Books
(related to Homes of the Future)

Return to the House_n: MIT Home of the Future Resources Page

How Buildings Learn (S. Brand, 1994, NY: Viking)

Essential reading about the co-evolution of buildings and their occupants. [Added 3/02]

The Timeless Way of Building (C. Alexander, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979)
A Pattern Language. Towns - Buildings - Construction. (C. Alexander, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1977)

Presents an archetypal language allowing laypersons & professionals to understand the 'timeless truths' about well-designed structures for people to live in. The basic idea is that most well-designed places were made not by architects but by people. Recommended reading for professional designers of the future. [Added 3/02]

Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century (S. Garfinkel, 2000)

From the cover: "Today's threats to privacy are more widely distributed than they were in Orwell's state, and they represent both public and private interests. Over the next fifty years, we'll see new kinds of threats to privacy that don't find their roots in totalitarianism but in capitalism, the free market, advances in technology, and the unbridled exchange of electronic information."

Journal of Mundane Behavior [article]

"The Journal of Mundane Behavior ... is a new scholarly journal devoted to the study of the "unmarked" -- those aspects of our everyday lives that typically go unnoticed by us, both as academics and as everyday individuals." The introductory journal (articles on space and mundane behavior, shaving, etc.)  indicates this will probably be a useful resource for researchers considering the future of the home, where much "mundane behavior" takes place.  [Added 3/20/00]

Digital Cities (T. Ishida, K. Isbister (Eds.))

Technologies, cities, and future perspectives. [Added 4/1/00]

Freezer Sociology Papers

There is an interesting point made worth thinking about. Freezers are *not* about storing cold food. They are time machines. They let you organize your time ... you at what you want when you want it. The articles show how this time shifting led to different phases of dependency on freezers. The latest shift is the dependency on prepared foods which are making it possible for people to *save time* cooking. This shifting of time is a very nice framework in which to think about appliances and devices in the home. The VCR is another time machine. So is email and voicemail. Can you think of others? [Added 04/04/00]

Automation in Construction

Research journal. From Elsevier: "The journal publishes refereed material on all aspects pertaining to the use of Information Technologies in Architecture, Engineering, Construction Technologies, and Maintenance and Management of Constructed Facilities. The scope of Automation in Construction is broad, encompassing all stages of the construction life cycle from the initial design and architecture, through to the actual construction of the facility, its maintenance and control as well as the eventual dismantling of buildings and engineering structures." [Added 4/4/00]

The Social Life of Information (by John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid ,2000)