Future-proofing our homes
6 December 2006
Zurich Insurance launched a study in association with Arup’s award winning architectural practice, Arup Associates, investigating the implications of environment, social and energy-source changes on future house design.
The study has been produced by Zurich to help the company better understand the future needs of homeowners and business.
Zurich reveals a new house design for the future
By around 2080 our relationship with our home might have changed beyond all recognition. Working in partnership with Arup Associates, Zurich has identified what the house of the future might look like:
Modular homes: Homes could become more adaptable, expanding and contracting in response to our domestic needs. Our homes could even move with us. Walls, rooms and even floors could be added or taken away to accommodate three generations as we live longer and land becomes an even more premium commodity.
The end of the commute: Technology leaps could create a commute-free society as more people work from home. The future may also include echoes from the past; local communities, shops, services and even our relationship with our neighbours could play a far greater part in our daily lives.
Houses on stilts: In areas particularly at risk of flooding, houses built on stilts could become a common sight.
Self heating: Solar panels, gas-filled triple-glazed windows and intelligent insulation, which can automatically adjust to the external temperature to control the heat indoors, could all be standard fittings and fixtures.
Self cooling: To cope with peak summer temperatures that might regularly reach seven degrees higher than today, energy-hungry air conditioning units will be replaced by pipes carrying cool, recycled water built into, and around, ceilings and beams. Solar shades and houses built with extended overhangs would also help beat the heat. As temperatures regularly soar to 35oC and above, opening windows could become less effective during the heat of the day and patterns used in Mediterranean climates might become more common.
Energy self sufficient: The UK might be growing its own energy thanks to greater use of bio-fuels from plants, such as rapeseed. Renewable energy sources could be a necessity, as energy generation becomes a community activity with smaller, local substations supplied with energy generated by family wind turbines and solar panels.
Water independent: Today’s bathrooms could represent relics of a more indulgent age as water could become a luxury the planet can’t afford to waste. The priority will be saving water and our homes will be tailor-made to re-use and recycle water. In the house of the future the entire water used and waste produced could be re-used and recycled.
Plug in cars: As our homes become power sources in their own right, at night we could find ourselves putting out the cat and plugging in the car to charge up its batteries at the same time.
Death of DIY: The more hi-tech the house becomes, with solar panels, wind-turbines and geothermal energy systems, the less able we might become in DIY-ing our house repairs. Increased modularity will make it easier for us to adapt to our homes.
Roof gardens: The vista of pitched roofs spanning suburbia could disappear to be replaced by either flat roofs covered with gardens of gravel or vegetation to aid water gathering and help minimise flood damage, or inverted pitched roofs to maximise rainwater harvesting.
Flora and fauna: As regular droughts and water shortages grip the nation, our gardens could take on a new look with thirsty, delicate plants such as roses and hydrangeas supplanted by olive trees and cacti.
Zurich commissioned Arup’s award winning architectural practice, Arup Associates, to work with them on a house design of the future because by working with experts like Arup Associates they can stay abreast of relevant changes and developments that could affect customers. As insurers and design consultants, Zurich and Arup Associates have a shared interest in the present and future comfort and protection of home-owners.
‘History shows that we can’t predict the future with absolute certainty, but we can prepare for it. Through this study we have tried to imagine how changes in our environment and working and social lives may impact the types of homes we’ll live in,’ said Martin Horsler from Zurich.
‘Our houses may not be built on stilts and, sadly, commuting may still be part of daily life, but one thing we can be sure of is that change happens and the world of 2080 will look quite different from today. As insurers our role is to make sure our customers have the protection they need. We plan ahead to ensure we offer products that are all the more relevant and secure today. In this study we have tried to anticipate how houses could look in the future so that we are better able to prepare our customers for whatever happens today, next week and even, perhaps, in 2080.
