Project Background
In 1983, a group of students from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) participated in the first International Design Competition held in Osaka, Japan and won the first prize by proposing an idea of House of the Future.
Twentytwo years later, in 2005, IIT's Interprofessional Projects program started the Sustainable Village Project, an endeavor to build a sustainable and environmentally-aware community on the IIT campus. Part of this project was to design the House of the Future as a demonstration project of new technologies developed at IIT.
Through use of research both in the 1983 House of the Future, as well as the House of the Future developed in the spring of 2005, this semester IPRO 301 - Back to the House of the Future had the task of establishing a system of ideas and concepts which could be globally integrated to change the way modern housing is viewed and approached by builders and residents alike.

Concept Proposal
The concept proposed is a modular housing solution that will address the flexibility and sustainable needs in the future. A module is a threedimensional component of a system designed for easy assembly and flexible use. The module does not determine the appearance of the building, but provides a dimensional framework for its construction like making cross-stitch embroidery. Any design concept used to enclose space requires continuity of both structure and enclosure.
IPRO 301 elected to use a four-by-four-by-four foot dimension scheme for its modular components. These modules will provide an initial design element which will determine the placing of all units within the house. This means that all doorways and corridors within the house will be roughly 4'in width, and many features of the house will incorporate 4' dimensions.

What is a Module?

- Component of a system designed for easy assembly and flexible use