Section: Application Domains

Metamorphic House

The motivation for metamorphic houses is that many countries, including France, are going through socio-demographic evolutions, like growth of life expectancy and consequent increase in the number of elderly people, urbanization and resource scarcity. Households experience financial restrictions, while housing costs increase with the raise of real estate and energy prices [5].

Important questions arise concerning the future of housing policies and ways of living. We observe novel initiatives like participative housing and developing behaviors, including house-sharing, teleworking and longer stay of children in parents' homes.

To tackle the challenges raised by these emerging phenomena, future homes will have to be modular, upgradeable, comfortable, sparing of resources. They should be integrated in the urban context and exchange information with other homes, contribute to reducing the distances to be covered daily and respect the characteristics of the territory where they are located.

To reach these goals, metamorphic domestic environments will modify their shape and behavior to support activities and changes in life cycle of occupants, increase comfort and optimize the use of resources. Thanks to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and adaptive building elements, the same physical spaces will be transformed for different uses, giving inhabitants the illusion of living in bigger, more adapted and more comfortable places.