The
workplace in the combined sleeping and workroom. The
shape of the ceiling and the perforated boards form a
place and indicate a zone where one can be both seen and
heard from a camera placed on the table with a computer.
A bed
placed in front of a workplace (to the right). The shape
of the bed indicates the zones for communication where
you can be seen from a video-camera from the workplace.
The
fully equipped kitchen.
Detail
of solution for the hidden installations in the kitchen
Detail
of solution for the hidden installations in the boards
indicating the workplace (below).
Floor-plan
sketch of the dwelling. The entrance is at the lower
right. The middle room at the bottom is a combined
telework and sleeping room. To the lower left is a
kitchen, and to the upper left is a living room.
Photos of the model
of the apartment. The upper photo shows all the rooms an
several of the screens can be well seen. The lower left
photo shows the combined bed and working room with the
celing with the lowered part ower the workstation. On the
lower right the entrance to the apartment with glassed
walls can be seen.
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comHOME
- a smart dwelling of the future
In the
beginning of 1998 the project "Smart Things and
Environments for Art and Daily Life Group" at CID
and II became involved in the design of an apartment of
the future, which later was named comHOME. The apartment
is located at Telia Headquarters and managed by S-lab
(directed by Lasse Lindblad) at Telia Networks.
Design concept
The spatial design of the flat is based on
the idea of creating different communicative zones for
Video Mediated Communication (VMC). In an inner zone a
person can be both observed and heard through
video-communication equipment. In the middle zone one can
be seen but not heard. In the outer zone one can neither
bee seen or heard. In this way the inner zone is public
and the outer zone is private. The zones may vary in time
and space.
The notion of "future" of this
project was never clearly stated from the beginning. It
was rather a sort of common imagination among the
participants in the design team. A "future" was
supposed to materialise when people in general have
access to fast broadband network connections in their
homes, maybe five to 15 years ahead from now.
Nevertheless, as a future oriented design process, the
notion of future is of utmost interest from a perspective
of the sciences of the artificial.
The principal architectural issue is the
establishing of the mental and physical boundaries
between the public and the private and still uphold the
absolute demand of being secure of not being seen or
heard through any video mediated communication system,
when not desired. It will be important, too, to locate
activities in a way that a good balance is attained with
other everyday activities, as well as for the
arrangements for the technical installations. Another
fundamental aspect is that the dwelling in itself has to
be designed so as to be comfortably perceived from other
locations, i.e. by a person in the other end of a
video-conference.
The
dwelling comHOME is designed both from an inside- out
perspective and from outside- in. The different
communicative zones are expressed in technical solutions
but also with forms, colours and materials. The
architechtural space can thereby form an interface to the
digital world.
The
architectural spaces of comHOME
The
dwelling consists of three rooms. Each one of these
spaces should be seen as a separate situation and not as
a part of a complete apartment. The spaces are:
One
that is a combined home office and sleeping room.
The workplace has one place for sitting down and
one for standing up with a laptop. This is all
integrated with two boards completing the spatial
definition. Each of the workplaces has a video
camera and microphones. The inner zone, where one
can be seen and heard, is marked with a lower
ceiling with integrated illumination. The
motor-driven bed is integrated into a piece of
furniture. The wooden panel around the bed
indicates the outer private zone. Above the bed a
TV is located with video communication and with
connection to internet services.
The
kitchen is equipped for VMC by a Video Torso and
a smart dinner table. The Video Torso is a screen
covering half the body of an adult person
standing up, a solution supposed to serve
spontaneous, informal meetingsas well as to share
documents such as web pages. The zone at the
kitchen shelves is normally a zone to be seen at
but not heard, but this could easily be altered.
The kitchen contains a communicating kitchen
table with an integrated computer and screen,
where you can read your digital morning
newspaper, invite an extra guest on the screen
while having dinner, or monitoring and
manipulating systems for heating, communication,
etc.
The
living room is equipped with a flexible
arrangement of the furniture. One setup focuses
on the two wide screen projections as a home
cinema setup. Another produces a video mediated
communication setup, with a large social space in
the middle of the room. The room can be extended
to and merged with another room at distance, e.g.
at the very moment when SantaClaus appears and
the grandchildren unwrap Christmas gifts "in
front of" the grand parents.
Early
conclusions from the comHOME project
The
arrangement of the simulated flat was finished during the
Autumn 1998. Some technical equipment is still missing
(January 1999), such as screens, cameras, and
microphones. The flat was taken into use as a laboratory
in December 1998. Thus, no specific results can be
presented from the use of the flat, so far. Still, it is
interesting already now to draw some conclusions from the
design phase as this period has been full of
considerations for the future. Some tentative conclusions
at this stage of the project are:
Project
director: Stefan Junestrand
Participants:
Konrad Tollmar, Cristi Bogdan, Aurelian, Esbjörn
Eriksson
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