Any newfound novel idea brings skepticism, and the more change it brings, the more skepticism there is. Many spoke out against computers in their early stages, now they are an integral part of our technology. Many doubted we could reach the moon, but these changes took place in a short time. The Industrial Age brought mass production and electrical service, which led to the spread of electrical appliances. New appliances fueled the expansion for yet more advances. The radio, television and computer, the toaster, oven and microwave, the automobile, airplanes, space shuttle. The magic lies in the fact that as Buckminster Fuller once said "The better technology gets the more it disappears". An accelerative thrust in every area, except housing. We have been building homes the same way for 100 years. The way the kitchen was designed 50 years ago was about modularity not about efficiency. It wasn't about how people actually use it, which explains why we bruise our shins on the open oven door, or can't find the pot in the cupboard over the fridge, or can’t even reach it. Homes haven’t progressed because we haven’t advanced past Post and Beam construction techniques. They’ve just added more closet space and a bigger garage, since we have more clothes than our grandfathers did and another car for our liberated spouses. Why such a lag in this field? Market Demand, It creates Technology Lag.

Architects and designers take their cue from the market. If you open any home magazine you see houses inspired by the Colonials of 400 years ago, Cape Cods, Tudors, Split levels, Ranches etc. All Post & Beam construction. Housing has become traditional. It’s a life-style, it’s nostalgic it’s what people choose, but what choices have they had?

Since 1929, when architect-inventor Buckminster Fuller stunned the world with his alien looking geodesic dome, planners and dreamers have had grand designs for the future, but there are no obvious answers. The need seems more pressing than ever: What will the house of the future look like? Ask a homeowner to conjure up the home of the future and the results are likely to be sleek, smart, sophisticated or in the images of the Jetsons’ sky pad. OK, maybe you plan on parking the futuristic moeller-400 skycar in the garage. In a world in which Bill Gates' Techno-Mansion is a reality, a home that thinks and cooks for you is here today. As anyone who owns a PC or DVD knows, the footprint is in place. The next few years, homes could be all the things they are not yet: smart, green, efficient and flexible, meeting the demands of the increasingly diverse family. All the technologies are available to us today, all we have to do is apply them, and be able to afford them.

There is now a design revolution in progress. Building concepts are changing. What it is becoming has many names, sustainable, livable, ecological, green. No matter what label you use, the goal of these is to employ building techniques that nourish rather than deplete resources. These earth-conscious concepts encourage green building and lifestyle habits, which adhere to the United Nations definition of sustainable: "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." Consumers are becoming more sensitive to the way their homes are built and operate. With the publics growing desire for an environment different than the conventional one, new product technologies are emerging to embrace these needs without compromising quality, durability or efficiency.

Sustainable and green building are not new concepts; but they have languished, until now. The roots of the current movement for sustainable living sprouted from the 1960s in theory and the 1970s in practice. The 60’s brought "hippies" and the "back to nature movement" communes. The "intentional communities." The 70s brought the Arab oil embargo, energy tax breaks and the first attempt at building sustainable communities, solar energy technologies, though cost prohibitive then because of the technology lag. Several recent developments have made possible what was once only a fad for tree-huggers and land lovers. SIP panels which have a 58% higher R-value, only use 25% of the wood, cost less are stronger and are erected faster are increasingly being used today.

Architects and designers are already projecting their visions: Roof tiles that look like shingles and function like solar panels. A living room that morphs into a dining room with an interactive wide-screen TV that lets you sit down to dinner with your brother in Canada. The house of the future will be like having a servant. With an automatic, whiz-bang, digitally controlled voice activated environment, you make a wish and your wish comes true. The only thing you have to do is pay for it.

Clearly, the wealthiest consumers lead the way.

The kitchen of the future will look a lot like the kitchen of the past. Physically, it will become more the heart of the house, even more of a social room, a living room with a preparation area attached. The more time families spend in the kitchen, juggling eating and extracurricular activities, the more they demand appliances that are sophisticated, quiet and efficient. Some of it has already arrived. Dish washers that clean with sonic blasts, non-electric garbage disposals. "DishDrawers" with two drawers that can operate separately. Dishwashers that can sense the amount of food soil in the water and automatically adjusts wash cycles. Washing machines that use 40 percent less water. Refrigerators that use electronics (instead of the standard mercury bulb and trap door) to control temperatures. Bar code technology has evolved to give us smart pantries and refrigerators that know when you're out of something and will automatically order it. Other appliances will get smarter, too, talking you through a recipe and correcting your errors. It’s like the car that tells you your door is ajar. Instead, the oven will tell you, No you don't put the turkey in for 20 hours, or bake brownies for two hours at 600 degrees.

The folks already swapping their VCRs for DVD’s and contemplating voice-recognition systems for their home PCs will be the first to invest in the smart and the self-sustaining. The house of the future will be shaped, by the middle-class that has always adapted ideas from up-market. We designers can dream up anything and already have. I attended a seminar in Kansas City this summer on LONWORKS interoperabilty device technology. (Isn’t that a mouthful)? Systems that can turn on your lights, sprinklers, start your microwave etc., from a web browser while your at work, or check on the kids arrival home from school through cameras and monitor your solar system for optimal efficiency. The first and most important application is in energy management. Where LONTALK devices are mostly used in high–rise building management to conserve BTU’s by the millions. As energy prices rise building managers are beginning to take a hard look at these technologies. I have designed machines for years for companies, just to shave seconds off a production cycle. Of course, such bells and whistles are still fantasies to most of us, and how quickly future fantasies develop into reality depends on demands of the market and how quickly technology can be simplified. It isn’t far away. The greatest obstacle is devising common standards so that all the bells and all the whistles create something more than a cacophony. If I buy one thing from vendor A and another from vendor B and can't link them up, then I don't have flexibility in the design. This concept is advancing and is referred to as "Open System Technology".

As 76 million baby boomers retire, and 70 million Gen-Ys, start their own families; we'll see homes become more maintenance free and energy efficient. They'll have more money to build on gadgets and gizmos. They'll want a home that's compact and accommodates their needs. Flexibility will be the first step toward the future. Technology will add the sizzle. Just how smart will the smart home be? Smart enough to talk you through a recipe? Smart enough to rival Bill Gates' Micro-mansion, where microchip-IDs adjust a room's ambiance to its inhabitants' needs? A major surge of new applications will hit the market in the next few years. Thirty years ago the average home had:

Don't expect anything as daring in the bathroom. The bath of the future will be just what you expect; a bathroom, but it will become more efficient. The last 10 years water usage has dropped from 3.5 gallons per flush to 1.0 gallons, and toilets could be even more efficient and quieter, winning the noise war. Don't laugh, in the middle of the night, you want the toilet to be as quiet as possible. Expect it to be the most luxurious room of the house, a lavish mini-spa with steam-sauna and Stair-Master, large enough to hold a crowd. Why not build a bath you can throw a party in? Bath-as-public-space dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. It's only in American post-World War II, suburban development that social spaces were moved to the closet. The shift of bathroom and kitchen as entertainment are measured by the number of products in it, sinks, tubs, toilets, appliances, etc. that work as part of the furniture. The master suite and kitchen will become more open and interchanged. It depends on thinking about the rooms more as space and less as a bunch of fixtures, and what will hold all these whiz-bang, future house wonders in place? Don’t expect the Jetsons’ skypad, the exterior will not be the Cape, Colonial, Split or Ranch you're sitting in now. I believe it will be the simplest geometric form the pyramid. "Less is more". What the marketplace demands is not the same forms we’ve been stuck with for the last century. Doubt it? Even in the more-is-more '80s, futuristic behemoths never represented more than a sliver of the housing market. We are answering those demands and offering an option, NOW. Anyone trying to change the traditional image of the home will find it difficult, I am finding that introducing the public to a new concept of housing is a monumental task, but so was Vietnam and what we are now facing. We are now giving you a choice; it’s up to you to decide your future path. The energy and resource crises that face us will demand more efficiency in the future, and in the next decade that's not likely to change. The one thing you can count on is that things will change and people will be reluctant to it, but market demand dictates necessity, and the economics of design, and Mother Nature dictates necessity.Arbelos Pyramid homes offer the homeowner the ability to reduce building and living costs, and generate the economic ability to afford the technologies that are here today, not twenty years from now. How soon will your future be here? The future starts NOW. Clearly the wealthiest consumers lead the way in technology lag.