Futuristic architecture has a long tradition. In years gone by, it seemed that all the best design ideas were reserved for public buildings. These days, houses and homes benefit from all the newest technologies, building materials, and methods.
From the blueprints to your bathroom fittings, you have everything at your fingertips for a truly futuristic home design. We’ll talk a bit about advances in CAD – computer-aided design, and CNC – computer numerical control and what their benefits are.
The practical applications detailed below are at the cutting edge of what your home of the future could be. We hope they inspire you.
Smart Homes
Smart homes use a mobile or other networked device to control appliances and devices automatically and remotely. All devices in a smart home are interconnected through the internet. This is what people call “the Internet of Things.”
Functions controlled include security access, temperature, and lighting. In theory, anything with an On/Off switch can be connected and controlled via a smartphone or tablet. The chief advantages to homeowners are convenience and cost savings.
Reducing electricity consumption by controlling lighting is one possibility. Other nice-to-have things include automated shades in your bedroom.
You go to sleep in utter darkness and have your shades open at a preprogrammed hour every morning. That way, you wake up to natural light. This has enormous health benefits.
Alarm systems and sensors can alert the police or fire department without you having to make a phone call.
All these things can be incorporated into the design of your home, which can look as contemporary or as futuristic as you like. In other words, there is much more to the future than smart devices. Let’s get back to those blueprints.
CAD Blueprints
CAD has revolutionized architectural design. Engineers, architects, and construction managers are able to create, develop, modify, and optimize designs in 2D and 3D.
Architects save time producing these 3D elevations, which give a visual idea of what the finished building will look like. In principle, it is easier to spot design flaws and much easier to remedy them at the blueprint stage than it was in the past.
CAD-based drawings and plans are stored in the cloud, giving contractors access to them at the worksite. Ready access to plans and modifications improves on-site communication and productivity.
CNC and Off-Site Assembly
CNC takes data from CAD blueprints, chiefly for the automated manufacturing of component parts. In construction, CNC’s range of application is enormous. Examples include the production of curved beams, bespoke window frames, and modular components made from glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC). GFRC is also used in landscaping, allowing greater flexibility in concrete structures than ever before.
The use of CNC is the marriage of computer technology with other technologies in the construction sector. Many complex construction elements can be made and assembled off-site. This post details its efficient application in the manufacture of a reusable insulation blanket.
Although mainly in heavy industry, an insulation blanket is also used in home construction. It’s ideal for expansion joints, connection piping, and any surface requiring insulation. Its use results in a huge saving in thermal energy and brings us one step closer to creating carbon-neutral homes.
Creative Forms Follow New Functions
Many houses of the future will not have rectangular exteriors. Thanks to CAD and CNC, and the innovative use of materials, your house can be any shape you can imagine.
Indications at the House Vision China 2018 architectural design expo are that diversity in design will be part of the future. The greatest difficulty will be choosing which space-age design you want.
Chief improvements in the houses of the future are space-saving features throughout the home. Also high on the list are energy-saving, and energy-producing devices relating to electricity and water supply. Some homes feature growing vegetables as part of the home’s energy and water system.
Improvements in insulation mean you no longer need to have the traditional rafters-and-tile type of roofing. The ceiling and the roof become one and the same thing.
Other designs consider how best to integrate electrical appliances into the structure of the home. Gone are the days of a mass of individual appliances on kitchen countertops.
Extensive use of double (and triple!) glazing creates natural light where required. Electrochromic glass darkens automatically when the sunlight becomes too strong. For hotter climates, it’s something to consider for your 2020 home and beyond.
Sophisticated gravity-fed water and plumbing systems in our homes will become widespread. Filtering greywater for use in gardens, whether indoors or outside, will make your home more eco-friendly.
Zero-Boundary Living
For those who live alone or do not have children, zero-boundary design holds a certain appeal. The house with no internal walls has improved a lot since it first became trendy in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Split-level configurations delineate rooms with different functions and enhance the sense of spaciousness.
Tiny Houses and Futuristic Home Design
Fuelled by off-grid enthusiasts, tiny living has gained popularity among folk who prefer to remain on-grid too. Materials used in tiny houses range from re-used pallets to ultra-thin metal and wood or fiber-glass composites. CAD and CNC enable bespoke dwellings that take account of every necessity within the smallest possible space.
In larger cities and towns, experiments are beginning with modular tiny living, which does not make its inhabitants feel as if they are boxed in. Greening is an important element in many of these architectural designs.
In the tiny house market, dwellings resemble astronauts helmets, big fish, ships, and shapes best described as sculptures. Visual appeal is a big priority in tiny house design, it would seem, but the same is true for larger structures.
Where to From Here?
House and home architecture is more precision-based than ever. It requires forethought and careful planning. New methods are likely to create huge savings in the costs of construction, and in the maintenance of the home once built.
Dwindling resources on the planet are making architects, engineers, and designers more resourceful. This is reflected in the building materials used and in the spatial concepts of form pushed to the limits of their function.
You need to imagine that your futuristic home design has space for your electric car and other modes of transport that someone still has to invent.
Check out our other articles on community living, and remember to make notes — on your smartphone, natch — of everything you would like in your home of the future.
