Alexa

What will the future of housing look like?

Did Disney’s Smart House get it right?

by
Josiah Motley
June 11, 2021

Image: Unsplash

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The humble abode hasn’t changed too much in the last couple of decades. Sure, more houses have smart assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, but typically, the household is still pretty standard.

My question – when the heck can we expect Disney’s Smart House? You know the one. It has screens for walls, absorbs spilled milkshakes into the floor, and chooses your outfits for you.

Disregard the whole part about the kid tinkering with the AI so it becomes overly obsessive towards dear dad and may or may not have tried to kill a kid. We’re here to focus on the positives and think about the future of housing.

More smart objects

Ok, so realistically, our future homes will be a lot smarter. Smarter gadgets and smarter integrations. With things like smart thermostats, we’ll definitely see our homes begin to better monitor things like temperature and air quality better.

The Internet of Things will become more robust and more systems will become intertwined. Take showers at the same time every day? Your home could start heating up the bathroom 15 minutes before you hop in. Smart lighting will become the norm, with auto and self-dimming options when entering or leaving a room.

Also, we’ll probably see an expansion on the home robot. Robot vacuums will be smarter and more capable, and we could even see robotic furniture that easily adapts to different scenarios. One company, Ori Living, already has transformable furniture, but this is just the beginning.

To protect all of these smart objects than contain sensitive information, you can also expect virus protection to move from your computers and into your whole house.

To help power all of this, solar power will continue to find itself in more homes (and cars). Companies like Dcbel are already working on that problem, offering solar-powered systems that can power both your home and car.

Smart houses, smart materials

mighty buildings 3d-printed house — Image: Mighty Buildings

Moving on to the outside of the house, it’s time to look at how we will be making these houses. The world’s population keeps growing, so the need for more houses will continue to become more of an issue. But with that, comes the question of how we’ll make the houses and where they will go?

Maybe we’ll get some kick-ass Jetsons space needles in the future, but in the meantime we’ll need more realistic options. Sustainable housing will be a focus, with building materials that aren’t so harmful to the environment. Cement, for example, is terrible for the environment is a huge contributor to greenhouse gasses.

Companies like Mighty Buildings are already looking towards the future, using 3D printing to construct large portions of houses, while being extremely eco-friendly.

There’s a good chance the actual houses will get smaller, as well, especially around cities, as space will continue to be a factor. Tiny homes were a huge fad for a handful of years and that format will could become less of a niche market and more prevalent around the world.

10 years? 20 years? 50 years?

So when could we start seeing a shift in housing? Well, it’s already happening now to an extent and as technology continues to improve, creative people and companies will find new ways to implement tech into homes. As long as this semiconductor shortage comes to an end.

Overall, right now, it’s hard to predict what the future of houses will be, but it’s safe to say that technology will continue to become more integrated into households across America and the rest of the world.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Disclosure: Mighty Buildings was a previous client of media relations firm EZPR, where KnowTechie’s editor-in-chief holds a position. However, he did not participate in this post’s writing, editing, or publishing. He remains unbiased and independent in his role at KnowTechie. Any potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed.