One of the homes we’re most excited to clap our eyes on at this weekend’s Seattle Modern Home Tour is the House of the Immediate Future. It sounds important, and it is – this home, designed as an energy-efficient prototype for Habitat for Humanity, is a forward-looking, target net zero-energy home that takes an active stance on the reality of diminishing energy resources. Read up on the House of the Immediate Future below, and grab your tickets to this weekend’s tour!
The House of the Immediate Future, designed by the award-winning Seattle architecture firm The Miller Hull Partnership, in collaboration with numerous area sustainably-oriented companies and organizations, is currently on display at Seattle Center as part of The Next 50 celebration honoring the 50th Anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. The house is in stark contrast to yesterday’s version of the American home of the future, as featured at the ’62 World Fair, which was packed with high-tech gadgets to be powered by seemingly endless resources. The House of the Immediate Future, instead, uses the best of readily available and forward-looking energy efficiency products and technologies reflecting a more sober view of diminishing resources. It maximizes insulation for lower utility bills, minimizes air-infiltration for improved indoor air quality, and is noticeably more quiet and comfortable than a home built to current or prior state building codes.
The two-story, 1,400 square foot home has four bedrooms and two baths. Key components of the project are two modular “wet cores,” which were installed prior to enclosure of walls and roof and align in a two-story block to house a mechanical room, kitchen, both bathrooms, wiring, plumbing and HVAC systems. The home also features numerous built-in and flexible elements to maximize space and accommodate the changing needs of today’s modern family.
Public tours are offered Wednesdays through Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. through October 21, after which the home will be moved to a permanent location in the Rainier Vista Housing Authority development south of Seattle, where it will become the home of a family of five chosen by Habitat for Humanity.
Here’s a sneak peak of the house below!
