HOMES EVOLVE THROUGH THE CENTURIES
Past, present and future: Project compares living spaces in 1821, 2021 and the 2100s
If you grew up watching The Jetsons, the animated American sitcom featuring a family that lived in a version of a century in the future, you'll remember the robotic contraptions and push-button conveniences that pushed our imaginations to new limits.
The first episodes ran in 1962 and got some things right, including video chats. Of course, travelling back in time to see how houses have evolved can be as exciting as envisioning the future home. The folks at American Home Shield, which founded the home warranty industry in 1971, did just that to mark the company's 50th anniversary.
They teamed up with Neomam Studios, a creative studio based in the U.K., to illustrate how the rooms of a home looked in 1821, how they typically look in 2021, and what to expect in the 2100s based on future home concepts and patents.
The result is a set of renderings that merges each room's past, present and future forms into one photo.
KITCHEN
In an 1821 kitchen, cooking was done over an open fire and the temperature and speed of cooking were controlled by raising the pot higher or lower above the flames. The Oberlin Stove, a cast-iron cooking stove that could burn coal or wood, was patented in 1834. A turnspit dog, also known as `the kitchen dog,' was bred to run on a wheel called `a turnspit' to cook on a spit.
Today's kitchens remain the workhorse of the home, albeit with the help of technology that 1820s families could never imagine. As showcased at the annual consumer technology show in Las Vegas last year, the latest generation of smart fridges features transparent front doors and technology that suggests recipes based on fridge inventory.
Technology also defines American Home Shield and Neomam's imagined 2121 kitchen.
“Imagine a refrigerator that can have a nice glass of water waiting for you when you get to the kitchen ordered directly from your mobile phone,” they suggest.
They also take cues from Italian kitchen designer Miton's MT700G kitchen, which features circular worktops and cabinets.
BEDROOM
Four-poster beds with curtains were commonplace in 1820s homes.
“Bedrooms often had drafts and could be cold at night,” the forecasters explain. “The curtains could be closed to help keep the occupant of the bed warm.”
Fast forward a century and the bedroom might be outfitted with a virtual wardrobe. Mirrored glass on wardrobe doors will be superseded by a virtual mirror — an intelligent interactive surface that will display the contents of our wardrobe that we can browse and virtually try on using gestural technology.
LIVING ROOM
`Chinoiserie,' the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other East Asian artistic traditions, was popularized in the 1700s and continued into the next millennium. A home belonging to a hunting family, on the other hand, might display a gun and antlers.
TVS, the focal point of many living spaces today, will play an even bigger role in the future. They will be computers, game consoles, multimedia entertainment systems and video phones. They'll offer sci-fi user interfaces like in-air gestures and voice command.
DINING ROOM
The formal dining room was a very important room in the Victorian household and may have featured an oak table, a handcarved oak fireplace, gilded ceiling and wallpaper that was hand screen-printed.
What might a dining room of the future look like?
Our forecasters suggest a bleached-out white-on-white design and add a floor-to-ceiling fish tank to fill the room with life.
BATHROOM
In an 1820s home, fixtures were fitted into wood, so everything felt like furniture and on par with a bedroom or parlour. Sinks were a pitcher and basin on a washstand that was typically made with a marble top. Today's bathrooms are often outfitted with luxurious features, and are one of the few spaces in the house where you can get away with strong, vivid colours that might be considered over the top in other rooms.
The bathroom of tomorrow, meanwhile, could feature an interactive mirror that displays all the information from your cellphone so you can browse your emails while brushing your teeth. American Home Shield and Neomam predict a `UFO' bathtub that's made of carbon fibre and stays completely rigid — even when fully loaded. Designed to use in a wet room, it suspends from the walls and doesn't touch the floor.
Finally, our forecasters predict future homebuyers will also want an apocalypse bunker to protect their families in an increasingly turbulent world.