UNStudio designs The W.I.N.D. House - an expansion of the smart home

‘Superliving’ and the expansion of the smart home

The ‘homes of the future’, previously the stuff of fantasy exhibited only in World's Fairs and science fiction, are increasingly becoming a reality. Automation and connectivity are making it possible for today’s smart homes to integrate information technologies through which systems and appliances are able to communicate in an integrated way, resulting in vastly increased convenience, energy efficiency, safety and security.

Ben van Berkel: “The contemporary smart home not only enables the control of appliances from afar and incorporates the necessary installations and materials to aim for a zero net energy building, it also responds to changes in today’s lifestyles.”

As such, flexible floor plans are incorporated which allow for diversity in function in order to correspond to the family’s changing needs and thus offer choice for gathering, seclusion, work or play. The organisation of the contemporary home therefore enables the residents to curate their own home life, both now and in the future.

Ben van Berkel: “A challenge for the architect in the design of today’s single family home is a response that accurately reflects the degrees of flexibility, sustainability and automation required by the residents and the incorporation of these into the overall concept of the design.”

The W.I.N.D. House in the province of North-Holland incorporates both integrated sustainable solutions and home automation, whilst flexibility of spaces, the comprehensive assimilation of the surrounding landscape and a centrifugal circulation form the basis of the design.

Project overview