What Do We Want in Our Homes Right Now?

There is no place like home—though it’s still changing. After all, the environment we live in in 2026 looks very different than it did a few decades ago: style and decor, technology and electronics, and how buildings are insured and protected from natural disasters.

The external forces that shape our daily lives today, will inform what makes a home relevant and safe decades from now. To help readers navigate this transition, Architectural Digest and WIRED have teamed up on a series of stories about what the next era of “building” might look like. Here, WIRED’s ADs and global directors, Amy Astley and Katie Drummond, talk about the ideas that went into this. special case.

AMY ATTLEY: Katie, I’m excited to share our first digital story with everyone. When we started talking about working together, we kept coming back to the same question: What do we really want in our homes, and what do we need from them? At AD, we have always believed that where we live should be a place of beauty and comfort. But lately it seems like the idea of ​​a house has become very difficult. People are dealing with a variety of concerns, such as the weather, rising costs, and new technologies, which go beyond the color of their bedrooms.

KATIE DRUMMOND: I agree. And the dynamics you mention are very important, especially with rapid progress and integration AI. At WIRED, we spend a lot of time thinking and writing about how technology is embedded in our lives. For us, the question is not yours at home they will be wise-it will, whether you actively seek it or not-but how you will use this skill. More importantly, where will it be useful? And when will it be seamless? The promise of a smart home, where you go in and change everything automatically to your liking, is still a dream.

ASTLEY: We all want technology to improve our lives, but smart homes must also embrace trends. Fred Bernstein he explains Olson Kundig’s Shearwater House, suspended on steel piers 23 feet off the ground (“above the mosquito,” jokes AD100 has been built by Olson Kundig founder Tom Kundig), looks like a good idea, but built because of the real and immediate threat of rising tides. Sustainable design sounds extreme, and now it’s important. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Fazzare reports that all over the world, architects are starting to use modern, low-cost materials such as earth, bamboo, and fireproof wood. For them, the future may lie in rethinking what we already know works.

DRUMMOND: That thought comes into our head Stewart Brand’s biographycounterculture icon and author of The Whole Earth Catalog. He is now 87 years old and has built a luxurious luxury home to support his lifestyle on the property he shares with his wife in Petaluma, California. As life expectancy increases, the way people grow up in their environment, and the technology they use to achieve it, changes as well. Steven Blum wrote about this in his touching story of looking after his elderly father with a constant microphone, and how this kind of support can be difficult, even confusing.

ASTLEY: I’ve read some pieces on the topic of helping loved ones with technology, even those that focus on companion robots or smart trackers. Steven’s unique take was truly moving, especially when he considered the difference in loneliness that this technology could make.

This article is part of Their futurea collaboration between the editors of WIRED and Architectural Digest to help you understand what “home” will look like tomorrow and beyond.