Reconfigurable House: Smart, Smarter, Smartest
Written by S. Kim Henson
What is the Reconfigurable House?
Essentially, the Reconfigurable House is an art & architecture project built by Usman Haque and Adam Somlai-Fischer in Tokyo and Belgium. Technically speaking, it’s an “environment constructed from thousands of low-tech components that can be ‘rewired’ by visitors. The house takes on completely new behaviors as occupants use a simple interface to configure the reactions and interactions of the house in completely different ways.”
So what happens if the house is left to its own thoughts for too long?
“It gets bored, day dreams and reconfigures itself.”
The house is made of walls, ceilings and hacked low-tech toys and gadgets. Components respond to light, sound, touch, footsteps, phone calls, mp3 players and more. Cheap construction means that the house can be recreated by less-than-tech-savvy individuals rather easily. Thus, “not only is the software of the House open, but the hardware is too.” You can even download building instructions for the group’s open-source code here.
The Building Blocks of Fantasy
Take a look at the fun rooms in the Reconfigurable House…
Mist Lasers
Monkey Corridor
Cellular Sound Barnacles
Cat Bricks
Mood Handle
How does the Reconfigurable House Top Smart Homes?
Smart homes can do things like water plants, clean the cat’s litter box, and inventory the family’s fridge to suggest evening meals. But the Reconfigurable project challenges the fact that smart homes’ wiring predisposes them to their designer’s applications, not those of the occupants. They cannot evolve structurally as time goes on. That will likely land them on the techy-accommodations-of-the-past list all too soon.
Via: Haque
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