The Future Is Now
Unique Homes celebrates 40 years of visionary “Homes of the Future.”
By Camilla McLaughlinInstead of pods balanced above land or water, bubble houses, geodesic domes or any one of the dozen or more prototypes architects, futurists and just plain dreamers conjured up in the last 40 years, homes today appear very much like they did when Unique Homes first hit newsstands in the early 1970s. While exteriors have undergone some small tweaks, interiors have been altered dramatically as the division between rooms relaxed; ceiling heights raised and private spaces became as important as the other areas.
Materials and technologies not on the drawing boards decades ago bring new methods of construction and energy efficiency, opening possibilities unthinkable years ago. Simply the amount of wall space devoted to windows would baffle anyone making predictions in the energy-conscious early years of the 1980s, when visions of in-house fuel cells and mirrored satellites generating electricity in space filled dreams of the future.
Still, many features common in upscale homes today were envisioned as long as 40 years ago. The idea of a smart house, controlled by a computer, dates back to the 1970s or earlier. Depictions of the home of the future circa 1980 and earlier might portray robots accomplishing everyday tasks, but these same concept homes also featured video shopping; a worldwide communication system connecting homes, businesses and knowledge bases; wall-sized flat-screen televisions; and a large computer station that becomes the hub of the house with multiple displays for video calls and conferencing, home monitoring and communications within the home.
In this issue’s celebration of Unique Homes’ 40th anniversary, we give you a look at the “Homes of the Future,” then and now.
Legend:
✓ = It happened.
✗ = It didn’t.
? = Still could happen.
[...] The Future is Now As part of our 40th anniversary celebration, we thought it would be fun to look back at “Homes of the Future” predictions from throughout the years. Does your computerized bath give you the “all-clean” signal? Do robots do your housework? Does a computer select items from your freezer for you and deliver them directly to your microwave? Take a look at some of most interesting predictions through the decades, and see what has come true and what has not. By Camilla McLaughlin [...]