What Would Be Your Ideal Futuristic Home?

deman1985 asks: "As the owner of a small commercial and home integration company, I'm exposed to a wide variety of customers with differing tastes and needs. I'll get requests for anything from the ordinary audio distribution systems and full home theater systems, to downright bizarre requests like having bubble baths run automatically, when they walk in the door. However, the vast majority of customers I encounter are not technologically inclined and are more interested in simplicity rather than impressiveness. What would your ideal integrated home look like? What's the most unique feature you would like to see? If you had access to an unlimited budget, what would you spend money on to make your home stand out? Whole-house audio? Hidden video screens? Automatic locks? Do most people view home integration strictly as a toy for entertainment, or is the technology ready for prime time?"

Comments

Sustainability

[under_score]

I love technology. My family has several laptops, desktops and we run a few servers as well. We have gadgets. But the thing about it all that bothers me, is that it is all dependent on the precarious infrastructure for power and telecom. I would love to have solar and wind power backup. I'd love to have redundant methods of communication, even going back to low-tech/old-tech radio systems. I'd also like to have local caches of reference materials such as wikipedia, about.com, CIA world factbook, etc. I'm not a survivalist freak, but I do find it painful when the power goes out for a few days at a time! It'd be nice to have some basic backups!

Re:Sustainability

[Rei]

It is a BAD source of information

Oh really?. Now, if you want a bad source of information...

Re:Sustainability

[geekoid]

wiki pedia is a GOOD reference.
the problem with wikipedia is that it works in practice, but not in theory.

Yes, 'hot' topics get modified, but over all it is really solid.

Wrong way for me.

[AnonymousPrick]

I'd want a small home(1,500 - 2,000 sq.ft.) on plenty of land (4+ acres) with trees. The only electronics I'd want is something that blocks anything wireless so I can have some peace and quiet for once. Also, I'd have an excuse for why I wasn't pestered by any phone calls...I mean, why I didn't get someone's call.

Re:Wrong way for me.

[Carik]

1,500 - 2,000 square feet is NOT a small home. 750 - 1,100 square feet is a small home. My girlfiend and I are currently living in a condo that's nominally about 950 square feet, but a lot of that is taken up by stairs, walls, and poor planning. Call it maybe 800 square feet of usable living area, total. The only thing we really need more space for is long-term storage; winter storage for the bicycles, christmas ornaments, things like that. So... if you have a family, yes, you'll need at least 1,500 square feet. But if you don't have kids, why get such a big house? I'm looking at new places at the moment, and I'm finding that 1,200 or so is as much space as I need, as long as it has a basement or a barn for storing all the Stuff I'm not using at the moment.

Simplicity

[s0l3d4d]

Ideal home integration?
Simplicity. Japanese style furniture, and few and selected furniture, and the stereos, hifi, etc would be simplistic as well. No TV - possibly a projector. Ideally Bose but any small and good sounding speakers, integrated with iPod. Integration with Airport Express should be easy - so can control the musics of all the rooms of the house by the computers (a few in different rooms or where needed).
Actually, for TV needs now the computers do fine - mostly viewing movies anyway, and some cartoons with eyeTV.
Lots of small lights in ceiling and on walls to get enough light on winter, and enough analog candles for the mood.
And simple materials to keep it all timeless - such as white walls, dark wood, some stone, some metal, and selected details in bright colors.
And the simplicity factor will make it more simple than now - there are 16 iPods in our house now ... probably could do with a bit less.

Re:Product name...

[SeeMyNuts!]

It isn't a matter of being a Luddite. Most people can't control who their neighbors are, which is one reason why living in the subburbs is so darn stressful. The only defense against neighbors in high population density areas is to have tons of money, to pay the association people to enforce restrictions, and to put up big fences.

Outside cities, the other defense is a lot of land, and lots of shrubbery in the woods to block sound and line of sight to roadways.

Another defense is a lot of insulation in the walls and ceiling to block sound, which is an added bonus on top of energy efficiency. Unfortunately, a lot of the cookie-cutter 1000-unit neighborhoods were built quickly and cheaply, meaning often inadequate insulation (one house I lived in wasn't even up to code, before I fixed that).

Two words:

[snowwrestler]

Self cleaning.

I don't really care about details of how it's accomplished. Nano-treated surfaces and micro-robots? Sweet, whatever. Just so long as I never have to clean the tub or mop the kitchen by hand again.