Even though things like home automation and innovative design are getting us closer and closer to a Jetsons-like future, it’s the futuristic homes we see in movies to which we aspire. We see Tony Stark’s voice-controlled cliffside mansion and technologies with artificial intelligence, wondering how much longer until we’re living in homes that can anticipate and adapt to our every need or desire.
Movies take different approaches to portraying homes of the future. Some show homes that don’t seem that much different from what we live in today while others look like the dwelling of aliens from the other side of the universe. What kind of homes will we be living in five years from now? Ten years from now? Or fifty years from now? Here are some movie homes that might be showing us a glimpse of our own future.
The Penthouse Man Cave from 2003’s Down With Love
This rom-com — starring Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger — might have gotten mediocre ratings from the most respected critics, but Down With Love featured some pretty awe-inspiring penthouse architecture. Renée Zellweger’s feminine abode had an incredible spiral staircase with views of New York City that took center stage, but in terms of the living space it’s Ewan McGregor’s penthouse man cave that turns heads.
Designed to be the ultimate home for a 1960s lady-killer, the space has lots of drama and contrast created with the masculine, dark woods, beige carpets, metal and steel-blue accents. You’d be hard-pressed to find an organic, curved line in the space as even the furniture is rectangular and geometric.
The real crème de la crème, however, is the use of built-in gadgetry and home automation tech; throughout the apartment, switches and buttons activate such things as a bar hidden behind the wall, a stereo system that plays music throughout the space, sofas and beds that seem to materialize from the walls or floor, and so on. With an apartment like this, it’s no surprise that he gets the girl in the end.
The Sculptured Sleeper House
While this house may look like the type of home that’s too surreal to be anything more than the construct of a director’s imagination, this structure — known as the Sculptured House and first featured in Woody Allen’s 1973 film Sleeper — is totally real, located in the Denver mountains.
The interior shown in the film were actually fabricated sets, but if you’ve seen the movie you’ll probably agree that’s a bit of a relief. The interior of Sculptured House is features lots of white, off-white, and beige, allowing the portrait windows, natural light, and panoramic views of the Colorado mountains take center stage. It recently sold for $1.5 million.
Flynn’s Glowing Safehouse in Tron: Legacy
When you sit and try to think of what futuristic interior design should look like, you’ll probably imagine something similar to that seen in the 2010 science fiction sequel, Tron: Legacy. The safehouse of Kevin Flynn — protagonist of the 1982 original who lives on the edge of a virtual cyberspace called the Grid — features glowing floors, a mixture of neo-Victorian and contemporary furnishings, as well as slate-like, geometrically-carved walls.
The space has a ghost-like, ethereal quality to it and a cold, sterile sort of drama or theatricality. Everything seems to have an otherworldly glow to it, which could be attributed to the prominent LED lights used even in the chandelier. Some of the furnishings like end tables and the dining set appear to be made of glass, ice, or some other transparent material, enhancing their ghost-like attributes to make you wonder if they’re really even there. However, if living in cyber exile means having living space like this, most would be all too willing to pack their bags and move into the Grid.
About the author -:
Dane O'Leary is a full-time freelance writer and design blogger for Modernize.com. He has degrees in psychology and anthropology with additional study in journalism, graphic design, and public relations. Dane is currently working on his debut novel.
