The idea of controlling your house with your smart phone got me to thinking. How about we build an apartment using all the latest technology? No light switches or thermostat, they would be replaced by wireless servos controlled by your smart phone. Use LED's instead of incandescent light bulbs. If we eliminated power outlets, we could reduce the wiring to simple bell wire instead of the heavy duty copper cored romex we use now. Add an exercise bike connected to an alternator and you might not need to even be connected to the grid. Cooking and cleaning would still need substantial power, but they could be co-located, we wouldn't need to supply the whole house/apartment with that kind of power.
Professor Dumpster is working on some modular apartments that look kind of interesting.
I'm not keen on new and modern, I look old, worn and comfortable, mostly because they want big money for the new, fancy stuff and you can usually get the old stuff cheaper. That's not really true. Real estate value depends on location, and the old stuff is usually located in better locations, which makes it more expensive. New stuff is on the outskirts, and some of the newer construction techniques are better than the old ones.
Living in this big house has led me to realize that I don't really need all this space. By myself I could probably get by with 500 square feet. Smaller houses require less cleaning and less energy. The big advantage though is they won't hold as much stuff, so you don't accumulate as much baggage. I could probably use another 500 square feet for a shop that would have room for my tools and space to work, but I don't do much in that line anymore. And keeping a 500 square foot shop to maintain a 500 square foot house seems like a bit of overkill.
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