Homes of the Future

Hey SS's

My wife and I are looking at doing a major renovation and extension in the next couple of years and it's making me think about what our homes will look like in the next 30 years. From what I hear a lot of kids are now doing all their homework on laptops or iPad's in their bedrooms, will there be a need for a formal separate study in the future? I was speaking to a futurist last week who said she is already seeing schools getting rid of the old style desk and chair layout in favour of standing classrooms, I wonder if desks will disappear from our homes as well.

What do you think will be the major changes that we'll see in our homes and what sort of technologies do you think will change the way we live?
 
I will still be looking to put a study/office in when I build PPOR but that will be for me not kids :) Like the idea of study nooks and will be looking to put these near bedrooms for kids (well when / if I have them)
 
On a recent visit to our friends home in FNQ, our eyes were opened to how they had transformed their home by having an external kitchen, which they used regularly due to the climatic conditions. I think the region in which you live will play a major role in house design in the future. As for Gizmo's, who knows what the future holds, a new device enters the market nearly daily!
 
I will still be looking to put a study/office in when I build PPOR but that will be for me not kids :) Like the idea of study nooks and will be looking to put these near bedrooms for kids (well when / if I have them)

Hi Brady, yeah I think it's essential to have a separate office/study if you work from home or bring work home. As far as the kids are concerned in a lot of new houses I'm seeing have more of the study nook type of set up just off a living room. I quite like that, then you can keep an eye on them as well...
 
On a recent visit to our friends home in FNQ, our eyes were opened to how they had transformed their home by having an external kitchen, which they used regularly due to the climatic conditions. I think the region in which you live will play a major role in house design in the future. As for Gizmo's, who knows what the future holds, a new device enters the market nearly daily!

Isnt an outdoor kitchen called a BBQ? :p
 
On a recent visit to our friends home in FNQ, our eyes were opened to how they had transformed their home by having an external kitchen, which they used regularly due to the climatic conditions. I think the region in which you live will play a major role in house design in the future. As for Gizmo's, who knows what the future holds, a new device enters the market nearly daily!

Hi Harro, I'm looking at doing a similar thing, as neK pointed out it will be more of a fancy BBQ area than an outdoor kitchen though.
 
I'll also be looking to do this. Not sure if will be done straight away or just having the connections there ready... will depend on the $$$
 
lose the formal lounge and dining..we probably use it once a month if that.

Certainly wont be doing the formal dining. We'll keep the formal lounge as a 'parents retreat' mainly because we have a period home and it's a feature of the house.
 
Hi Brady, yeah I think it's essential to have a separate office/study if you work from home or bring work home. As far as the kids are concerned in a lot of new houses I'm seeing have more of the study nook type of set up just off a living room. I quite like that, then you can keep an eye on them as well...

agree. We will be building soon. We'll have a study as I am a nerd (lots of computer gear) and my wife is doing her PHD.

Kids will have laptops or whatever is around (we dont have kids yet), being used in our sight (not bedrooms - will be kitchen/lounge area)
 
Hey SS's

My wife and I are looking at doing a major renovation and extension in the next couple of years and it's making me think about what our homes will look like in the next 30 years. From what I hear a lot of kids are now doing all their homework on laptops or iPad's in their bedrooms, will there be a need for a formal separate study in the future? I was speaking to a futurist last week who said she is already seeing schools getting rid of the old style desk and chair layout in favour of standing classrooms, I wonder if desks will disappear from our homes as well.

What do you think will be the major changes that we'll see in our homes and what sort of technologies do you think will change the way we live?

Certainly with the coming of smaller and smaller computers and flatter and flatter screens the size of desks can be smaller.

Those study nooks are quite comfortable for kids to do homework on whilst they are the age where they need supervision.

Put a zillion power points in everywhere :)

We have sit/stand desks at work and it's still nice to be able to sit down sometimes, so I think there will always be a need for a desk in my house - especially drawers/bookcases/filing cabinets to store everything.
 
I don't have kids but given the average size of bedrooms is it not possible to put a kids desk in their rooms? Thats what I grew up with... except I didn't get a desk cos I had the small room so had to use the kitchen table :( (wait - is that a violin I hear playing?).

I think technology will start having bigger impacts. I have heard of fridges with wifi connection (wtf? no seriously, wtf does a fridge need wifi connection for?). As well as air conditioners, alarms, cameras etc.
In the US (and to a lesser degree the UK). Smaller apartments are doing away with kitchens all together. Food in the US is so cheap its not worth cooking at home. A 'home cooked meal" is a frozen pizza warmed up in the microwave.
The UK (and a lot of europe) has done away with laundries and have the washing machine in the kitchen (where our dishwasher would be - they wash dishes by hand in the sink:eek:). Actually - now I think of it - inside laundries seems to be an Australian thing.
Hopefully (Perth) will lose their desire for a double garage one of these days too.

Blacky
 
When I get my Jetsonmobile it can just hover over my house so I don't need a double garage.

Blacky: you make your children do homework where you can see them so that you can see that they are doing their homework not surfing the interweb. At some stage you let them do it in their bedroom - presumably when they are old enough to hide whatever they are doing when they should be doing homework.

Then you throttle the router or disable youtube and they become academic geniuses again.
 
Be careful with relying on laptops used on laps. They are causing some nasty neck and back strain injuries. I have my laptop on a raised platform to reduce neck strain.

I have also moved myself from a computer on a large desk in the designated study room to taking over the formal dining table. My files for tax time and all the properties live in the antique cabinet that goes with the formal dining suite.

I hated being "away" from the main part of the house so here I get to cook dinner and read the Net at the same time, and look out the massive window at the view or have one ear on the TV.
 
Wife loves resource furniture
very futuristic but hugely expensive.
I guess the future will be led from apartments in tokyo - moving walls and multifuntion spaces

http://www.resourcefurniture.com/


I agree. But with apartment space in Manhattan going at $2400 a square foot, every centimetre counts. Apartments that are multifunction like this

https://lifeedited.jovoto.com/ideas/10288

could be very common in such areas. There is whole movement to less space, less cost, lower energy housing in these areas.

Cheers

Shane
 
The great thing about those adaptive spaces is that they are limited to CBD areas and uber high density blocks.

We're talking about an apartment that has a footprint of about 20 - 24sqm. Great for professional singles or a couple that work 12 hour days and party hard.

I would hate to be renting this space out in the USSA or Australia, the landlord would be responsible for the maintenance of the mechanisms that allow it to function.

I think this space is a great thought process in action but its practicality is questionable long term.

Im sure no one ever thinks "where's the washing machine?" or "how do I poo without making noise?" or "crossflow ventilation would be nice" - they just look at the gadgets in what is essentially a hotel suite size living space and think "ooh ahh!" and voila! Sold.

Different is good, change is awesome but lets not confuse action with progress when it comes to smaller footprint living. Polarised ideals like these dont help.
 
Hi Aaron,

I think that it is easy to hold that position from a country as well endowed with low cost living space as Australia. Not all places are as fortunate and in cities such as London, New York, Tokyo, and Paris, apartment living even for families, is quite common. These concepts, maximising the use of space that may be dormant for a lot of the time such as dining areas or home offices, enable people to make choices about which areas they may want to multipurpose rather than limiting themselves to the conventional single use areas.

Seems smart to me.

Cheers

Shane
 
does that mean you agree with my first sentence?

24sqm a family home does not make, with spaces that are folded away and re-opened at will.

i would personally think a bit of volume and a mezzanine for separation of space would be better.

take the examples shown.

in 24sqm, where do you put all the chairs from the 12 seater dining room you miraculously 'unfolded'? imagine having to put that all away after a big dinner party, wash up in that tiny kitchen with a single dish-drawer dishwasher then start to unfold your bed and sleep in the same space you just ate, complete with spag bol and sticky wine stains on the floor.

no flopping in bed and leaving it until the morning. you might even have to run 12 chairs, 2 or three at a time, down 6 flights of stairs to the basement storage at 2:30 am.

it's not practical to live in daily for anyone.

it's a great thought process in action but with no space separation it's nothing more than a cool idea by a graduate uni student.
 
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