Imagine waking up on cue to your blinds opening, floor warming, and ensuite lights turning on. You begin your morning routine with a warm shower and an espresso machine that has already begun whirring, it’s all possible with Smart technology.
Smart technology is the latest large-scale amendment to home design in the 21st Century. Although not yet a necessity in your home, recent developments from companies like Google, Amazon, and Phillips have created a new way to experience and interact with your home. These technologies range from thermostat modulators, light adjusters, security devices, and personal home assistants. These tools are just that; tools. They are designed to accomplish tasks, be efficient, and not get in the way. It’s important to plan how you will integrate home technology when designing your home, and not the other way around.

(FrankFranco Architects – Villa Argento)ZWAVE connected smart devices allow you to seamlessly integrate a plethora of devices from multiple manufactures into your future home design. This house was designed to utilize smart home technology from its early inception, blanketing the home in a web of integrated devices.

When thinking about smart technology, think about your daily routine. Think about how these tools can enhance your life, rather than add a layer of burden to daily routines. Compartmentalize your routines so that can be improved by smart technologies, and think of them in a logical progression at a tactile level. Think about your daily habits, from the moment you wake up to the point that you fall asleep at night. Consider your local environment; temperatures, lighting, the path of travel to your rooms of importance, and the places you spend the most time. With smart technologies, you have the ability to passively adjust your home to fit your needs, as well as the ability to manually edit your needs on the fly with active participation. Designing for passive smart technologies makes more sense than designing for active ones as you do not want your routines to revolve around technology. The goal should be to have these tools work with your routine, so orienting your home around them only makes sense.

(FrankFranco Architects – Casa Cascade)
PHILLIPS offers a series of lighting solutions under its HUE brand umbrella that can be controlled through an app that allows you to set your mood at will. Plan out your routines in your mind so they can be actualized in a building.

Now that you have taken stock of your daily routines, imagine how you can improve that with a new home. How would you plan your bedroom location in orientation to the bathroom? How do hallways affect your lighting in connected rooms? Everyone’s day progresses in different directions, so knowing your individual path is a necessity.

Remember that morning routine? Now, consider the moments when you’re coming home from a day of work? You drive up to your garage, it senses your phone connecting to the home wifi, automatically opening it. The interior temperature warms up, the mudroom’s lights turn on, and your fireplace is lit. Your path from your doorstep to your kitchen is illuminated, your music that was playing in the car turns on softly in the background, and your security system ensures your privacy for the evening. These additions to your routine via smart technologies are non-invasive and save you time.

(FrankFranco Architects – Villa Argento)
Let your house feel alive through proper planning and coordination. SONOS offers architecturally integrated sound systems that can blend seamlessly into your home. These same systems can connect to your other smart devices, blanketing your home with tethered audio.

Lastly, consider how you can use active smart technologies to ensure comfort in your own home. From the touch of a screen, you can adjust your lighting, change your music, and turn it down for the night. From an architectural perspective, these technologies provide new ways to design homes, but more importantly, design new experiences. Similar to considering electricity and plumbing, protocols for designing with smart technologies should be outlined at the beginning of a project to make them the most effective and efficient.