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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)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
When do we get this here? (NJ/US)
[o]_O
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
The best thing to do is to uninstall RealVideo and to never ever use it again... even if it means you can't get CNN video.
"America, I smoke marijuana every chance I get."
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."
I wrote the webmaster a little note and he responded that the videos cost money and can only be seen by subscribers. I wrote a note back saying that under Mozilla/Linux I don't even see the popup that gives me an option to subscribe, and he never wrote back.
Talk about clueless. It's the webmaster's job to make sure his site works. It plainly doesn't. The name is cnn.com, not cnnforwindows.com!
I wrote another note to BMW because their site doesn't work either. I wrote that people who demand the most out of their cars buy BMW, and people who demand the most out of their computers use Linux, and asked him nicely to support Linux. He wrote back and said he'd think about it.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
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)
"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!
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
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.
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.
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
Well..Slashdot *IS* notorious for posting old news..
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
You come back from the store to discover that your kids remade the house into a giant giraffe.
Table-ized A.I.
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
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 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.
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
Buckminster Fuller Spinning in his grave!
He can't. They ignored his plans and made the dammed coffin rectangular.
Table-ized A.I.
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
(* Women already put up with living in cookie-cutter houses. *)
True, but still each neighborhood has a different floorplan set. IOW, "local" modularity, not global.
Interchangable parts would mean that *anything* built with them will have the same look and feel.
You do have a point about making it easier to change the floor plan. However, I am not sure the tradeoff is worth it for most females.
Any non-geek females want to comment? Any non-geek females on slashdot, period?
Table-ized A.I.
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.
Rats! Beat me to it. :-)
Actually, Bucky had more than one reconfigurable housing idea. In addition to the Dymaxion house, which used suspension instead of compression for structure, he also invented a variety of
domes including one, the Fly Eye dome, designed to be assembled in sections that could be lifted with one hand (so the other could fasten the bolts.)
Check out the
Buckminster Fuller Institute for all things Bucky.
Wait until Steve Jobs gets a hold of this...
Dear God I hope not. I don't want to take a shower in a translucent bathroom.
Table-ized A.I.
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
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)
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.
"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."
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!)
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 name is cnn.com, not cnnforwindows.com!
Ironic, that this is the same company that owns Netscape.
Mmmm.. Donuts
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
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.
The Integer Group is discrete.