Category Archives: Property spotlight

House of Future Takes Green to Extreme

Posted on June 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

Sometime in the early 2000s, when I was a Los Angeles-based national correspondent at the Chicago Tribune, I was assigned to cover the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. What was most interesting to me was the product designers’ vision of the house of the future.

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The big idea then was accessing music, movies, sports, photos and the Internet from the TV. They were pushing the concept of having multiple screens throughout the house — including one embedded into the door of the refrigerator — so you wouldn’t have to miss a moment of that important game if you didn’t want to wait for the commercial to grab a snack.

That idea, of course, is long outdated, conceived before the widespread use of smart phones, which now allow you to do all that without spending thousands of dollars to rewire your house. Today’s house of the future focuses not on entertainment, but conservation.

For this week’s cover story, I got an exclusive look at a model home in Waldorf built by KB Home that is aimed at saving owners big bucks in electricity and water costs. The solar-powered, “net-zero” house is designed to produce more energy than it uses and save up to 50,000 gallons of water a year.

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Cocoon House

Posted on June 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

Inspired by the volcanic topography of Jeju island and the cocoon of a living organism, Seoul-based architectural practice, Planning Korea, completed their design for the Cocoon House, which is complemented with their amazing rendering techniques which is evident in their gallery of images. The cocoon, located at the center of the house, provides a space made by nature that protects and develops inner living things from outside. The first phase of the construction will be started in September 2012 and will be completed in 2015. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Their cocoon design creates a space like an art piece by translating the round shape of cocoon as an eco-structure design. This seaside condominium provides a self-sustaining creative business resort located in UNESCO Heritage Jeju Island. The circular windows of the cocoon can be opened and closed depending on the indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity, so it seems like a live cocoon.

Read and see more at: http://www.archdaily.com/230509/cocoon-house-planning-korea/

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Property Spotlight – From Shack to Beach Shangri – La

Posted on May 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

Katie Webb and her husband, Tristan, have been on struggle street for a little more than a decade. When they bought a one-bedroom fibro shack, complete with asbestos, in Freshwater the first thing they did was nickname it struggle street: it was a struggle to pay for and a struggle to live in. Twelve years later, their struggle looks as if it’s coming to an end: they’ve listed it for sale for more than $1.6 million($AUS). It’s up for May 8 auction through McGrath Manly.

Green points

Katie says: ”We’ve got two 3000-litre water tanks. It’s quite a low-impact house. I would have liked to have put solar panels on, but unfortunately we ran out of money.”