6 ms·

1950s Smart Homes and the Longevity of Design

78 points by benbreen 7y ago

de_Selby 7y ago
Better to just watch the video than blogspam that just extracts still images from it and adds "insightful" commentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyrTgtPTz3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyrTgtPTz3M
- Arbalest 7y ago
  Despite it being old and somewhat irrelevant now, I just can't watch an advert for that long.
  - bb123 7y ago
    That seems like a loss for you more than Westinghouse. They don't even exist anymore.
    - jacobush 7y ago
      They make nuclear fuel :)
  - ocdtrekkie 7y ago
    I actually love a good "future vision" ad. They're often pretty inspiring. One of my favorites is Corning's "A Day Made of Glass": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38
- netsharc 7y ago
  The contents of the blog post and video are different things, the blog post isn't just reiterating the video, but talks about how the technology looks outdated but the design of the home still looks timeless (at least in the author's opinion).
Katzenjammer 7y ago
Lesson from the 50's. Don't build anything into your walls.
mettamage 7y ago
I didn't watch the video. I just wanted to mention to people the Bauhaus movement [1]. We still have furniture that's quite similar to it [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus [2] https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/08/bauhaus-furniture-designs-chair-tables-chess-set-baby-cradle/ https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/08/bauhaus-furniture-designs-...
- bproven 7y ago
  Also watches: https://www.junghans.de/en/bauhaus.html https://www.junghans.de/en/bauhaus.html
thomasfl 7y ago
In the future, architecture might just as well look like old italian villages or a french chataux. It is about human taste and fashion. Not technical innovations.
- CalRobert 7y ago
  One thing that's a bit different is it's relatively uncommon, in the wealthy world at least, for people to design and build their own home now, as opposed the vernacular (self-built) architecture of centuries past. I'm a bit grumbly but it's frustrating to see planning boards make decisions about what fits local architectural character, as though we decided to stop changing what we liked when we started introducing planning requirements.
  - thomasfl 7y ago
    Good point. Planners are not the most innovative designers. Seems western cities will be stuck with dull bauhaus inspired, minimalistic and cubic design forever.
  - systemtest 7y ago
    This is a big problem in The Netherlands. I want to buy a plot of land to build a home but it's always attached with a huge list of requirements. The home needs to be between A and B cubic meters, ridge height C, gutter height D, roof angle E, front needs to face the street, house needs to be perpendicular to the street, brick needs to be color F, needs to have parking for two cars, heating through system G. I'm a big fan of prefab sustainable homes, the wooden flat-roofed bungalow ones that you can plop down from a factory in about two days. But those homes never meet the requirement list.
    - CalRobert 7y ago
      I am going through this process right now in an attempted to use a prefab timber frame extension to an existing home (ca. 1800 thatched cottage). We actually tried to get a Dutch thatcher incidentally but she was too busy! A similar house would be completely illegal to build now (internal space is ~600 square feet) but ironically it's illegal to demolish too (protected structure) The homes around here are mostly, to be honest, pretty ugly concrete block pebble-dashed bungalows. I don't mind that because hey, to each their own, but saying that a home which looks like a log cabin doesn't match the local aesthetic so we should keep all houses in this style is frustrating. I do wonder if planners have a kneejerk reaction to anything cheap since a huge amount of public policy is specifically designed to keep housing expensive (or "preserve home values" if you're so inclined) The bias towards slow, inefficient, on-site building is hard to understand.
classified 7y ago
I just cannot resist quoting Yogi Berra here: The future ain’t what it used to be.
madengr 7y ago
There is an “All Electric Home” preserved in the county museum where I live. The most interesting thing is the large, hidden relay panel used to control everything, with a mess of low voltage wiring run throughout the house. https://www.jocogov.org/facility/the-1950s-all-electric-house https://www.jocogov.org/facility/the-1950s-all-electric-hous... Of course thus would be powered by nuclear energy.
- bynkman 7y ago
  Ha! I was just thinking of the house in the JoCo Museum. (I live in the KC metro too.)
- jedimastert 7y ago
  I'm not quite sure why, but I love relay logic. I think it's because it's kind of a manifestation of the underlying logic in a very physical way. Like, we use switches as an analogy for transistor, and they're literally switches. I don't know why, I just love them to bits.
- frosted-flakes 7y ago
  You're link won't load, but my house is wired like that. It doesn't have any "smart" features, but each light switch is a momentary-contact toggle switch connected to a relay in a big panel in the basement. The system is made by General Electric and is still sold today (mostly for commercial applications). However, the low voltage wiring is very neatly done, and it still functions perfectly. Since low voltage wiring is so small, it means a bank of nine switches can easily fit in a single gang box (in the form of a 9-position dial and a single switch). Also, some lights are controlled by as many as five switches, since it's so easy to daisy-chain another switch, and I love that I can shut off the detached garage lights from inside the house. The main disadvantage is that it's difficult to add dimmers to lights, since the line voltage isn't in the switch box. This relay-driven system just screams to be hooked up to a computer system to add "smart home" features, and I actually started doing that. I got a prototype working with a Raspberry Pi and some home-made circuit boards to the point where I could ask Siri to turn on any light in the house, but I'm no electrical engineer, and before long my boards started to fail.
Retric 7y ago
What’s really interesting to me is the shortest version of Poulaine shoes around 1 to 2 inches is actually functional as it prevents stubbing your toes. Making many modern styles slightly less functional. Enduring design elements often have these subtle benefits which are easy to gloss over when they become exaggerated due to fashion. You even get zombie designs with modern architecture keeping various elements that where designed for airflow pre AC in homes that are kept sealed for efficiency.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
dsalzman 7y ago
I love the fireplace / indoor grill combo. That’s timeless
- tabtab 7y ago
  Isn't that what a "pipe stove" is? It's centuries old if I'm not mistaken. Basically your fireplace is a big rectangular box with a metal pipe to carry the smoke out of the house. You put the food to cook on top of the box.
bproven 7y ago
Personally I enjoy all of the analog dials. For some reason they really look neat, classy and appealing.
itronitron 7y ago
>> in the end they settled on something oddly traditional: Louis XVI furniture so glad 2001 was made before Mariott Residence Inns were a thing, I can stand a week in one but would go insane if that was my zoo cage
newmac 7y ago
I'm currently building a brand new house and we've opted to forego most of the current home automation solutions. While they may have ushered in many of the promises of the past, they are locked in and difficult to service. Instead we are installing standard z-wave controllable switches/dimmers and standard programmable locks/thermostats, etc. In the end if we really want automation we can use HomeKit or Alexa, although inviting Amazon/Alexa in to our home is a bit contentious.
open-source-ux 7y ago
What is it about certain designs that give them a 'modern' look despite the passage of time? Do sharp, angular lines always suggest a 'modern' or 'contemporary' aesthetic? What makes a design feel dated or old? Here is a teapot design. Modern-looking? (Some of you may recognise it.) Can you guess when it was made? https://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2006AB/2006AB1456_jpg_l.jpg https://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2006AB... Here's who designed it and when: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78328/teapot-dresser-christopher/ https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78328/teapot-dresser-chr... Some more designs by the same designer: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015_0709_Dress-2_3.jpg https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015...

78 points by benbreen 7y ago

Better to just watch the video than blogspam that just extracts still images from it and adds "insightful" commentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyrTgtPTz3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyrTgtPTz3M

Arbalest 7y ago
Despite it being old and somewhat irrelevant now, I just can't watch an advert for that long.
- bb123 7y ago
  That seems like a loss for you more than Westinghouse. They don't even exist anymore.
  - jacobush 7y ago
    They make nuclear fuel :)
- ocdtrekkie 7y ago
  I actually love a good "future vision" ad. They're often pretty inspiring. One of my favorites is Corning's "A Day Made of Glass": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38
netsharc 7y ago
The contents of the blog post and video are different things, the blog post isn't just reiterating the video, but talks about how the technology looks outdated but the design of the home still looks timeless (at least in the author's opinion).

Katzenjammer 7y ago

Lesson from the 50's. Don't build anything into your walls.

mettamage 7y ago

I didn't watch the video. I just wanted to mention to people the Bauhaus movement [1]. We still have furniture that's quite similar to it [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus [2] https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/08/bauhaus-furniture-designs-chair-tables-chess-set-baby-cradle/ https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/08/bauhaus-furniture-designs-...

bproven 7y ago
Also watches: https://www.junghans.de/en/bauhaus.html https://www.junghans.de/en/bauhaus.html

thomasfl 7y ago

In the future, architecture might just as well look like old italian villages or a french chataux. It is about human taste and fashion. Not technical innovations.

CalRobert 7y ago
One thing that's a bit different is it's relatively uncommon, in the wealthy world at least, for people to design and build their own home now, as opposed the vernacular (self-built) architecture of centuries past. I'm a bit grumbly but it's frustrating to see planning boards make decisions about what fits local architectural character, as though we decided to stop changing what we liked when we started introducing planning requirements.
- thomasfl 7y ago
  Good point. Planners are not the most innovative designers. Seems western cities will be stuck with dull bauhaus inspired, minimalistic and cubic design forever.
- systemtest 7y ago
  This is a big problem in The Netherlands. I want to buy a plot of land to build a home but it's always attached with a huge list of requirements. The home needs to be between A and B cubic meters, ridge height C, gutter height D, roof angle E, front needs to face the street, house needs to be perpendicular to the street, brick needs to be color F, needs to have parking for two cars, heating through system G. I'm a big fan of prefab sustainable homes, the wooden flat-roofed bungalow ones that you can plop down from a factory in about two days. But those homes never meet the requirement list.
  - CalRobert 7y ago
    I am going through this process right now in an attempted to use a prefab timber frame extension to an existing home (ca. 1800 thatched cottage). We actually tried to get a Dutch thatcher incidentally but she was too busy! A similar house would be completely illegal to build now (internal space is ~600 square feet) but ironically it's illegal to demolish too (protected structure) The homes around here are mostly, to be honest, pretty ugly concrete block pebble-dashed bungalows. I don't mind that because hey, to each their own, but saying that a home which looks like a log cabin doesn't match the local aesthetic so we should keep all houses in this style is frustrating. I do wonder if planners have a kneejerk reaction to anything cheap since a huge amount of public policy is specifically designed to keep housing expensive (or "preserve home values" if you're so inclined) The bias towards slow, inefficient, on-site building is hard to understand.

classified 7y ago

I just cannot resist quoting Yogi Berra here: The future ain’t what it used to be.

madengr 7y ago

There is an “All Electric Home” preserved in the county museum where I live. The most interesting thing is the large, hidden relay panel used to control everything, with a mess of low voltage wiring run throughout the house. https://www.jocogov.org/facility/the-1950s-all-electric-house https://www.jocogov.org/facility/the-1950s-all-electric-hous... Of course thus would be powered by nuclear energy.

bynkman 7y ago
Ha! I was just thinking of the house in the JoCo Museum. (I live in the KC metro too.)
jedimastert 7y ago
I'm not quite sure why, but I love relay logic. I think it's because it's kind of a manifestation of the underlying logic in a very physical way. Like, we use switches as an analogy for transistor, and they're literally switches. I don't know why, I just love them to bits.
frosted-flakes 7y ago
You're link won't load, but my house is wired like that. It doesn't have any "smart" features, but each light switch is a momentary-contact toggle switch connected to a relay in a big panel in the basement. The system is made by General Electric and is still sold today (mostly for commercial applications). However, the low voltage wiring is very neatly done, and it still functions perfectly. Since low voltage wiring is so small, it means a bank of nine switches can easily fit in a single gang box (in the form of a 9-position dial and a single switch). Also, some lights are controlled by as many as five switches, since it's so easy to daisy-chain another switch, and I love that I can shut off the detached garage lights from inside the house. The main disadvantage is that it's difficult to add dimmers to lights, since the line voltage isn't in the switch box. This relay-driven system just screams to be hooked up to a computer system to add "smart home" features, and I actually started doing that. I got a prototype working with a Raspberry Pi and some home-made circuit boards to the point where I could ask Siri to turn on any light in the house, but I'm no electrical engineer, and before long my boards started to fail.

Retric 7y ago

What’s really interesting to me is the shortest version of Poulaine shoes around 1 to 2 inches is actually functional as it prevents stubbing your toes. Making many modern styles slightly less functional. Enduring design elements often have these subtle benefits which are easy to gloss over when they become exaggerated due to fashion. You even get zombie designs with modern architecture keeping various elements that where designed for airflow pre AC in homes that are kept sealed for efficiency.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

dsalzman 7y ago

I love the fireplace / indoor grill combo. That’s timeless

tabtab 7y ago
Isn't that what a "pipe stove" is? It's centuries old if I'm not mistaken. Basically your fireplace is a big rectangular box with a metal pipe to carry the smoke out of the house. You put the food to cook on top of the box.

bproven 7y ago

Personally I enjoy all of the analog dials. For some reason they really look neat, classy and appealing.

itronitron 7y ago

>> in the end they settled on something oddly traditional: Louis XVI furniture so glad 2001 was made before Mariott Residence Inns were a thing, I can stand a week in one but would go insane if that was my zoo cage

newmac 7y ago

I'm currently building a brand new house and we've opted to forego most of the current home automation solutions. While they may have ushered in many of the promises of the past, they are locked in and difficult to service. Instead we are installing standard z-wave controllable switches/dimmers and standard programmable locks/thermostats, etc. In the end if we really want automation we can use HomeKit or Alexa, although inviting Amazon/Alexa in to our home is a bit contentious.

open-source-ux 7y ago

What is it about certain designs that give them a 'modern' look despite the passage of time? Do sharp, angular lines always suggest a 'modern' or 'contemporary' aesthetic? What makes a design feel dated or old? Here is a teapot design. Modern-looking? (Some of you may recognise it.) Can you guess when it was made? https://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2006AB/2006AB1456_jpg_l.jpg https://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2006AB... Here's who designed it and when: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78328/teapot-dresser-christopher/ https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78328/teapot-dresser-chr... Some more designs by the same designer: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015_0709_Dress-2_3.jpg https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015...