Property
YOUR FUTURE HOME COULD BE VERY DIFFERENT! Paul Gammage and Anita Light, Ewemove Sherborne
L
ook around your home for a moment and think about how much has changed since you were a child. For some of us older folk, it doesn’t seem long ago that there was no such thing as a family computer or laptop. Instead, there was a free-standing TV in the corner, a telephone on a lead (often on its own table) and, if you were lucky, a record or cassette player. The garden shed wasn’t a man-cave or an outside office - it contained mowers and garden tools. If you think back a bit further, duvets were an exciting innovation that replaced sheets and blankets, central heating and double-glazing were not guaranteed and, for the really mature amongst us, you might have had to go outside to the WC! Out with the old, in with the new
Anglian Home Improvements recently did some research into how we think our homes will evolve in the foreseeable future. The research unsurprisingly revealed that working from home is having a big impact and is likely to change how we use our homes and our space. At present, most of us don’t have our own office space even though ever-increasing numbers of us spend at least some of our working week at home. 35% of those surveyed aspire to underfloor heating and, reassuringly, 29% want their homes to be more energy efficient. Entertaining, cooking and relaxing spaces were also important considerations for those planning their homes and 50% want technologically-smarter homes. AXA Insurance have also been doing some research into what people want from their future homes. Again unsurprisingly, technology ranked highly, with 27% believing that, in the next 10 years, we’ll all have smart TVs in our homes to contact our friends instead of using phones. Charging points for electric cars was another big hitter as was the belief that cars will be driverless in the foreseeable future.
116 | Sherborne Times | September 2018
Moveable space to suit your needs
With advances in artificial intelligence, the wish-lists of those that took part in the surveys are remarkably modest. Smart fridges and robotic hoovers are now a reality and many of us are already controlling our heating, lights or home security from our phones. Smart technology combined with a continued squeeze on space means it’s not difficult to imagine how one room could soon become a central hub for all a household’s requirements, e.g. cooking, eating, entertaining, working with smart worktops that can weigh, measure, stir and cook, and then convert into a table with in-built entertainment, or a desk with a smart screen. In fact, it’s perfectly feasible that walls and ceilings will be moveable soon so that you can reconfigure your space throughout the day to suit your needs. With that in mind, you have to wonder whether home decoration will soon become 3D and virtual, allowing you to change the colour of your walls by using voiceactivated technology! With technology making such massive advances, design was always going to try and keep up. Ikea has already launched their ‘charging furniture’ which includes tables and lamps that have integrated, wireless charging points. Other smart furniture is also available, including a sofa with integrated sound system and speakers, a fully interactive coffee table with integrated fridge, an intelligent mattress for sleep monitoring and anti snoring, and tables that talk! There’s no doubt that the need to create millions of homes out of increasingly scarce space will result in exciting innovations that we’ve yet to imagine. Necessity can be a formidable driving force and I, for one, am looking forward to my home being able to cook my dinner and tidy up for me afterwards! ewemove.com/estate-agents/sherborne