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The aging baby boom generation is bringing fundamental social change. House_n is planning an environment where baby boomers can age in place while the house adapts to any physical and cognitive limitations. Thus, we need a house whose structure and technology can be adjusted dynamically. |
Dr. Kenneth Wacks provides management and engineering consulting in home and building automation to utilities and manufacturers world-wide. He offers impartial and practical advice on business opportunities, network alternatives, and product development. He is advising the MIT Home of the Future on home systems. For further information, please contact Ken at (781) 662-6211, Fax: (781) 665-4311, Email: kenn@alum.mit.edu |
Integration of Architecture and Home Systems
A
home system is not just a collection of appliances, components, and wires to be
installed in a house. Effective
home systems must be integrated into the structure and architecture of the
building. This comprehensive view
of home systems can be traced to such pioneering houses as Thomas Jefferson’s
Monticello, shown in Figure 1. Jefferson
customized his room arrangement and furniture placement to suit his desires and
patterns of living. Furthermore,
Monticello included innovative features like remote weather monitoring and a
wine conveyer directly into a dining-room cabinet.
A new laboratory has been formed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that continues this theme of combining architecture and home systems. The MIT Home of the Future, also known as House_n, is a new research laboratory in the School of Architecture and Planning. It is operating in collaboration with the famous MIT Media Lab, which is also part of Architecture. The Dean of the school asked me to advise House_n on home systems.
Houses are not designed to accommodate the technology that inhabitants expect. House_n is a unique combination of architecture and home systems. It integrates a home network and related components, such as sensors, into the house structure. This means that the infrastructure wires and devices will be included in the design of building materials and wall sections.
The services of an architect are generally limited to the very rich. Kent Larson, the House_n director and a practicing architect, is convinced that buyers can be given choices like the rich using an Internet-based design technique
The Contributors to House_n
There
is a diverse group of contributors to House_n
from within MIT and from the corporate world.
Our goals are pragmatic. We
want to impact the real world of housing design and home systems.
To achieve the desired pragmatic results, we are collaborating with industry (listed in Figure 2), other research projects, and public organizations. Among our collaborators are the Division of Aging at Harvard Medical School, the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons with 30 million members), and a major urban renewal project near Boston called TeleCom City.
The team of MIT students and the professional staff plus partners from outside MIT are conducting research and workshops, and planning to construct prototype houses for field evaluation. Developments from the university and corporate worlds are being combined to fulfill the mission of House_n.
The Research Projects of House_n
House_n is divided into the following major research projects:
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Transgenerational Design
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Sustainable Design
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Adaptable, Customized Environments
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Community Environments
The themes embodied in these projects include:
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A house designed with building components and technologies that adapt to the inhabitants.
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Architectural techniques that use Internet databases to expedite the design process among professionals and facilitate participation by the buyer.
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House_n energy consumption that is net zero.
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A home design that integrates with the community.
The following sections elaborate on these topics.
Transgenerational Design
The demographics of North America are being skewed by the baby boom generation, which is approaching one-quarter of the total population, can be seen in Figure 3 The baby boomers are getting wealthier as they age. Consequently, they expect more than their parents do; they can afford it; and they are counting on the housing and automation industries to make their lives productive and fulfilling.
The aging baby boom generation is bringing fundamental social change. House_n is planning an environment where baby boomers can age in place while the house adapts to any physical and cognitive limitations. Thus, we need a house whose structure and technology can be adjusted dynamically.
Transgenerational
is a design concept for a house that is functional across generations.
The house design and features can adapt with us as we age.
Thus, there is no single optimum design for the home of the future;
rather there are many designs. Using
the mathematical notation for many, n,
we call our project “House_n.”
We probably will not include a free-standing robot in House_n. Instead we are considering built-in robotic conveyor devices to manage household inventories, such as food and dishes, illustrated in Figure 4.. Also, this conveyer may facilitate the handling of products purchased over the Internet by delivering the packages from the delivery truck into the closet or kitchen cabinet.
The Transgenerational House will care for the inhabitants experiencing the physical or cognitive limitations that creep in with age. Built-in sensors will enable the house to see the occupants and track their movements (with their permission and ultimate control).
Sustainable Design
Most buyers of new houses expect that the house will be energy efficient. House_n is moving the threshold of expectation higher. We think that houses can be a net-zero consumer of energy.
New materials can help in achieving net zero. For example, a building wall might be designed to absorb exterior energy during the day and release it at night. This wall might incorporate Aerogel, the lightest-weight material known and the best insulation yet discovered. Aerogel, composed of silicon dioxide and 96% air, can provide insulation of at least R-20 per inch.
Adaptable, Customized Environments
Site-built
housing construction techniques have changed little in a century.
We are researching panelized construction with built-in infrastructures
to support communications, sensing, and user interfaces.
Figure 5 shows an early example of panelized construction.
The infrastructure will support data communications within the house plus links to outside service providers. The components forming the communications infrastructure include wired and non-wired media (radio and infrared), residential gateways, and distribution panels. Clusters of sensors will be provided in each room and in the building shell where appropriate. Sensor clusters may report temperature, relative humidity, light levels, occupancy (motion), smoke and heat, radio signals, building structure performance, and indoor air quality.
Multiple varieties of user interfaces and controls are planned. Some walls and surfaces may be composed of pixels like an LCD screen to allow displays anywhere, as shown in Figure 6.
Existing modular construction techniques and prefabricated panels will be updated with current technology. Prefabricated construction is not new, but it has not been part of an integrated systems approach that also includes a communications infrastructure.
It
is important that prefabricated components not constrain the house design.
On-site configuration to the buyer’s needs, blending with the
neighborhood, and creating a cohesive community will be emphasized. This
methodical approach to design will be extended to create intelligent components
that follow rules of assembly.
Flexibility for field modifications and changes even after occupancy will be explored. This allows for “mass customization.”
Community Environments
House_n is intended to be pragmatic and an industry trend-setter. Therefore, we will go beyond studio models and build real houses. MIT has donated land in Cambridge. Also, we are exploring a possible site in Arizona in cooperation with Salt River Project, a public utility in Phoenix.
House_n is examining the interaction of the home and the community. The objective is to adapt to changing patterns of commerce, transportation, work, play, and the distribution of goods.
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Opportunities to Sponsor House_n
When I was approached to help House_n, I insisted that we not duplicate work underway in industry, but expand the scope. By combining unique talents in architecture and technology, we have established a research agenda that is broad, strategic, and non-conventional.
There are opportunities to sponsor House_n and to share in the results. For more information, please visit us on the web at http://architecture.mit.edu/house_n. A meeting for prospective sponsors is scheduled for July 10, 2000 at MIT. Contact me for further information. Come join your enlightened colleagues and shape the future!
© Copyright 2000, Kenneth P. Wacks
