Banny Banerjee, senior research engineer, d.school
The house will have an identity, intelligence, memories, and perhaps even moods and opinions. The house will be meshed with a computing and systems infrastructure, with many sensors and feedback interfaces. There will be more localized storage of water and more renewable energy generated on-site.
People will interact with their homes in different ways—for example, doors will let you in or not based on who you are, not on any physical key, and [the house] will tell you that you're forgetting your passport when you're off to the airport (if a passport is not an implant by then).
Unless you force it into a dumb mode, your home will play a more active role in maintaining your health, social life and sleep. It will remind you of things you need to do, pay your bills, make sure you drink enough water, analyze your pee, align people's calendars and invite people on your behalf.
Margaret Dyer-Chamberlain, senior research scholar and managing director, Stanford Center on Longevity
Every house will be designed to support the preference of Americans to age in place in their homes and communities. Houses will have the things we associate now with the homes of older people, but they will be designed into homes in ways that become invisible. For example, bathrooms will have grab bars, but they will look like decorative towel bars. These will support independence for people of all ages, from parents carrying a small child to teens with a sports injury to older adults.
All homes will support social connections across distances with easy-to-use technologies that are a standard part of life. These technologies will provide resources for young parents, connect young people in school with teachers and friends, and provide social connections for singles and for older people who might be homebound. Medical monitoring and virtual doctor visits will be supported at home, as will general safety monitoring.
John Barton, director of architectural design program
Homes will be smaller but much more connected to the world. Houses will be clad in complex external materials that control solar gain and harvest solar energy. The technology will be so integrated that we won't see the tech, just the material. There will be less wood and more glass and metal. Garages will no longer be built: Everyone will use autonomous vehicles they are not likely to own (they will lease time from roving fleets of shared vehicles). For older homes, the garage will be converted to a small apartment. Without garages, houses will be closer to the street, without lawns but with more planting in the rear.
Refrigerators will do multiple duties for food storage and cooking, controlled from anywhere. Dryers will be incorporated into washers and be much smaller. The house will have portable technology for holographic "televisions" that are fully programmable: We will make our own stories and "produce" them for our use and that of others.
