Smart Home Technology and Future House Design Ideas and Photos

The automation that genuinely improves daily life — lighting scenes, climate, shading, irrigation, security and solar, wired to last twenty years. A genuinely smart house is not the one with the most devices, it is the one you never have to think about. The systems worth automating are the ones you would otherwise adjust several times a day: lighting, heating and cooling, external shading, irrigation, pool equipment, hot water and energy. Everything else is a gadget, and gadgets age badly while good infrastructure lasts decades. Wire it properly and the rest becomes easy. Structured cabling to every screen and access point, a small ventilated comms cabinet, hardwired sensors and switches on the circuits that matter, and a spare conduit to the garden, garage and studio. Wireless is a convenience layer over a wired backbone, not a substitute for it. This costs very little during construction and is prohibitive afterwards, which is why it belongs in the earliest drawings. Then automate around the sun rather than the clock. External blinds and louvres that close on the west in the afternoon do more for comfort than any air conditioner setting. Lighting scenes tied to sunset, irrigation tied to soil moisture and weather...

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Beach House Designs

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens and Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens, Off-White Render and Bronze Fittings, Coastal Banksias, Spinifex Grasses and Windswept Dune. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com — Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens, Off-White Render and Bronze Fittings, Coastal Banksias, Spinifex Grasses and Windswept Dune Planting, featuring a Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle and Evening Deck Lighting, finished with Sculptural Feature Planting and Inviting

Bh 29 is part of our Beach House Designs collection — one of 57 large-format widescreen concept visuals in this section. It is presented here at full size so you can study the layout, the planting, the surfaces and the way light falls across the design before you commit to building anything on your own block.

Classic and modern coastal homes, dune gardens, decks and ocean-front living. Use this concept as a starting point: note the proportions between built form and greenery, where shade and shelter sit, how paths and paved areas move people through the space, and which materials repeat to hold the whole scheme together.

Every visual on this site is a design idea created for Home Design Photos. Browse the rest of the Beach House Designs collection, or open the complete image catalogue to see every home, garden, pool, pergola, furniture, lighting and beach house concept in one place.

← Modern Ocean-Front Home Design with Limewashed Timber and Plunge Pool, Shaded Cabana and Boardwalk Relaxed Seaside Holiday Home Design with White Weatherboard Cladding and Verandah Lounge, BBQ Bench →

More Beach House Designs concepts

Modern Ocean-Front Home Design with Limewashed Timber and Plunge Pool, Shaded Cabana and Boardwalk

Modern Ocean-Front Home Design with Limewashed Timber, Charcoal Roofing and Glass Balustrades, Frangipani, Agapanthus and Soft Silver Coastal Foliage, featuring a Plunge Pool, Shaded Cabana and Boardwalk Approach, with Considered Outdoor Zoning and Soft Layered Textures Throughout

Coastal Beach House Design with Shiplap Boarding, Sandy Stone Paving and Woven Cane Detailing, Sea Grasses, Pigface and Low Sculptural. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Coastal Beach House Design with Shiplap Boarding and Sheltered Alfresco Dining Terrace and Sun

Coastal Beach House Design with Shiplap Boarding, Sandy Stone Paving and Woven Cane Detailing, Sea Grasses, Pigface and Low Sculptural Shrubs, featuring a Sheltered Alfresco Dining Terrace and Sun Lounge Zone, complemented by Durable Weatherproof Finishes and Low-Maintenance Detailing

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens and Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens, Off-White Render and Bronze Fittings, Coastal Banksias, Spinifex Grasses and Windswept Dune Planting, featuring a Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle and Evening Deck Lighting, finished with Sculptural Feature Planting and Inviting

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens and Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle

Dune-Side Beach House Design with Bleached Timber Battens, Pale Render and Black Framed Glazing, Clipped Hedging, Feature Palms and Pale. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Dune-Side Beach House Design with Bleached Timber Battens and Wide Ocean-View Deck, Outdoor Shower

Dune-Side Beach House Design with Bleached Timber Battens, Pale Render and Black Framed Glazing, Clipped Hedging, Feature Palms and Pale Pebble Borders, featuring a Wide Ocean-View Deck, Outdoor Shower and Relaxed Lounge Setting, balanced by Clean Sightlines, Shaded Retreats

Coastal Beach House Design with Shiplap Boarding and Sheltered Alfresco Dining Terrace and Sun

Complete image catalogue

Off Grid Tiny Home and Solar Cabin Design Ideas and Photos

Solar arrays, batteries, water tanks, composting systems and the sizing calculations behind a cabin that runs without any connection at all.

Going off grid is an engineering exercise before it is a lifestyle. Every appliance in the cabin has a daily energy figure, every occupant has a daily water figure, and the system must cover both through the worst week of the year rather than the average one. Cabins that fail do so because they were sized on optimism: a small array, a small battery and a hope that winter would be sunny.

Start with the load. Lighting, fridge, pumps, laptops, cooking and hot water, listed with hours of use, gives a daily kilowatt hour total. Size the array to generate that in mid winter, not mid summer, and size the battery for two to three days of autonomy so a cloudy stretch is uneventful. Choosing gas or wood for cooking and heating, and solar or heat pump for hot water, dramatically reduces the electrical system required.

Water follows the same logic. Roof area times local rainfall gives annual harvest, and tank capacity should cover the longest dry spell rather than the average month. Add first flush diverters, a sediment and carbon filter, ultraviolet treatment for drinking, and a pressure pump with an accumulator. Greywater to a mulch pit or reed bed, and a composting or worm system for waste, means no sewer connection is needed at all.

Tiny Homes design ideas photo from the Off Grid Tiny Home and Solar Cabin Design Ideas and Photos feature. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

The building itself is the cheapest system available. Heavy insulation, airtight construction, double glazing, deep eaves, a light roof and cross ventilation reduce heating and cooling loads so far that everything else shrinks. Site the cabin for winter sun and summer breeze, orient the array without shading, keep the plant room accessible, and monitor everything. Done properly, an off grid cabin is quieter, cheaper to run and more comfortable than most connected houses.

House Design Photos is a HUGE Library Gallery and Directory of Home Design Photos

Smart Home Technology and Future House Design Ideas and Photos

Hamptons-Style Beach House Design with Silvered Hardwood Screens and Beach Access Path, Firepit Circle

More Beach House Designs concepts

Off Grid Tiny Home and Solar Cabin Design Ideas and Photos