Homes of the future: the ‘15-minute city’, drone construction, self-cleaning and ‘living’ materials, and hybrid work/home spaces
- Property consultancy Knight Frank’s predictions for future home design in advanced economies show very different living spaces from today
- Expected to see more urban spaces being returned to nature, and innovative materials including cellulose and materials that are self-cleaning and self-fixing
In a Homes of the Future chapter in its 2022 Wealth Report, real estate consultancy Knight Frank predicts that homes in advanced economies could be almost unrecognisable in decades to come.
Referencing the recent video, Singapore 2100, by Singapore-based architectural practice WOHA, the projection expands on the well-accepted idea of “a 15-minute city”, an urban community where everything people need, from shopping to leisure and work, is within a 15-minute walk of their home.
The premise is that, as urban populations grow, the built-environment’s footprint will shrink – a necessity born of the climate crisis.
We’ll be doing more underground, and undersea, freeing up half of the urban space to be released back to nature. Food will be produced on our doorstep (mainly plant-based or cell-grown), all important resources shall be self-generating, and construction will be done by drones and robots.
Fanciful predictions are nothing new, and as Gregory Kovacs, design director at architect firm Benoy points out, rarely do they eventuate. He prefers to look at overarching trends as “an interesting precursor to what may or may not happen”.
Take how the Ford Model T changed how people were living at the beginning of the 20th century, Kovacs offers. “That sparked a movement of people outside cities, and was the start of suburban living in America,” he says.