RETAILOBSERVER.COM JANUARY 2017
44
VIRGINIA TECH DEBUTS
FINAL PHASE OF
FUTUREHAUS:
The Bedroom & Home
Office of the Future
V
irginia Tech will unveil the final phase of FutureHAUS – the
revolutionary prototype for the home of the future – with the
bedroom, closet, and home office at the world's largest
kitchen and bath industry expo, KBIS, January 10 through 12 in
Orlando, Florida.
Like the three previous prototypes for the kitchen, bath, and living
room, the latest phase of FutureHAUS offers a stunning preview of
how digital technologies, cutting-edge products, and smart building
design will unite to make our bedrooms and home offices more
responsive to our future needs and way of living.
Collaborating with their lead sponsor, California Closets, and
industry partners including DuPont and Häfele America Co., the
student-faculty research team created rooms that demonstrate
how advanced technologies and appliances can be seamlessly
incorporated in our homes using a modular style of building. The
team is led by Joseph Wheeler, professor of architecture in Virginia
Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies and co-director of
the Center for Design Research.
"With the fourth and final phase of FutureHAUS, Virginia Tech,
California Closets, and our industry partners are showing how smart
design and technology can solve universal challenges in home
building to make homes of the future more efficient, sustainable, and
affordable," Wheeler said. "The concepts modeled in FutureHAUS
can be used to build homes that intuitively respond to the needs of
everyone from millennials and centennials to the aging and
housebound – allowing people to live better and more sustainably."
F U T U R E T R E N D S
