Sustainable Smart Homes: Ultimate Machines for Living
SPACES 04 January 2013
Sustainable Smart Homes: Ultimate Machines for Living Cuttingedge green technologies are producing a new wave of dynamic, ultra energyefficient buildings changing how consumers interact with their homes. Stylus examines game changing examples of sustainable residential design that are starting to influence the electronics and automotive industries.
© SMG 2013
LIVE/WORK Sustainable Smart Homes: Ultimate Machines for Living Cutting-edge green technologies are producing a new wave of dynamic, ultra energy-efficient buildings changing how consumers interact with their homes. Stylus examines game-changing examples of sustainable residential design that are starting to influence the electronics and automotive industries.
Efficiency House Plus in Berlin
Self-Powering Houses Shaking Up the Automotive Industry Homes that are selfpowered or produce more energy than they consume are feeding a growing consumer appetite for more autonomous and ecosensitive lifestyles. With many designed to not only power the home but also to channel surplus energy into other objects, such as vehicles for example, the impact is falling way beyond architecture. In late 2011, German architect Werner Sobek constructed the awardwinning Efficiency House Plus in Berlin: a grid positive (generates more energy than consumed) family house that doubles as a power supply for two electric vehicles. The concept is made from 100% recyclable materials and produces twice the energy consumed by the house by using solar panels, retaining it via superinsulation, storage batteries and a predictive energy management system. Germany's federal ministry of traffic, building and urban development, which funded the Berlin prototype, plans to build another prototype in Stuttgart in 2013 with a view to a wider roll out.
© SMG 2013
Efficiency House Plus, Berlin
In late 2011, Japanese car manufacturer Toyota's residential arm, Toyota Housing Corporation (Toyota Home), revealed the “Since Asuie” smart home. Also gridpositive, its surplus energy powers electric or hybrid vehicles. The smart home allows homeowners to store lowpriced electricity at night to use the following day, avoiding inflated daytime costs. Toyota plans to massproduce the design throughout Japan. Japanese automotive group Nissan, in collaboration with electronics manufacturer Nichicon Corporation, has created a “vehicle to house” system, dubbed V2H, whereby the car powers the home. Owners of Nissan’s Leaf electric car will be able to install a Nichicondeveloped EV Power Station unit to power their home for up to two days in instances of a power outage – an increasingly appealing premise as volatile global weather patterns become more common.
Since Asuie, Toyota
Nissan Leaf
© SMG 2013
For more on this topic, see StateoftheArt Survival: Buildings that Defend and Protect and Survivaliving. Smart Solabo homes, launched by Japanese housing manufacturer Sumitomo Forestry in July 2012, are the first to use Nissan's V2H system. For more on ecoautomotive developments, see Eco Cars: The Outlook.
New-Gen Prefabs Take Flexible Sustainability to the Masses Prefab home manufacturers are incorporating cuttingedge software into the construction process to make sustainable living more accessible – potentially providing housing solutions for developing or disasterstruck nations, or buildings that need to be relocated or adapted. In spring 2012, Danish architects Eentileen, in partnership with British digital fabrication specialist Facit Homes, produced Villa Asserbo: Denmark's first digitally fabricated home. Using a computerised milling machine (CNC), cutting edge software and 800 sheets of sustainably sourced plywood, the superinsulated home was ‘printed’ in under 24 hours, then ‘snapped’ together. Bespoke manufacture drastically minimises waste and virtually eliminates construction error; the absence of industrial machinery supports widespread use. Frederik Agdrup, partner at Eentileen, describes it as “a highly adaptable system, which can be implemented in regions with limited resources”. At €2,010 per sq m, the cost is comparable to a conventional Danish wooden home, but Agdrup estimates future versions will cost 20% less. Facit Nordic launches in early 2013.
Villa Asserbo, Denmark
© SMG 2013
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For more on Facit, see Facit: Future Construction. Unity Homes, launched in October 2012, is a line of 12 different prefab houses created by US company Bensonwood Homes. The first US prefab to achieve netzero energy consumption, the homes are also cut by advanced CNC machines and built in one to three days. Bensonwood's OpenBuilt concept organises usually messy mechanical systems into specific panels, allowing occupants simpler access for future repairs and upgrades. Bensonwood Homes founder Tedd Benson told Stylus the concept is “the key to homeowner control. It’s a completely rational approach that is intended to allow the building to be adaptable for the occupants.”
Unity Homes, Hampshire
© SMG 2013
Berlinbased architects Barkow Leibinger’s Smart Material House in Hamburg is a fourstorey, lowcost prefab apartment complex for lowincome families. Created using the new material selfinsulating infralight concrete, it boasts 30% the weight and carbon impact of conventional poured or precast concrete, helping to push buildings toward zero carbon emissions.
© SMG 2013
For more on gamechanging materials innovations, see Future Materials for Architects. For more on prefab spaces, see Primetime for Prefabs.
Smart Material House, Hamburg
© SMG 2013
The Connected Home: Intuitive Concepts Empower Consumers Constant innovations in the field of energy monitoring and appliance control are enabling architects to create more intuitive architectural systems, responsive to their inhabitants' needs. In December 2012, MIT's (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Mobile Experience Laboratory, a thinktank focused on reinventing connections between people, IT and the built environment, and Fondazione Bruno Kessler, an Italian scientific research organisation, completed the Connected Sustainable Home prototype in Trento, Italy. The single family home features an intelligent sensing and control network that allows realtime monitoring by inhabitants using a tabletbased interface, while also regulating itself for thermal comfort. It does this by combining realtime data from multiple internal temperature and humidity sensors, occupancy sensors (all wirelessly connected) and an exterior weather station. The live data is further finetuned by incorporating historical regional weather data and individual preferences – both programmed by inhabitants and inferred by the system. In short, the system analyses the inhabitants' previous preferences, then assesses what it thinks they’d like – producing that ambience at minimal costs. The solar wall on the south façade of the home features programmable, electrosensitive windows. Each windowpane is made up of a composite of two digitally controlled materials; a layer of liquid crystal (polymer dispersed liquid crystal – PDLC) to adjust visibility and secure privacy, and an electrochromic layer to control solar penetration and thermal performance. There is also a personal aspect: adjustment of these windows creates patterns on the streetfacing façade. Kotsopoulos added: “It’s a medium of communication and also selfexpression within the urban landscape. It is an attempt to reestablish the expressive attributes of fenestration systems in the late digital age.”
© SMG 2013
Connected Sustainable Home, Itlay
In late 2011, Russian architects Polygon Labs and property developer Zagorodny Proekt partnered with Danish window manufacturer Velux Group to introduce the highly energy efficient Active House into a new residential community just outside Moscow. Considered Russia's most sustainable residence, occupants have access to a climate control and monitoring touchscreen system that measures temperature, humidity and CO2 levels and adjusts the electric roof windows accordingly. The windows feature a unique coating to prevent snow sticking to it, helping to maintain interior warmth, even during 30 degree Celsius weather. For more on the power of facades to both promote and protect, see Radical Facades. For more on realtime monitoring and intuitive systems, see Light + Building 2012.
© SMG 2013
Active House, Russia
© SMG 2013
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Stylus Summary New developments in the field of green technology are feeding a growing consumer appetite to live not only more environmentally sound lifestyles, but also more autonomously and costeffectively.
Some of the most significant developments centre on self powering hybrid concepts fusing homes and vehicles. These concepts may radically alter the future of both industries. Advances within the prefabricated building sector will allow lowcost sustainable building concepts to benefit regions that are currently in development, considered inhospitable or in need of spaces that can be moved or adapted frequently.
The most significant smart concepts are coming from fusions of material sciences and information technology that allow the inhabitant to personalise and control their own living environment. Work towards systems that can be connected, and then manipulated by individuals to create a sense of autonomy. Concepts that offer a level of protection are of growing relevance such as homes/cars able to power each other in case of natural disaster. From the facade to the garage and home appliances, consider the house not just as a shell, but as the ultimate machine for living.
© SMG 2013
Sustainable Smart Homes: Ultimate Machines for Living Cuttingedge green technologies are producing a new wave of dynamic, ultra energyefficient buildings changing how consumers interact with their homes. Stylus examines game changing examples of sustainable residential design that are starting to influence the electronics and automotive industries.
© SMG 2013
LIVE/WORK Sustainable Smart Homes: Ultimate Machines for Living Cutting-edge green technologies are producing a new wave of dynamic, ultra energy-efficient buildings changing how consumers interact with their homes. Stylus examines game-changing examples of sustainable residential design that are starting to influence the electronics and automotive industries.
Efficiency House Plus in Berlin
Self-Powering Houses Shaking Up the Automotive Industry Homes that are selfpowered or produce more energy than they consume are feeding a growing consumer appetite for more autonomous and ecosensitive lifestyles. With many designed to not only power the home but also to channel surplus energy into other objects, such as vehicles for example, the impact is falling way beyond architecture. In late 2011, German architect Werner Sobek constructed the awardwinning Efficiency House Plus in Berlin: a grid positive (generates more energy than consumed) family house that doubles as a power supply for two electric vehicles. The concept is made from 100% recyclable materials and produces twice the energy consumed by the house by using solar panels, retaining it via superinsulation, storage batteries and a predictive energy management system. Germany's federal ministry of traffic, building and urban development, which funded the Berlin prototype, plans to build another prototype in Stuttgart in 2013 with a view to a wider roll out.
© SMG 2013
Efficiency House Plus, Berlin
In late 2011, Japanese car manufacturer Toyota's residential arm, Toyota Housing Corporation (Toyota Home), revealed the “Since Asuie” smart home. Also gridpositive, its surplus energy powers electric or hybrid vehicles. The smart home allows homeowners to store lowpriced electricity at night to use the following day, avoiding inflated daytime costs. Toyota plans to massproduce the design throughout Japan. Japanese automotive group Nissan, in collaboration with electronics manufacturer Nichicon Corporation, has created a “vehicle to house” system, dubbed V2H, whereby the car powers the home. Owners of Nissan’s Leaf electric car will be able to install a Nichicondeveloped EV Power Station unit to power their home for up to two days in instances of a power outage – an increasingly appealing premise as volatile global weather patterns become more common.
Since Asuie, Toyota
Nissan Leaf
© SMG 2013
For more on this topic, see StateoftheArt Survival: Buildings that Defend and Protect and Survivaliving. Smart Solabo homes, launched by Japanese housing manufacturer Sumitomo Forestry in July 2012, are the first to use Nissan's V2H system. For more on ecoautomotive developments, see Eco Cars: The Outlook.
New-Gen Prefabs Take Flexible Sustainability to the Masses Prefab home manufacturers are incorporating cuttingedge software into the construction process to make sustainable living more accessible – potentially providing housing solutions for developing or disasterstruck nations, or buildings that need to be relocated or adapted. In spring 2012, Danish architects Eentileen, in partnership with British digital fabrication specialist Facit Homes, produced Villa Asserbo: Denmark's first digitally fabricated home. Using a computerised milling machine (CNC), cutting edge software and 800 sheets of sustainably sourced plywood, the superinsulated home was ‘printed’ in under 24 hours, then ‘snapped’ together. Bespoke manufacture drastically minimises waste and virtually eliminates construction error; the absence of industrial machinery supports widespread use. Frederik Agdrup, partner at Eentileen, describes it as “a highly adaptable system, which can be implemented in regions with limited resources”. At €2,010 per sq m, the cost is comparable to a conventional Danish wooden home, but Agdrup estimates future versions will cost 20% less. Facit Nordic launches in early 2013.
Villa Asserbo, Denmark
© SMG 2013
© SMG 2013
© SMG 2013
© SMG 2013
© SMG 2013
© SMG 2013
For more on Facit, see Facit: Future Construction. Unity Homes, launched in October 2012, is a line of 12 different prefab houses created by US company Bensonwood Homes. The first US prefab to achieve netzero energy consumption, the homes are also cut by advanced CNC machines and built in one to three days. Bensonwood's OpenBuilt concept organises usually messy mechanical systems into specific panels, allowing occupants simpler access for future repairs and upgrades. Bensonwood Homes founder Tedd Benson told Stylus the concept is “the key to homeowner control. It’s a completely rational approach that is intended to allow the building to be adaptable for the occupants.”
Unity Homes, Hampshire
© SMG 2013
Berlinbased architects Barkow Leibinger’s Smart Material House in Hamburg is a fourstorey, lowcost prefab apartment complex for lowincome families. Created using the new material selfinsulating infralight concrete, it boasts 30% the weight and carbon impact of conventional poured or precast concrete, helping to push buildings toward zero carbon emissions.
© SMG 2013
For more on gamechanging materials innovations, see Future Materials for Architects. For more on prefab spaces, see Primetime for Prefabs.
Smart Material House, Hamburg
© SMG 2013
The Connected Home: Intuitive Concepts Empower Consumers Constant innovations in the field of energy monitoring and appliance control are enabling architects to create more intuitive architectural systems, responsive to their inhabitants' needs. In December 2012, MIT's (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Mobile Experience Laboratory, a thinktank focused on reinventing connections between people, IT and the built environment, and Fondazione Bruno Kessler, an Italian scientific research organisation, completed the Connected Sustainable Home prototype in Trento, Italy. The single family home features an intelligent sensing and control network that allows realtime monitoring by inhabitants using a tabletbased interface, while also regulating itself for thermal comfort. It does this by combining realtime data from multiple internal temperature and humidity sensors, occupancy sensors (all wirelessly connected) and an exterior weather station. The live data is further finetuned by incorporating historical regional weather data and individual preferences – both programmed by inhabitants and inferred by the system. In short, the system analyses the inhabitants' previous preferences, then assesses what it thinks they’d like – producing that ambience at minimal costs. The solar wall on the south façade of the home features programmable, electrosensitive windows. Each windowpane is made up of a composite of two digitally controlled materials; a layer of liquid crystal (polymer dispersed liquid crystal – PDLC) to adjust visibility and secure privacy, and an electrochromic layer to control solar penetration and thermal performance. There is also a personal aspect: adjustment of these windows creates patterns on the streetfacing façade. Kotsopoulos added: “It’s a medium of communication and also selfexpression within the urban landscape. It is an attempt to reestablish the expressive attributes of fenestration systems in the late digital age.”
© SMG 2013
Connected Sustainable Home, Itlay
In late 2011, Russian architects Polygon Labs and property developer Zagorodny Proekt partnered with Danish window manufacturer Velux Group to introduce the highly energy efficient Active House into a new residential community just outside Moscow. Considered Russia's most sustainable residence, occupants have access to a climate control and monitoring touchscreen system that measures temperature, humidity and CO2 levels and adjusts the electric roof windows accordingly. The windows feature a unique coating to prevent snow sticking to it, helping to maintain interior warmth, even during 30 degree Celsius weather. For more on the power of facades to both promote and protect, see Radical Facades. For more on realtime monitoring and intuitive systems, see Light + Building 2012.
© SMG 2013
Active House, Russia
© SMG 2013
© SMG 2013
© SMG 2013
Stylus Summary New developments in the field of green technology are feeding a growing consumer appetite to live not only more environmentally sound lifestyles, but also more autonomously and costeffectively.
Some of the most significant developments centre on self powering hybrid concepts fusing homes and vehicles. These concepts may radically alter the future of both industries. Advances within the prefabricated building sector will allow lowcost sustainable building concepts to benefit regions that are currently in development, considered inhospitable or in need of spaces that can be moved or adapted frequently.
The most significant smart concepts are coming from fusions of material sciences and information technology that allow the inhabitant to personalise and control their own living environment. Work towards systems that can be connected, and then manipulated by individuals to create a sense of autonomy. Concepts that offer a level of protection are of growing relevance such as homes/cars able to power each other in case of natural disaster. From the facade to the garage and home appliances, consider the house not just as a shell, but as the ultimate machine for living.
© SMG 2013
