State of Art or Tech Overkill?
Porto, Portugal based architectural firm Consexto might be the look of things to come in home design. They have executed a number of projects at the vanguard of technological and architectural integration. The firm describes themselves as “a company which offers tailored services that conjugate the fields of TECHNOLOGY, ARCHITECTURE and PRODUCT DESIGN” (don’t worry, their pictures and videos are far more articulate).
Perhaps their best known project is dubbed Closet House. The 474 sq ft home, completed in 2010, is a marvel of automation and technological integration into interior design. Virtually every part of the house is remote controlled and motor driven: there’s a moving wall that opens to reveal a hidden bed; an LCD TV that pops up from the bed’s frame; glass racks that automatically descend from the kitchen cupboards; a movie screen that descends from the ceiling; and much more. The home holds the dubious promise of never lifting a finger to do anything in your house ever again.
Their latest public project is the Consexto Lab. The interior has nary a right angle in sight. The space is replete with movie walls and books shelves, LCD screens, touch pad controls and shimmery exterior surfaces. Descriptions–mine, and far less theirs–don’t serve to convey the space’s functionality in the way their video does.
Consexto is undoubtably a talented firm, whose projects show a lot of smart ideas that could work their way into many homes in the not-so-distant future. They have created a number of elegant ways to fuse architecture with technology.
All that said, we wonder about making proprietary technologies an integral part of a space’s ability to function. In other words, will today’s cutting edge seem like a blunt instrument five or ten years from now? Let us know your thoughts in our comments section.