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2054: A FUTURE HOUSE (p. 2 of 4)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | May '04

KITCHEN

Room
In the post-war 1950s, technology spurred innovation on nearly every front, including the home. Similarly, the current electronic revolution will bring unforeseen inventions over the next 50 years. For that reason, we’ve used a 1950s visual style to present our kitchen of the future.

The Breakhouse Insert 3000 system will create a state-of-the-art kitchen over one weekend: Just design, call and install. Choose your layout and materials, like Southeast Asian aqua-farmed bamboo or engineered woven grass. Using Roomscan software and your home’s tele-imaging system, you can transmit site measurements directly to our plant, where your insert will be assembled in one working day. Our team will remove your existing kitchen, install our patented receiver armatures and the utility connections, and then roll the Breakhouse 3000 in place – like rolling a drawer into a cabinet.

Halifax's Breakhouse Design, founded by Glen McMinn and Peter Wuensch, produces innovative urban restaurant, retail and office spaces.
www.breakhouse.ca

Gadgets

Future food production will give us a reliable supply of fresh protein and produce all year-round, but at a cost: chemically saturated, genetically modified and possibly disease-laden food. You’ll be security obsessed, time stressed and selective about what you eat. Your kitchen gadgets should blend technology seamlessly into your life and make food a rich, gratifying family experience again.

All grocery packaging will be embedded with programmable radio frequency ID tags. A processor/reader worn on clothing will scan and input inventory data from the tags, then interact with voice-activated plasma screen cupboard fronts, creating a virtual kitchen manager. View nutritional and safety breakdowns of your food, connect to cooking demos and recipes or link on-line to municipal recycling schedules. At rest, the screens display atmospheric digital images to suit any mood or decor. –Kerr and Company Inc.

Helen Kerr's Kerr and Company Inc. is a Toronto industrial design firm that creates strategic, research-based product innovations.
www.kerr-co.com

Gadgets

Fifty years from now, technology will be integrated into our objects and surroundings so discreetly that, in many ways, we will appear to have taken a step back in simplicity. We predict that gizmos called "table pals" will wirelessly connect to the Internet via your home-computing system, patiently walk you through downloaded recipes, then accompany you to the table, where they’ll provide dinner theatre or perhaps a serenade. They’ll also record messages for household members, read e-mail and transcribe grocery lists or random brilliant thoughts.

Once you’re freed from all those tasks, the social aspects of cooking and eating will take priority again, and spaces will become welcoming and transformable to suit occupants and their tasks. The tools you use will intuitively tap into your "inner chef," helping you perform hands-on tasks rather than automating and synthesizing them. –Vessel Inc.

Duane Smith and Stéfane Barbeau of Boston-area Vessel Inc. design the popular Candela lamps, among other innovative home products.
www.vessel-store.com

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | May '04