What might the future look like if we went beyond today’s technology and really thought intelligently…as in intelligent building skins. The people over at Phillips Design have a division called Design Probes that have been researching this very topic, among others. They call their Design Probes division…

“a dedicated ‘far-future’ research initiative to track trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have a significant impact on business. With the aim of understanding ‘lifestyle’ post 2020, the program aims to identify probable systematic shifts in the social and economic domains likely to affect our business and create intellectual property in new areas. It challenges conventional ways of thinking to come up with concepts to stimulate debate.”

One of the projects tackled by the Design Probes is called Off The Grid: Sustainable Habitat 2020 which is based on the goal of developing sustainable housing for China in the year 2020. The core of this project looks at forumulating strategies based on the fact that cities are dynamic, continually evolving and that in order to fully harness the power of the sun, the wind and the rain, our buildings need to take on more of a dynamic quality as well. The idea of a smart building is intriguing and it’s interesting to see thoughts that go way beyond today’s technology.

“This future habitat shifts from the current state where the building surfaces are benign inert ‘dumb’ materials only used for construction and shielding purposes to sensitive functional skins that are ‘alive’ and act as membranes to harness energy. A membrane creates a strong link between the exterior and interior of the habitat and used as a transporter collecting and channeling the elements of air water and light – from the outside feeding into the inside space. This will supply the habitat with all necessary sources to be able to live off the grid.”

Interior and Exterior Interface: Sun:

Interior and Exterior Interface: Wind

Interior and Exterior Interface: Rain

Interior and Exterior Interface: Waste

images via Philips