Sustainable and Smart: Rethinking What a Smart Home Is

The term Smart Home typically refers to dwellings augmented with high-tech responsive systems such that heating, air conditioning, lighting, appliances, entertainment outlets, and architectural components are computerized and managed, often via a remote control. Smart homes promise comfort, convenience, and resource conservation in the near future. Yet the notion of increased dependency on technology for comfort and efficiency (and hence, sustainably) needs to be revised. While we (justifiably) expect our dwellings to use technological advances to sense and respond to our needs, a growing body of literature [1-5] warns against increased dependencies and amplified complexification, given the resource depletion anticipated in the future. Through examples and discussions drawn primarily from vernacular architecture discourse, this paper addresses this dichotomy. We investigate how smart homes can be re-defined to better fit sustainability goals while anticipating technology limitations. We introduce members of the ICT4S community to the sustainability potentials of vernacular domestic architecture and inspire them by its smart responses to human needs and harsh conditions. And finally, we argue that re-employing tried-and-true vernacular techniques in conjunction with ICT systems can offer smart yet simple and feasible solutions to future housing needs while being inherently more sustainable from an environmental and operational stance.