from smart home to ambient home

Influx Insights — 2007-06-14T14:15:36Z

Influx attended an excellent mini conference at CCA hosted and curated by Geoff Manaugh of Bldgblog fame.

The line-up of speakers:

Geoff Manaaugh- Gave an amazing talk about his pet interests that included- articifical islands, micro nations, fault lines and underground cities
Erik Davies- Talking up California's eclectic spiritual architecture
Walter Murch- The academy award winning movie editor- talking about the connection between the Pantheon in Rome and Copernicus
Rebar Group- A San-Francisco group of acitvist artist/performers who's projects explore the concept of space

One of the most interesting presentations was given by the architects Iwamoto Scott- who talked about their recent projects. One which stuck out was the Jellyfish house; a vision of a home (50 years into the future) located on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.

It was full of lots of amazing ideas:

- The house is built with a skin designed to filter water from the bay and rain water- the filters would use a combination of UV (just like many bottled waters we buy today) and titanium dioxide
- The ambience of the environment is changed by the user- the color of the walls and roof could be changed at a flick or a switch
- The skin of the home would also act like a digital membrane- carry digital circuits and technologies

The last element reflects the evolution from the concept of the smart home (a concept that's been with us for the last 10 years) as a home that you program, to the ambient home; something even more intelligent, in that it reacts to changes in stimuli. This is already a theme we are starting to see more in consumer electronics and building materials.

Image: Iwamoto Scott

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from smart home to ambient home