When I was a kid, one of the highlights of my week was the animated TV series about a Space Age family, The Jetsons. I wanted to be Jane Jetson when I grew up because she never had to do any housework or make dinner. She had Rosie the Robot who cleaned house. To make dinner, she pressed buttons on some device on the wall, and a complete dinner popped out. I’m almost seventy and I still want to be Jane Jetson. Now more than ever.
In 2013, I purchased my first iRobot vacuum cleaner and named it after my husband, Bill. I felt very Jane Jettsony because the device cut my housecleaning time in half. I dusted while robotic Bill vacuumed. He – it – wasn’t a full-fledged housekeeper like Jane Jetson’s Rosie, but, in my mind, the beginning of a new age, though I wasn’t sure it was the Space Age.
Now, in my older years, I write science-fiction about life in the mid-to-late 21st Century, so I spend time researching what futurists and scientists think our homes will be like then. There’s lots of information out there, but here’s a few predictions:
BY MID-CENTURY, NEW HOUSING WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY LESS EXPENSIVE. That’s great news! One report I read said that by 2040 new housing could be 60 percent cheaper than comparable housing today. Why? Because they’ll be 3-D printed on site with all the electronic wiring and sensors built into the walls and floors, and they’ll be assembled by robots that can work 24 hours a day. Woohoo! Take a look at this recent news story about 3-D printed housing “sprouting up” in Austin, TX.
HOUSING WILL ALSO BE GREENER AND MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT: More good news: lower –maybe even nomingal – utility bills. Solar cells may be embedded not only in roofing material but in windows and siding. Windows will control the amount of light coming into the home, darkening on hot summer days and optimizing sunlight on cold winter days. Even wall paint may be optimized to make homes brighter and more energy efficient. New housing complexes, apartment buildings and housing developments, will have their own energy grids. They will also have their own indoor and outdoor gardens for growing fresh vegetables. Indoor gardens may be part of single-family homes, along with indoor wellness rooms (gyms). Here’s a particularly interesting report about the greening of housing, including examples of some green complexes that are actually planned in different parts of the world:
https://interestingengineering.com/life-in-2050-a-glimpse-at-the-homes-in-the-future
ROBOTS WILL DO OUR COOKING AND CLEANING AND MORE: I hope I live long enough to be Jane Jetson. Watch the videos below.
MAGIC MIRRORS WILL BE PERSONAL STYLISTS AND MUCH MORE: These mirrors may happen sooner than you think! See the videos below.
Enjoy these YouTube visual glimpses of your future home. Homes of the future is a topic I’ll continue to revisit.
Nancy North Walker 
Hi Nancy, the augmented reality, while incredibly useful, seems like it will cause true information overload. I feel like I need a vacation after just watching that video. But it’s all good. Here’s a link to a video about Boxable, another housing option. https://www.boxabl.com/
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Yep. The good news is, there will be lots of quality housing options at lower prices and with lower utility costs.
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