Smart House: You Know it, Love it, and Wish it Existed

More and more frequently, we’re seeing the shift from people spending time at their homes to spending time in their offices. Not only are we logging more hours at work, but also we seem to want it, constantly trying to best the rest of the office to show our worth in an increasingly unstable job market.

The new status quo is to spend thousands purchasing, furnishing, and decorating a home we rarely ever see. If we were spending more time outdoors or on vacation, you’d hear no complaint from me, but as it is, most of my time is spent in route somewhere or at school, and my mind is filled with things I’d rather be doing.

It seems whenever I am around my apartment, there are lists of things to do: chores I’ve never gotten around to, and errands I should really be running instead of watching ABC Family’s Harry Potter Marathon (again).

As a child, I longed for Disney’s Smart House to become a reality, merely so I could have a robot sneak chocolate chips into my breakfast. As an adult, I find myself still waiting for the creation, but for reasons far loftier than chocolate.

I’d like to create a version of the Smart House. It would do all of the practical things like tell you when light bulbs are nearing a changing, and automatically adjusting the heat on the stove when things begin to boil.

However, my Smart House would also add a little bit of life back into the homes we never see. While those practical tasks make sense and cut down on the errand and chore lists I find myself creating every time I close my eyes, they’re just branches on the Christmas tree still waiting to be decorated.

In this society that spends all of its free time telling people what they need to improve, it seems escape is just what every person wants. We say that one week on a beach somewhere will cure us of our troubles, but when the week is up, it’s very rare that I’m not ready for another vacation immediately.The importance of a product, however, is the heart, what motivates the company, the why. The why of the Smart House is to remind people of how exciting life can be in the day-to-day.

People get caught up in their routine so easily that, without having someone there to shake them out of it, they only focus on the mundane portions of their lives. What is the point of doing all this work to pay for a life we never get to enjoy?

Now, enter a world where people have a charming robot host the suggests meal options from other cultures, has a wall that displays live streams of amazing places around the world, at the touch of your fingertips, designed to remind people how rich their lives are—and as a side benefit, makes to-do lists a little easier, too.

It’s unrealistic to think that people have to luxury of changing their habits and taking more time off of work to reduce stress. However, a home designed with a primary mission to make the home less of a chore and more of an exciting reminder of what we’re working for, may be just the ticket to reprioritize this over-stressed society.

Not familiar with Smart House? Have a look at the trailer from 1999.