It is interesting to watch the patterns in which foresight questions emerge. I’ve seen periods where one specific domain is asked about more frequently than others, with the future of our homes currently a popular topic. The question is coming from multiple industries like construction, insurance, entertainment, healthcare, and banking. That’s not surprising given the horizontal nature of value creation and capture in the future. You may ask, what is there to talk about, the home has not changed much in a long time. However, a stop at the home section of the innovation wheel captures some of the changes coming to the home.

The Media is filled with scenarios that move us towards the future home. For example, this article describes the 3D Printing of a home in under 24 hours.

Taking place at the factory of Hyakunen Jutaku, Serendix teamed up with both its domestic and overseas partners to 3D-print a 20-metric ton reinforced concrete frame for the habitat in a mere three hours. From there, the entire construction process spanned 23 hours and 12 minutes and even meets the Japanese earthquake and European insulation standards as well.

Sora News 24

The price tag for the 10-square meter Sphere home will be set initially at roughly $26,090 USD. However, the concrete used in the 3D Printing process has an environmental impact. According to this article, vast quantities of natural sand are currently used to meet the world’s insatiable appetite for concrete, at great cost to the environment. In general, the construction industry struggles with sustainability, as it creates around 35% of all landfill waste globally. The article describes the replacement of sand with recycled glass in the concrete making process.

Another article looks at the future of home building, where homes are made out of Lego blocks and temporary living spaces for the homeless are made from plastic-like panels. In this era of purpose-orientation, innovation enables solutions. The article describes the challenges of addressing disaster relief and solving the plight of the homeless. On a single night last year, more than 326,000 people experienced sheltered homelessness – meaning they were staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing. The lego blocks approach introduces speed into home construction. According to the article, Lok-N-Blok, a company out of Paducah, Kentucky, introduced the composite, self-aligning, interlocking system last month at the National Association of Home Builders expo in Orlando.

The Lok-N-Blok system allows for quicker construction: about 50% to 60% faster than traditional wood framing. And since the blocks lock together, there is no need for specialized construction equipment or a highly trained labor force.

LEW SICHELMAN – Future of home building may have been unveiled recently in Orlando

The future home is clearly built differently, but there is more to this foresight discussion than construction. How we experience our homes is changing considerably. We will use our homes as a third venue by watching our favorite sports as if we were right in the stadium. We may monetize our homes as they produce surplus energy, while manufacturing things that we need right in the home. We may even choose to live in floating cities built on our seas. All this to say, the future home will look different, where we live may change, and how we experience them likely transformed.