Last week I attended the HIVE “Reignite the Dream” conference in Austin, Texas. It was two days of learning about smart home technology, green home initiatives, and technology innovations that will be transforming the housing market of today and the future. I did not know that housing is the last industry in the country which is still building with 19th Century technology. Steve Johnson, author of “Where Did Good Ideas Come From” and Brian Gaudio, CEO of Module, explained this further in both their presentations.
I also had a chance to attend the HIVE reception and Innovation Alley which included smart home technology products from Frigidaire, Samsung, KB Homes, Whirlpool and many others on display.
Below are the highlights and key take aways from the HIVE “Reignite the Dream” conference.
Module:
One of my favorite presentations at HIVE was by Brian Gaudio, CEO of Module. As stated before the housing industry is one of the oldest market with no much change. Module is changing the housing market by creating homes with expandable upgrades and layouts specifically designed for flexibility. Module homes are manufactured off-site, which means tight quality control and major reductions in build times. Module’s design and construction management team works closely with their preferred partners comprised of brokers and agents, lenders, builders, and manufacturers to deliver your home. The Module team will help you with:
- Land: They help you find the right lot in the right neighborhood.
- Design: From designing your site plan to finalizing fixtures, finishes and appliances
- Logistics: They guide you in selecting the right mortgage lender, pulling all the right permits and getting approval.
- Construction: After completing the above construction of your module home will commence. Module homes are designed to grow with you therefore when ready you can add to the home or upgrade with ease.
To learn more or to shop their Module homes please visit: https://modulehousing.com/.
KB Home Projekt:
During the reception I stopped by KB display which had a 3-D printer making creating home models, I was intrigued. KB has launched the KB Home Projekt which focuses on a goal for eventual home buyers and for architects, engineers, and builders whose business is to serve them: Their initiative is to change home building, transforming design, building partnerships, construction processes, and, ultimately, a household’s experience in a home and community, to shed light “where tomorrow lives,” for everyday buyers of new houses in new neighborhoods.
Ideas that evolved into KB Home Projekt‘s include:
- The Greenbuild ProjeKt illuminated a belt-and-suspenders approach and execution to building envelope and operating systems inter-operability, one that advanced the collaborative development time-lines of thermal, air, vapor barrier, and durability solutions among discrete manufacturers to the extent that ProjeKt partners became strategic co-developers, with urgent stakes in the success of the venture.
- The ProjeKt tested a top 10 home builder’s preliminary exploration and investment in off-site fabrication as a critical factor in achieving the kind of quality, iterative work-stream efficiency and velocity, waste reduction, and skilled labor offsets achieved by automation.
- The KB Home ProjeKt at Greenbuild became a bright-line demonstration recognizing that smart home technology, breakthrough energy and water sustainability performance, livability excitement and inspiration, and attainability must not be mutually exclusive values, one trading off for the others. Instead, they can, and must co-exist if they’re going to show a path to the future of home building investment, design, planning, and construction.
The KB Home Projekt is an ambitious goal but definitely needed for the housing industry. To learn more about KB Home Projekt please visit: https://www.builderonline.com/builder-100/ground-breaking-kb-home-projekt-breaks-ground-in-las-vegas_o.
Samsung
During the reception Samsung had their smart refrigerator family HUB 3.0. Similar to their previous models while using the family HUB you can use your voice to add items to your shopping lists, see inside from anywhere with 3 built-in cameras, automatically assign expiration notifications and nutritional information, and plan a meal based on what foods are available inside your refrigerator. It also helps you save money with weekly deals & ability to load coupons directly to your loyalty card. The HUB has popular apps like Grubhub, Amazon, Spotify, All Recipes and many more. For more information about Samsung family hub refrigerators please visit: https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/refrigerators/all-refrigerators/s/family_hub_-buy_online/_/n-10+11+hv201+troqx+trqf5/.
Frigidaire Induction Cook Top
Also at the HIVE reception is had a chance to try out Frigidaire’s induction cooktop with smart technology.
I haven’t cooked with an induction stovetop and didn’t realize not only it less clean up but doesn’t damage your pots and pans from everyday use! What is induction and why would you want to buy one for your home? Induction cooking heats a cooking vessel electrically by magnetic induction, instead of by radiation or thermal conduction from an electrical heating element, or from a flame. Because inductive heating directly heats the vessel, very rapid increases in temperature can be achieved, and changes in heat settings are instantaneous.*
The smart stove top burners are safe to touch so you can touch each burner to turn it on and control the heat. It was pretty cool to check out as I’ve only had a gas or electric stove plus the smart technology was fun to test out. I’m not certain on when it will be available on the market but to shop Fridgidaires induction stovetops please visit: https://www.frigidaire.com/Kitchen-Appliances/Cooktops/Induction-Cooktops/.
In all, I had fun learning about all the innovative technology happening within the housing industry. To learn more about HIVE please visit: https://www.hiveforhousing.com/.
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Source: https://www.hiveforhousing.com/
*Wikipedia
