High-tech changing our approach to home design

You can call all the shots around the home if you have a Control4. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

There's no need to Google it. It's plain to see the computer is responsible for much of our domestic upheaval over the past 15 years. From the moment the World Wide Web began channelling information, we began redefining our homes to accommodate the influx of new technology.

Our homes have been colonised by the computer. The dedicated study den is disappearing as 21st-century technology gives us the freedom to work anywhere in the home. The kitchen table becomes another work station, with your wireless mobile headset leaving you free to froth the cappuccino. You're roaming in your own home while the children play computer games in their bedrooms. It's called modern living.

Interior designer Alasdair Hood, from Vanilla Space, says technology informs and directs the way we live.

Our obsession with high-tech toys is matched by a love affair with bathrooms and courtyard living. Perhaps those on-screen experiences are having a paradoxical effect, causing us to crave more real, tactile spaces in our homes.

Not content with one washroom for the whole family, we now aspire to two bathrooms and an en-suite as well. Some homeowners get so carried away that they install bathrooms on the scale of a mini-spa.

There's nothing new about open-plan living. We've been merging our kitchen and dining areas since the bungalows of the 1920s. Now it's the norm to banter with the cook over the breakfast bar. Some move walls to combine the living, dining and kitchen areas. But the appeal of excessive open plan is waning as the family structure changes.

With families blending, cash-strapped children staying at home longer, and elderly grandparents moving in, beleaguered home owners want to reclaim their own space - if only to preserve a modicum of sanctity from information overload.

Bill McKay, architect and former head of interior design at Unitec says: "Changes in family structure either encourage people to look for a new home or make significant alterations."

To accommodate their extra house guests they add wings - frequently with their own external access - and refurbish basement rooms. Those without immediate family ties have exchanged the suburban home and garden for manageable apartments and townhouses.

Of course, those without family shackles have exchanged the suburban home and garden for manageable apartments and townhouses. No matter how we choose to live, how we design our space is important to our wellbeing.

Alain de Botton says in his book, The Architecture of Happiness: "We need a refuge to shore-up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important evanescent sides of us."

Space has become a precious commodity and we're coming up with more inventive ways to shape it. If you were to take a virtual walk through a model home, here's what you'd find.

THEN: DEDICATED STUDY DEN
NOW: OPEN-PLAN OFFICE

Since we were carried away and put data lines in every room, our workplace has been on the move - if only broadband could play catch-up. Still, Hood says the lines between work and workspace are blurring. People have been accustomed to open-place offices at work and are taking that concept to the home. If the trendsetters' predictions are accurate, more people will be working from home in future and that means more homes accommodating their needs.

THEN: THE SINGLE BATHROOM
NOW: MANY BATHROOMS

For a small room, the bathroom has acquired a social status and hedonistic appeal well above its basic functions Modern bathrooms are the new luxury retreat, a place to pamper and indulge. "Bathrooms today are more like spas, a place of solace. And we're following the American trend to have many bathrooms," says McKay.

Not content with just one family bathroom, we now aspire to a separate bathroom for the kids, the guest and one connected to the master bedroom. Some even install TV screens and speakers, just to prolong the experience.

THEN: BACKYARDS
NOW: COURTYARD LIVING

Our backyard was once dominated by the rotary clothesline but now it's more like a deck with oversized planters. We've reclaimed our patch of lawn, transforming it into a courtyard, and gained an outdoor room for entertainment. The latest trend is to take the kitchen outdoors. Some home owners install pizza ovens, fridges and open fireplaces. As the average house site shrinks and more of us move to apartments, it's natural to make the most of any available outdoor space.

THEN: TELEVISION
NOW: ENTERTAINMENT CENTRES

Television is still the electronic heart in most living rooms, even if most are radiating reality programmes rather than real heat. But the clumsy goggle-box of the 90s has been eclipsed by a slim, wide and sexy version. As audiovisual accessories like plasma screens and DVDs become more affordable, people are finding it easier to set up custom-made entertainment centres. The more adventurous - and wealthy - home owners are installing projector walls where once framed works of art made a statement. As technology gives audiences more power to source - and even produce - their own programming, it's only natural to create a comfortable viewing capsule.

THEN: CLUTTER
NOW: INTEGRATED STORAGE

As our lives get busier, it's understandable that we strive for order on the home front. Not that we're aiming for total minimalism. Few spaces are truly minimal. If it's white and vaguely contemporary it's labelled minimal, Hood says. The important question is how we manage our floor space, and it seems sensible to use walls and room dividers as storage units. Integrated storage has its advantages. "It reduces the pieces of furniture in a home space," Hood says, "and you begin to focus more on the essential elements, like the sofa."

SMART PRODUCT IDEAS

Control4

It is one of the first home automation systems to use wireless technology and comes at a very competitive price. "The system will have as much impact on home automation as the iPod did on music," says distributor Dean Franklin, who opened his Ponsonby home to Viva for a private demonstration.

Control4 uses a single remote to control your home entertainment system - CDs, DVDs, MP3s, MySky, and radio - as well as lights, heating and security.

The basic system (processor and remote) costs $1500. And because it is wireless you can add components without expensive fit-outs or wiring. Franklin says Control4 is easy to install "and you can take it with you when you move".

You power up your home theatre system system through an on-screen menu or touch pad. Franklin gives Viva a demo, shuffling through the icons, magically switching on lights, pulling up blinds - and calling up favourite tunes, which we find great fun. You can also trigger different applications simultaneously - especially handy if you want to create a movie-theatre atmosphere. There are lots of toys to manipulate in Franklin's newly built home, with around $30,000 worth of extras installed.

Technical adviser Hamish Neale says there is little chance of the system crashing.

"It's a stable, Linux operating system - and there's no danger of anyone hacking into it."

For more information visit beincontrol.co.nz.

Internet-converged appliances

From toasters to fridges, manufacturers are now hardwiring products through broadband connection to the internet. The internet fridge allows you to catch up with the latest news while dicing the carrots. This clever fridge also takes the guesswork out of re-stocking. But Viva is not so convinced about the merits of an internet-converged toilet.

Defused lighting

Double halogen down-lighting was a bright idea in the nineties. Now it's space junk on the ceiling. Modern homes are installing fluorescent lights which are nothing like the harsh, flickering lights of the past. The latest fluorescent lights are defused, radiating light with a natural effect. And if you think the colour of your carpet is paramount, think again. Interior designer Alasdair Hood, from Vanilla Space, says: "Good lighting makes a huge statement in your living environment."