoop.
This Old House did a show on modular housing in Japan, exact same thing. Only TOH did it years ago, and its been going on in Japan for years upon years. Each room is a module, you can move interior walls around easily, etc, etc.
PS: I live by X10 remotes.....
I saw this story on 3-2-1 Contact in the 70's, and on Beyond 2000 in the 90's. Yawn.
I dunno...I wouldn't want to buy a house designed by a company with a name like "The Integer Group"...sounds limiting.
"I may be quite wrong." - Socrates
How is that possible?
I thought the web browser was an inseparable part of the home.
#define sig "Every social system runs on the people's belief in it."
To me, that does not sound like a dream home, it sounds more like Ubiquitous version of the dream house featured in the movie Cube.
But what I really want to know is does it have a dispenser to dispense a cup with spongy jelly
Being that everything in the house is electronic, what happens in the event of a blackout? Usually the first action is to turn off everything that was on -- but an electronic switch prevents that. How would you get water from the taps (or worse, shut it off)?
I hope the door and window locks aren't electronic, too.
I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
...a Beowulf cluster of these! Hah!
(That was a joke.)
I was recently down in the Caribbean and saw a show with about a 15 minutes story on these. Someone earlier mentioned a cubicle. Bingo. The things were a glorified cubicle (frosted glass/plastic panels for many of the walls) with lot's of gadgets on the "demo model" (computerized fridge, etc.) My favorite was the remote control for the lights and temp. It was the size of a tablet PC and the guy is standing like 2 feet from a lamp, point this thing at it and about 4 seconds later the lamp turns on. What a bunch of crap.
"You can control the Integer house.." - link
Cameras (evidently dark right now in Hong Kong) - link
I wish I could read more about the thing, but the pages aren't loading and it looks like we're going to burn it down!
...that no home is complete without the talking Beauty Toilet (pronounced "BJUUUTI TOILEEET"),
which provides you with a completely automated, FuzzyLogic(tm) bathroom experience.
After reading this article, I wondered if this is written in 1995 ish. Talk about smart internet appliances is already outdated fashion. And moving the walls around in half day with handyman ? Looks like existing rearrangeable partitions outsmart these guys. Internet enabled refregirator, Internet enabled microwave (why?) and Smart cash in the ring on the finger. When we gonna walk the talk ?. And the monochrome panel in the wall with stylus isnt vision of future at all. And for ordering food from refregirator, stick a touch pad interface on old refrigerator, interface it to your box and have it faxed to near by 'free home delivery ' shops on weekly (or as needed basis). And since when we started to go green with all those electronic waste and nuclear generated electricity? SO much to talk about technology.Shit.
My dream home would be 200 years old with slate roof and 5 fireplaces.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Does this remind anyone of the old houses of the future? I have a robot book from the early '80s with this strange modular, domed modules that were supposed to be the computer-controlled home of the future. Now that it is the future (as far as I can tell,) I'd like to know what's substantially different about this idea compared to homes of the future twenty years ago.
Though I do like the name (the Integer Group.)
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
seriously, there's no way you can live in a place where you get home and encounter a swarm of flying bugs in your kitchen. jesus christ.
by Rex Roberts. Published by M.Evans, 1964.
You'll never look at houses the same and his interior walls don't even necessarily need tools to move. Heck some of them aren't even technically walls although a stranger couldn't even tell.
This book should be required reading for anyone intending to build a house, especially architects.
KFG
this reminds me of the Towers of Utopia by Mack Reynolds. A massive apartment building where layouts were completely configurable. It also had automatic room service that included alcohol!
Stop Continental Drift! Reunite Gondwanaland!
I have long dreamed of this becomming widely available and accepted.
However, in talking about it among friends and collegues, I realized that most women will *not like it*.
It is too clinical and "same-same". Girls want something that makes them feel "special". If everyone has the same panels and boxes, then it will become a status symbol to have something *different*.
And we all know that:
Status_Symbol != Convenience
Table-ized A.I.
Leave it to the Brits to get absorbed in fancy pants cubicle construction for a country on the other side of the world.
Tally Ho! Let's see some effort put forth towards improving British food. How about inventing a device that can eliminate unwanted blood pudding or dry bagettes?
That CNN article is as devoid of details as British food is of flavor.
Well, maybe he's not, but reconfigurable housing (as an idea) has been around a while, and no doubt the Dymaxion house was a great example! Forget that half-day crap, you could unlock the wall and turn it around the center-post!
http://www.hfmgv.org/dymaxion
http://www.thirteen.org/bucky/house.html
thelocust[dot]org
Right after the demo for the press, hax0rs using the SmartHouseDIE exploit caused the walls to turn blue and fall down. Several reporters were killed. BSOD.
I'll huff, I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
Ack! Dont tell my wife! She will want that! I can see it now....
Honey can you move this wall over here? Then that wall over there and then this over there?
Later that week...
Honey can you move that wall back over there? Maybe this wall over here?
I can already hear my own screams.....
Vote early. Vote often. Vote CowboyNeal.
Your name wouldn't happen to be Dan Quayle, would it?
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Take a look at Xanadu and Monolithic Domes. You can build houses from bales of hay, chunks of sod, or into hillsides.
Most new housing concepts don't take off. One that unfortunately has is the trend of making houses out of cheap, pressed lumber and using shoddy fixtures. I don't like feeling like I can't lean on a wall or slam a door in many modern homes. Even homes costing USD$300K+ are built with flimsy parts now. I can't imagine how much worse it would feel living in an overgrown cubicle.
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
First off: they're using a stylus for the main control panels? Does the designer of this brilliantly planned system use salad tongs to throw light switches in his current house or something?
"You can control your temperature of the flat, you can control lighting..."
Hey, they're onto something here! A method for controlling lighting--patent it while it's hot, lads! And controlling the temperature of one's flat? Sheer brilliance! Can I do all of this with the same stylus, as well??
"If you have a party, and want to control your music sound, you would basically be able to press [a few central] switches instead of walking around the whole flat."
Well hell, looks like I should have held off on buying that "Walk around my whole flat" stereo control system. Of course, I still get a good workout when setting the equalizer...
"The Internet fridge"
I stopped reading the article right here. Anything that talks about the Internet Fridge is doomed to failure. It's like the Goodwin's Law for overuse of technology.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Sure you can move the interior walls around, but you can't add any additional living area. Need a new room for those adorable additions to your family? Sure, but that means you will have a smaller living room/master bedroom/etc.
Sure the circular layout means less building materials needed to enclose a given living area, but it plays pure heck with the idea of putting em close together (think townhomes) - they still need a large footprint to sit on.
Also, given that they are trying to sell this as an answer in an area that needs high population density, how does that silly spire (antenna?)on top work when you want to stack them vertically?
I imagine the Integer Group ran across one of those websites extolling the advantages of geodesic domes and decided it was time to update the design because they have computers and lost of wizzy gadgets.
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
Sounds very slick - Automated bathroom tools would be great!
http://tomgould.com/
well, if you could afford the _land_ for this house, you'ld be able to afford the company
designing it.
You come back from the store to discover that your kids remade the house into a giant giraffe.
Table-ized A.I.
Apple today introduced its latest product in the Digital Hub strategy that drives the company:
** iHouse **
Using such open source ideas as "kitchen" and "living room", Apple has created the world's fastest, most advanced habitat, built on a rock-solid foundation of UNIX and white plastic.
No more Edison plugs -- all appliances now plug into Firewire ports built into every movable wall!
The iThermostat automatically detects your body temperature and can spot sweat or goosebumps from 50 feet away, adjusting the temperature accordingly!
New iSafe security cameras record surveillance activity on DVD with SuperDrive!
The house automatically finds the keys to your iCar using Rendezvous technology!
Inkwell technology turns your child's wall scribblings into text instantly!
Control everything via your Bluetooth remote control from any room in the house!
More advanced users will be interested in the PowerHouse, built entirely of Titanium!
"I live in one now," said Mr. Jobs. "It's like living on the set of THX-1138!"
----------
Cheese it! It's the FEDS!
With all the "intelligence" in this house, how could the designers even think to make changing out walls so difficult as to require a "handyman"? Its as simple as this: install small servo motors into the wall sections that move locking mechanical parts into and out of place (instead of the screws or whatever they use now). Put the wall into place, and it should have electrical pads to power it automatically. Press a button or two, and the wall locks into place and disengages the servo motors. Press some more buttons, and the wall reverses the process and unhooks from the floor/ceiling/surrounding walls.
You probably have to patch your home and rebuild it before you can install that bidet module. I don't think many consumers would go for that.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
.. like crown molding? I guess if you're into that, but I can't imagine the walls looking anything but like an office building.
Not to mention I wouldn't want to give my wife the option of changing the size of the rooms; rearranging the furniture is enough of a hassle
Live web cams
Women already put up with living in cookie-cutter houses. They just add their own personal touches to make it their own.
With a modular system, they have even more control over their space, such as reconfiguring the floorplan. No two houses would be alike!
I mean precisely that. No matter how silly it sounds =)
The future in 1950 was quite different from the future in 1975 and the future in 1985. In my mind, the future isn't just one concept; it is a series of different periods that existed in the past and can safely be referred to in the past tense.
Furthermore, I think we are currently in the future, so it can also be referred to in the present tense. Things like "now that it's the future..." and such.
But that's just me.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
I would like to notify everyone that I have patented the 'napkin doodle'.
.50 cents from every pen, pencil, and napkin sold.
Since there are millions of people stealing my intellectual property, it is only fair that I get
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I do wonder about the material cost to produce some of these electronics -- but, honestly, I don't really know what that cost is. My impression is that CRTs are the worst offenders among typical computer parts, but even circuitry is fairly environmentally costly (mostly using large amounts of water to manufacture, and perhaps requiring raw minerals who's mining is environmentally damaging).
I am not completely sure about HK, but in Japan, it seems that houses are rarely renovated, as in the US, but much more frequently torn down and rebuilt altogether. Some people blame it on the "bad taste" of the previous owners and their funky designs of the house, and then build some funky design themselves.
Is situations like that -- when the interior can be EASILY re-configured, you bet it would be much more efficient. It would also have the added advantage of being able to just create a room for, say a baby.
I mean, the alternatives are shoddy at best: most interior partitions people built themselves are not exactly fire-code compliant; and have people come in and actually do professional work costs a CHUNK of cash. have ceiling-high configuable walls would be a dream! i am just worried about the wall strength (kids running into them), acoustic damping (sex in the next room), and plumbing (probabbly harder to wire than electrical, no?)...
otherwise I am all for it.
p.s. there has always been talks of "modular apartments" and the such. I am really kind of disappointed that they havn't show up more often. but this is a good direction
My life in the land of the rising sun.
it's called Manufactured Housing, although most people know them by their slang name, Trailer Homes.
Seriously.
You can get Single, Double, and Triple-wide manufactured homes, and I've even seen two story setups (I used to pass a ton of these "dealerships" on my way to college each day). The basic concept is not unique, but it also isn't stupid: I seem to recall a number being quoted as about 1/3 the cost to assemble as a "custom" home (which makes sense, as these are essentially produced on an assembly line). Take modular pieces, assemble together, call it a day. No different than cubicles or the Habitrails you built for your hamster as a kid.
Is it a bad idea? I would say not at all. No one smirks at the build quality or luxury of a Mercedes Benz or BMW, but they're just as assembly line built as, say, a Kia (or Yugo or whatever). Assuming modular housing could succesfully target itself at the lower-end of the new home market, people would get a lot more house (and in a lot of cases, a better built house) than they do from the "custom" market (custom in quotations because that market is essentially nothing but cookie-cutter tract homes where housewives get to feel important because they paid $500 extra to change the color of the walls in the living room).
Stop and think about it: In Houston, which has probably the cheapest real-estate market of any major city, $100,000 gets you a stripped-down ~2,200 sq. ft. house about 30 miles from downtown. No fancy garden bathtub/jacuuzi, no structured wiring system for a house-wide network, no faux marble countertops, and shitty carpet with shitty padding. That same $100,000 could go a hell of a long way on modular housing. It needn't be a trailer home dumped on a slab; a simple arrangement of modular wall pieces available in multiple sizes and completely assembled using steel, insulation, and wallboard would be, as far as I'm concerned, just as good as one pieced together from raw materials by 6 guys who know what the hell they're doing and 40 guys who were picked up from the immigrant labor force at the 7-11 that morning.
I once worked for a subcontractor, and I needed to run some wiring through a colum that was in the kitchen area. Knowing that the wiring I was running was quite large, and would require a 3/4" hole in a 1 1/2" piece of wood, I asked the construction foreman whether or not the pillar was load-bearing. He replied, "how the hell should I know, ask the guys who made the blueprints" and returned to whatever it was he was doing. I vowed right then never to buy a home made by that particular company.
I would say that the company that can figure out the proper configuration system and negotiate contracts with the entry-level tract-home builders would be a profitable company indeed.
with tools. You just need big tools.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
This sounds like the vaunted "closet" technology.
And in other news...
This one guy and his soon-to-be-famous company from somewhere on Earth developed and created this thing that can do some really cool technical stuff.
Karma: NaN
It has gas AND electricity! The windows open and close easily, thanks to its hidden weighted chains.
It has running water, indoors, with a beautiful claw-footed bathtub.
It even has a toilet inside the house! And for all you old fuddy duddies that claim it is disgusting to defacate inside the house, they've put the toilet in the basement, right next to the coal room.
The box gutters are built into the roof, and the carraige house is big enough for two carraiges, or a carraige and its horse.
Yes, my house was built in 1915. Beautiful carpentry. Craftsmanship obviously died before I was born.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0
(Uh, remove the space in the above link. The comment editor won't let me put in a continuous URL. Sorry . .
How Buildings Learn is amazing. Fun to read, persuasive, and rousing. It looks at building designs that work (e.g., MIT's ugly, rambling wooden lab and office structure, Building 20) and those that don't (e.g., MIT's Media Lab building, very modern and all but not given to easy adaption.
Stefan
Wow !!! Controling the lighting!!! Wooo0000t!!!! Wow.... What a fucking technological masterpiece!!!! I can't fucking wait!!!! W000000t
Ever live in a mobile home, or a pre-constructed modular home? These are the same things, only made with movable walls (which inevitably will not be fastened down correctly).
You'll deal with wonders of sound transmission through 3/4 inch walls. "Listen to me piss into the toilet from across the house."
Multiple levels? "Listen to the cat piss on rug upstairs"
Got a leak? Don't bother repairing it, you'll have to replace the whole pre-fab panel.
These type of homes are an environmental nightmare. There is a reason they depreciate like a car. They are made to be disposed of after x years.
This is an overhyped, bad idea.
How electrically efficient will these homes be? Already, power companies are struggling to keep up with the current usage, won't this just add to the huge drain?
Regardless, I think that this is more "Jetsons"-like than reality. This article also did not do much to stir my imagination because most of technologies were previously mentioned in the past.
Perhaps the coolest thing would be a decentralized stereo system with speakers in every room.
100% Insightful
Will be in newly constructed apartment houses.
New buildings constructed with each level left open in a large, empty space (as many office structures are).
As market forces change with demand and pricing changes, the landlord simply changes the number and size of the units.
A housing shortage happens? I'm sorry Mr. Tennent, but we're going to be knocking 100 sq.ft. off your apartment to make room for an additional unit on your floor.
There is a surplus? Mr. Tennent, We don't wish to lower your rent, but to keep you here, we will offer you an additional 100 sq.ft. of living space for the same space.
(Though somehow I suspect the former will happen more often the the latter).
The Internet is generally stupid
Automating your home can actually SAVE a significant amount of power. For example, a microcontroller that requires 10mW of power can keep a 60 watt light bulb dimmed to 90%(hardly a perceptible difference from 100% on). This uses 5.99 Watts less than a 60 Watt light bulb on a normal toggle switch.
Using automation to turn off the lights when nobody is in the room (you could do this yourself, but most people don't do it EVERY time they leave the room) is another example.
The Fat Man Walks Alone
I can see it now. Automatic moving walls. If you're living on the dole, then the longer you live on the dole, the smaller your flat will get.
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
...what do you think this particular one should do differently?
perhaps, actually exist in the real world. there seem to have been enough napkin doodles. why has the home depot house prevailed?
And what about families with 2.5 children?
WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
One thing that would have to be overcome before you could hit mainstream: Trailers tend to decrease in value over time, unlike tradtional homes. The only reason people accept 100,000+ debt slavery is because some slick real estate agent sells them on the fact that it's an investment.
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Reminds me of my father's friend back in grade school (oh, like 1960's) who had invented furniture that hid behind walls
For The People Who Live Inside Of Your Walls?
We're the people inside of your walls,
We live here inside of your walls
We're watching you daily with great fascination,
At night we curl up inside pink insulation,
We're the people inside of your walls.
Of course, we're not like average people you know,
We eat tiny bugs for our dinner
We're all just as tall as your average joe,
But why, we'll admit we're much thinner,
We're the people inside of your walls.
- The Frantics, "Four On The Floor" TV series, 1986, this song was the source of many childhood nightmares.
Almost as many nightmares as this.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Audio/Visual networks are already here, the thermostat has been toyed with. (I think Bill has this already)
DVD wouldn't be the most efficient at security videos; I'm guessing a big Raid server in a closet would serve better, and also be useful for mp3/divx distribution.
'Writing on the wall' would be great! Use that with the 'paper' thin displays and you've got a giant touch screen! Remote control *should* be house-wide. Toasters with an IP address are over the top, but the rest of this is certainly achievable, and probably useful.
If you modded this down because he took Steve's name in vain, you need to read the moderator faq here. If you modded it down because you don't get the joke, well, watch more cartoons or something, but don't waste your points modding this down. Go find a good comment that has been overlooked and mod it up.
BTW, I am immune to moderation. So don't bother.
People have been pushing modular homes for decades. Not as whiz-bang with the touch pads as these, but these models will end up like all those before it - unsellable junk or mobile-home park fodder.
Well, not technically.
Houses tend to retain their value, and essentially increase an incremental amount with the cost of living. It is a reasonable investment, and most people can expect a return somewhat similar to what they might get with a good CD or Savings Bond. This, of course, assumes that property values in their area don't swing wildly in any direction. Again with Houston (can you guess where I used to live), there was a booming market in the Richmond area of buying up the tract homes that had been there since the early 50's, knocking them down, and buidling two 3 or 4 story homes in their place. Many people saw the value of their homes shoot from $70,000 to $150,000 in less than a year. On a completely different line, between Hurricane Allison last year and this year's mid-spring floods, the 100-year-flood plain was completely withdrawn. Guess what happens to your property's value when you got drawn into it?
I'm not suggesting a fab system along the lines of trailer homes, where the whole place is already built. If a manufacturing company were to produce a variety of pre-built walls in varying heights (vaulted for the living room, standard-sized for hallways, ancillary bedrooms, etc. 1/3-sized for a bar) and builders were to design their cookie-cutter designs based on those available sizes, it would streamline the hell out of the whole process. Truck out x number of part A01, and Y number of part B02, provide a system so that certain walls can provide easy access for the electrician/plumber/HVAC/etc. (maybe part A01r has a removable face), and then just put the house together. It would still be built on a foundation and would be indistinguishable from the normal tract-home setup where the only major variance is the type of decorative lights, the color of the carpets, and the paint on the walls.
Not really, in fact I'm part of a growing movement focused on the idea of retro-future. There's a zine in the works and various other projects all focused around a 1950s-1960s "atomic age" view of the future, what we're doing to bring it about and why we should or should not.
If it is being designed over here then I doubt it will get too far. This place aint what it used to be.
Old: GWR etc - Efficient reliable rail service
New: Railtrack - worst accident record in Europe. My train is delayed EVERY day.
Old: Tower Bridge - Big, impressive, well engineered
New: Millenium Bridge, closed due to wobbling.
Old: Crystal Palace - World renowned exhibition.
New: Millenium Dome. Expensive failure that someone tried to burgle using a mechanical digger.
Old: Anything by Brunell
New: Millenium Wheel. Made by ferrari and still didn't go round.
Old: Jaguar E -Type
New: Car industry? What car industry?
Old: Acorn Computer - scared IBM originally, first real GUI OS.
New: Acorn Computers - now design set top boxes.
Old: Won two major world wars, navy twice as large as nearest rival.
New: Army does what ever Bush tells Blair to do
"How"?
"You know all those unsold floor-to-ceiling movable office partititions we have in the warehouse?"
"Yeah, and we've got another ten acres worth coming back from the WorldCom bankruptcy. Nobody's fitting out office space right now. What do you want to do with them?"
"Let's team with a builder to build house shells and use the partitions as interior walls in homes. It'll be cheaper than regular construction. And homeowners will be able to reconfigure; add a bedroom for a new kid, open it up when the kids leave.
"That will never fly; house buyers are too traditional".
"Maybe if we had a sales gimmick... Let's call it a "modular cyber house".
"What's "cyber" about office partitions?"
"We'll throw in a home control system. We've got lots of commercial building automation parts in the warehouse too."
"Well, maybe. But we need a design for a house. Just a big shell, but modern-looking".
"Just build a big round roof, and frame it with stock glass and metal exterior panels. That'll be cheap to build. It'll look like those old '50s designs from that Fuller guy. And prices are really low on exterior panels right now."
"This could work out. Let's draw up some renderings of what it would look like and get some press. Even if it doesn't work out, maybe we can do a bulk sell on the partitions to some homebuilder."
Ah mom, the shower crashed again :)
:D
hehe, they could have commercials for upgrades by Raid, "Keeping the bugs out of your system since 2015"
This could also bring a whole new meaning to cyber terrorism...
that is an interesting view of things :)
I think that many people see the present that way as well, that part scares me...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Posvar Hall [ http://www.umc.pitt.edu/tour/tour-040.html ] (formerly Forbes Quad) at the University of Pittsburgh has just such "reconfigurable" floor plans, with moveable walls. It was originally designed in the 1970s so that rooms could be made and adjusted to fit the current needs of the university. Never were these walls moved once during my four years there (1997-2001).
Also, this building is legendary for having under 30% usable floor space due in part to the idea that the movable walls would increase the utility of the remaining space!)
a modular home assembled to be even more like everyone else's than the already soulless cookie-cutter houses most of us live in. I guess it's OK if you're living in a place the size of an overgrown Star Wars lunchbox in Hong Kong or Tokyo, but for people who want a real home give us the technology as furniture and appliances, not as a complete dwelling. Oh, and let me guesss, there's a big swoosh logo on the outside...
Its funny to look at houses that were built in the 80's and see integrated gadgets like intercom system, central-vac, and B&W security cameras that probably cost a fortune back then yet do nothing for their sale price today.
...the camera doesn't work.
What's this Submit thingy do?
Yes - 30% less construction waste is correct and with significantly lower power and water consumption in use. BTW, it is also designed for dismantling and recycling at end of life.
'Manufactured Homes' suck rocks, my friend. I know, I owned one. Sure - the cost to buy the home itself isn't bad. But when you buy a $150k house that was built on-site, you're also buying the land under it. Buy your manufactured home, and THEN you have to find somewhere to put it. And THEN you have to get wiring and plumbing piped in. And THEN you have to get it hauled to the site, installed, and pray to GOD that the subcontractor that was hired to do the interior touch-ups and whatnot isn't just jerking off in the spackle and hoping it holds together 2 years down the road.
We had to claim bankruptcy because of ours - mainly because we were in a manufactured home 'park' where you buy the house but rent the land, and they kept raising the friggin' rent every 6 months.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
GIR: I'm going to sing the Doom song now. Doom doom doom doom doom doom de-doom doom doom doom doom doom doom...
How do you mean?
My friend said the funniest thing about the future a year or so ago, "Damn, I'd wear shiny clothes if I could have a flying car."
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
To me, the idea sounds perfect for Hong Kong. No one needs their shoes indoors anyway.
Hell, the traps would probably help with their oversized population and allow for more space in Hong Kong for people to immigrate in (which has been a real problem lately).
I've got one of these homes, and it's a BOCA. That means the value increases with time.
The reason most trailer homes lose value is the same reason they burn down quickly. (Your average singlewide will burn down in 11 minutes from initial flame.) They're not BOCA-compliant.
Apparantly, the value of a house has something to do with its safety and how well it's lasted the years.
What's this Submit thingy do?
It also has a potentially huge detraction: It's a manufactured home.
Before you cringe, hear the rest of the description: With 2,600 square feet of living space, the house has a killer view of Mount Diablo, yet it's just across from BART and only minutes from downtown. It also has some other amenities such as bay windows, oak cabinets, a whirlpool tub, a large cobblestone patio and even planter shelves.
An added attraction: It was built in three days and cost about $200,000 less than if it had been built like most other houses.
Last time I looked, Britney was all woman and a damn good looking woman at that. She is young, beautiful and rich.
So do you hate her because she is young, because she is beautiful or because she is rich?
... Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed...
The Integer Group is discrete.
So do you hate her because she is young, because she is beautiful or because she is rich?
I hate her because her music is repetitive mindless crap
It's not a laughing matter - it's easy to make jokes when you live in North America where the population density is 32 people per square mile - in Asia it's 203 - but for Hong Kong we're talking 6,571.14 per square kilometer.... a smaller area than square miles. Also a large proportion of Hong Kong is uninhabitable mountains or isolated islands - the real habitable area's density exceeds the 20,824.38 quoted for Macau.... I mean Hong Kong people go there to escape the crowds!
Hong Kong's population grows by 1 million every ten years and everyone has to be accomodated. The large proportion of people live in high rise residential on reclaimed land, and construction is the number one source of garbage in Hong Kong. When you add up all these issues then any way to improve construction efficiency and sustainability and reduce waste is important.
Now all this might be moot - I mean Hong Kong is literally on the other side of the world.... but hang on... check out this article in the Economist. Predictions are for half a billion Americans by 2050. Where are they going to live?
The Integer project has relevance here.
Living in Hong Kong is like living in an Arcology and many of the trends visible here will need to be transferred to North America if the population does increase to 500,000,000 people.
So next time you crack a joke about living in a cubicle 24/7 at work and play - you might just be fortelling the future....
Self-configurable housing. Something like a series of open platforms mounted on either arms or tracks, able to reconfigure themselves using hydraulics. Who needs to go to the kitchen to get a beer, bring the kitchen to you.
The second is kind of an "apartment stalk" with an elevator core and a double helix track up it. With this arrangement, one can construct a house shaped like 7/8 of a helix on the ground and "screw" it up the stalk past all of the other houses to its desired position. If the stalk were made out of something strong and flexible like carbon fiber, one can imagine fields of these structures swaying in the wind...
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
I visited the place a while back and was stunned by how many bad design decisions had been made to accomodate already-irrelevant, needlessly complex sponsored junk technology made by Samsung.
Better still, the place was swarming with attendants who had no idea how to make any of it work. If an 18 year old boy whose best friend is a WAP cellphone can't figure out the House of the Future, who can?!
Okay, maybe not the "first", but certainly the concept is old (read pre-50s home of the future). The Geodesic Dome Home. While not quite modular, you can set up a frame with you, two friends, a standard toolbox, and a weekend. Timeberline Geodesics has many floorplans to work with. Geodome homes use less materials, are cheaper to heat and cool (higher interior volume:exterior surface area ratio). Only hiccup is the weird shape - make sure to find a contractor who is flexible and knows city/county ordinances. Great thing about these homes is if you do need a new wing, you can knock out a wall of your living room or kitchen and just build another frame. Voila.
Sounds a lot like the GTA III "house of tommorrow"............
..a beowulf cluster of these :/
Anyone who started out their intellectual life reading Omni ought to be feeling a very pronounced deja vu when encountering this kind of stuff.
This dream of home redesign has had more than enough merit since the 1930s. Yet, in America and Europe, homes look pretty much as they have always looked for the last several hundred years. There are important differences (internal power, plumbing, water-protection) from the original design. Plastics have taken over some of the functions of wood and stone. Glass and filters have replaced openings, weaves, nets and animal skins. But overall the aim is the same: a wood- or steel-framed cave, lined with a combination of wood and stone.
The redesigns of homes almost always involve labor-saving devices that look hip, mod, and snazzy, but avoid the real economics of the issue. Original designs are expensive and mostly illegal. Wiring or re-wiring for modern "needs" is expensive. New materials may not be reliable or durable. And -- as always -- the needs of the contractor conflict with the needs of the homeowner; a door that is put in fast simply doesn't last for decades.
What I am trying (poorly) to say that these things are pipe dreams and cannot come true even in limited ways. You may as well postulate personal aircraft, which neglects the impossible relaxation of regulation and miraculous availability of fuel. The hip, mod and snazzy things (like pervasive and central controls of house functions) are for the rare and wealthy to exploit. The rest of us must make do with the wooden caves that have been around for decades to centuries. Even when a cause for innovation strikes -- say, a factory in converted into housing -- the entire affair is firmly put under traditional rules.
The home of the future has always been here, but apart from the whole us, in small sections of the population. You can wire up your own home now for centralized controls; but even with such accessability, very, very few have done so. In short, trying to construct or modify such a home in places like Toledo, Ohio is either impossible or the very definition of the word "rarity".
[also misbehaves on Kuro5hin as Peahippo]
The basic concept had been done before by Buckmister Fuller . In 1950 he demonstraited a modular home that could be reconfigured even the bathroom was a single module with plumbing for the tub ,toilet and ,sink all ready connected.
This ideal even looks like some of his early work before he made the domehome.
As you know the ideal did not catch on back then and probley would not today .
The track home aka suburb won out.
Some ideals that seem great on paper end up inconvenant in practice.
Also most upper class people in HongKong either has or are leaving the city since China has taken over who can blame them I'd leave too if an oppressive gov took over.
As for the gadgets my updated 100 year old victorian has the same stuff ethernet/802.11b updated climate control I can control via phone if needed and it looks a whole lot better to boot .
Also unlike the modular flat it's walls accually deaden sound and the inside doesn't look like a cubical.
Don't forget longevity I doubt it would last more than 30years if built. Pervious houses lasted for generations but prefabs are not long lived stuctures. If House A takes more material than house B but house B only last 30 years while house A lasts 90 to 150 years then I have to say you'd endup using 3x "including maintance/upgrades to the the traditional home" the materials with design B in the long run.