architecture tips

Not long ago, I talked to an interior designer working at a design center for a new housing development. Folks buying new homes in this exclusive neighborhood were given discounts at this interior design center to help with the custom design work needed to fulfill the homebuyer's desires. The lady I talked to said that most folks, that is to say over 90% of them were ordering custom draperies, window shades, blinds, and other window accessories from her for the new homes in that gated community.

Since the homes were rather elaborate, all custom, and large it was amazing the amount of money that each person would spend just on window coverings. Her smallest order was $15,000 and her largest was well over $90,000. Nevertheless, I wonder in the future if people will be spending so much on their window shades, as a matter fact I wonder if the technological advances will change all that, perhaps even putting that entire industry out of business. Let me explain why.

There was an interesting book written many years ago about MIT's Media Lab and even back two and a half decades ago they were talking about the ability to introduce energy or electricity into windows of the future, which might not necessarily be made of glass, allowing them to become transparent or opaque with a flip of a switch, or with the clap of the hands. Indeed, I guess today everything will be controlled through a smart phone app or through speech recognition - maybe through automatic smart grid meter on your home helping you save energy?

There was an interesting article in GizMag Innovation News Online recently titled; "The adventures of tinting: Intelligent glass spells darker future for US hotel," by James Holloway, published on November 13, 2012.

Now then, this makes a lot of sense doesn't it? Businesses will be one of the largest buyers of such products. Consider a large glass office building wishing to save money. If the day is going to be rather hot, the windows will be opaque, or semi-shaded on the side of the building where the sun comes up throughout the first part of the day. Also, corporate offices may be clear glass, but may turn opaque during important business meetings or private sessions when the executives are working on important details.

One graduate student working on these high-tech strategies at MIT explains that in the future cubicles may open up for conference meetings between groups, and then become opaque while people are trying to do the work on their own. The same type of glass might be used on cars, delivery vehicles, service vans, or maybe even on aircraft cowlings for inspections. If these transparent materials are no longer made of glass, but they are made of carbon nanotube truck, you can count on all these possibilities in the future.

And like the article I mentioned above stated; it's perfect for the hotel industry. That's a given, and an obvious great application for all this. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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