LIVING TOMORROW
PLACEText: Jan Schiettecatte
“Living Tomorrow” is a permanent exhibition where you can see how tomorrow’s technologies’ will integrate with our daily lives. Next to an exhibition, the project functions as an R&D-testground, as well as a synergetic and a social platform for partner companies. Microsoft, Xerox, 3com and Toshiba are just some of the big names that provide the leading-edge technology around which the project is centered. The house of the future is revised/rebuilt every 5 years to keep up with the fast pace of today’s technological development.
© Living Tomorrow 2000 Brussels
Living Tomorrow is housed inside a standalone complex of contemporary architecture situated just outside Brussels. Concrete, steel and glass are used extensively.
Inside the house, we are taken on a guided tour and halt at key places for explanation and demos: the living room, bathroom, kitchen, home theater, sleeping space and office. Work of Belgian architects, designers and artists play an important role in the classy interior decoration.
The House is wired throughout for full remote control (e.g. from the workplace). This can be as simple as warming up food or as complicated as authorizing access to maintenance personnel. Confronted with security threats, the house fills itself with a cloud of artificial mist thus reducing visibility and criminal ambitions. The intelligent positioning of photovoltaic cells in the glass roof allows an uninterrupted and even aesthetic lightfall, next to providing maximal solar energy. New painting techniques and materials make for a clear interior despite the use of dark colors.
The garden features a jaccuzzi (of course) and a pool. Tomorrow’s outdoor swimming pool will look greenish, clear-pond-like instead of bright blue for harmonious integration with the natural hues of the landscape.
When we step inside the living room our attention is drawn to the tall windows. An air-buffering system on window-level ensures natural continuous air refreshment. Air-displacement technology provides a smoother, more natural climate management than twentieth centuries’ air-conditioners.
At regular intervals, the walls house discreet domotic consoles. These allow fingertip-configuration of ambient light or music for cosy reading or interacting with the plasma screen on the wall. As future living rooms will evolve towards virtual or real-life meeting places, televison-watching will shift to dedicated “home theaters”.
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