Xanadu Houses
Xanadu was an architectural house project started in the late 1970s, which turned into three differently designed homes, in Kissimmee, Florida, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. All three Xanadu homes were built with foam rather than concrete to make the home both easier to build and more cost effective. Xanadu was built as a visitor attraction to showcase how computers can be used in the home to carry out automated tasks. In the early 1990s two of the Xanadu homes were closed down and demolished, leaving only the Kissimmee Xanadu left which was then later closed down in 1996.
History
Xanadu ("ZAN-uh-du") was an architectural house project originating from the 1970's. Roy Mason, an architect, planned the Xanadu home by creating a clay concept. His vision of the future home of the 1990's was to use plastic foam for the building's main structure. Architect Mason believed Xanadu would alter the way people think of houses - as little more than inanimate, passive shelters against the elements. "No one's really looked at the house as a total organic system," says Mason, who was also the architecture editor of 'The Futurist magazine'. "The house can have intelligence and each room can have intelligence."
There were originally three Xanadu homes built, one in Kissimmee, Florida, one in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and the third in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The estimated cost of construction for one home was $300,000. Roy Mason did however plan for an even lower cost home at only $80,000 to show that homes using computers do not have to be expensive.
Exterior and interior
The exterior (outside) of Xanadu looked similar to a UFO out of outer space, featuring white painted walls, a communications pole, an outside public toilet, and a lake. Xanadu had at least two entrances, very large windows, and porthole type windows in the roof. Xanadu consisted of domed pods built by spraying polyurethane foam onto removable molds. The polyurethane hardens in a couple of days, then paint can be applied and space cut out of the foam for windows and doors to be mounted in.
The interior (inside) of Xanadu is best described as a cave, featuring curved walls, rounded porthole windows in the ceiling, cramped rooms and low level ceilings. The interior used a cream color for the walls, and a pale green for the floor. At the center of the house was the living room, supporting the roof was a fake tree which may have looked interesting at first but is very strange.
Xanadu tour
No one ever lived in Xanadu, It was built as a visitor attraction. Many visitors went there to peek at the computerized home of the future. Following an electronic tour guide, the visitors see the constantly changing computer-graphics art show on video screens in the family room. They learn in the master bedroom about the security and fire systems, they can then visit the master bath where a bather can enjoy a sun-heated steam bath or choose from a variety of computer-produced weather conditions.
Although Xanadu was built as a visitor attraction, many features of the house were functional such as the Jacuzzi, Fountain and Television. Due to the limited amount of affordable and powerful computers in the 1980s, Xanadu struggled in certain areas rendering many parts of the house useless and in functional.
Using computers in the home
Xanadu was controlled by microcomputers , in this case Commodores. Each feature of the house, and each room were controlled by computers. Including the kitchen, party room, the health spa, and many other parts of the house. Xanadu was automated, meaning the computers did a lot of work for you; the use of computers in the home in this particular way was efficient and handy as a concept because your time schedule could become freer. An example of this in use is using the computer to heat the bath at a specific time and date so that it will be ready when you get home from work. The concept of using computers in the home to do housework and make sure the house is secure is not a new idea, these concepts date back to the 1950's and earlier, Xanadu brought these concepts to life because the technology was finally available.
Kitchen
The house itself grew some of that food. Xanadu had a built-in greenhouse. Naturally, a microcomputer monitored the watering of plants, artificial sunlight, ventilation, humidity, soil content, and the shutters and awnings. The groceries you couldn't grow could be bought by tele-shopping at the household workstation, these may have been groceries that wouldn't grow in your area's climate, the catalog used to order food from home was on a videodisc system hooked up to a microcomputer and the transaction was handled with the help of tele-banking. The workstation computer also maintains a household calendar, records, and home bookkeeping. Both ordering food from home and maintaining household calendars, records and home bookkeeping can today be done because of the Internet and Secure Online Credit Card Payments.
Work at home
Xanadu suggested a way to do business at home, with an office room and the use of computers to use electronic mail, access to stock and commodities trading and news services. This concept has been adapted to today's homes because of the Internet, and Personal Computers, the majority of people working will work from home running a home business or either working for a company through email and websites. Having access to news services from home has become even easier with RSS newsfeeds. In the recent years, working at home has advanced to a new level that the creators of Xanadu did not even dream of having: Video & Audio conferencing over the Internet.
Bedroom
Computers were used in the bedroom of Xanadu, allowing the user to control other parts of the house from their bedroom. This eliminated the unnecessary movement and actions of having to go downstairs to do a certain action when the computer can do it for you, while you're not even there. Shown in the picture to the right are two girls in the bedroom typing on a computer.
"In the home of the future, people may be able to control coffeepots and front door locks from their bedrooms."
Living room
The living room was probably the largest room in the entire Xanadu home, sporting a fountain, small television set, as well as a video projector. The form of entertainment where family members sit around a television set is passive with little or no interaction between the family members and the Television or with each other. A home computer, on the other hand, allows interactive entertainment. Nearby the living room was the dining room, featuring a glass table with a curved seat fitting around half of the table, behind the seats was a large window covering the entire wall.
Family room
The family room of Xanadu featured video screens and other electronic equipment, which covered the walls. Xanadu's builders called the entertainment center an "electronic hearth". It was planned as a gathering place for family members and relatives, just as a fireplace hearth is.
Security
One of the many advantages of using computers in the home includes security. A computer can control the locking system of doors and windows in the home require a user to enter a password to enter their home, or either uses their thumbnail print as a key of identification that you own the home and has the privilege to enter. Xanadu was able to speak with a HAL voice, generated by computer, the voice would speak when someone enters the home to make them think someone is in the home, this idea is seen as rather silly because computers can be used to do much more than speak to increase security levels in the home.
Disadvantages
One of the concerns of Xanadu was the cost of electrical bills since running several computers 24/7 all year is bound to cost a lot of money, But Mason figured that a central computer could control the energy consumption of all the other computers in the house. Many dislike Xanadu as a practical home because of its low ceilings and curved walls preventing picture hanging and also because of the cramped rooms.
Many believe using computers in the home is a disadvantage, because if the computer hardware fails, it restricts you from getting food, having a bath, getting out of the house if doors are closed, etc. Many also dislike the concept of computers in the home because it may make you less social and take automated tasks for granted, resulting in you thinking you never have to do housework again. Some also see no use of computers in the use, but many argue that it is good for security and to get housework jobs such as cleaning done quickly.
Reaction
Shortly after the Xanadus were built and opened as visitor attractions, the tourism companies began to advertise Xanadu as the "home of the future" in brochures encouraging people to visit the futuristic home. While the majority of people who visited Xanadu naturally felt already at home because of the organic design, some felt that the home was a bad piece of architecture because unlike a good piece of architecture which would last a long time, Xanadu was badly affected by the weather. One visitor of Xanadu was 9-year-old Katie Steinmetz, of Barrington, Illinois "She would have moved in the next day," her mother reported. Other architects and designers probably saw Xanadu as unprofessional architecture design because of the materials used, and the odd use of colors and shapes inside the home. After Xanadu was built, there was not a sudden shock and crave from other designs which caused an outburst of futuristic looking homes, designers continued to build ordinary shaped homes, dismissing Xanadu as a successful concept.
Personal Computer manufacturers and electronic device makers such as Sony, Apple, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Dell, HP and large businesses are waiting for the right time when an entire integrated system of automated electrical devices will be accepted in the home by a majority of consumers. In 30 years or even less time we can expect to begin to see computers being taken advantage of to their full potential in the home.
Xanadu book
A book about Xanadu and computerized homes was written by Roy Mason with Lane Jennings and Robert Evans and was published by Acropolis Books on November 1st, 1983. The book was a hardcover, with 260 pages of material explaining how computers can be used in the home, suggesting many concepts of which some today are in use and some too outdated to be considered any longer. The book was titled "Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!" and is still available from [Amazon] in used condition. The book also includes an interview with Bob Masters, the creator of Xanadu.
The end of Xanadu
Towards the early 90s, it was clear that the Xanadu homes were failing to become successful and ever-lasting visitor attractions. The technology used in Xanadu was quickly becoming obsolete, still using DOS based machines rather than a GUI based system, which is user-friendlier to the user. The Xanadu in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin was also struggling and saw the addition of jokey robots and pricey souvenirs in the gift shop. In the early 90s the Xanadus in Wisconsin and Gatlinburg were demolished; the Xanadu in Kissimmee lived on until 1996 and was then put on sale in 1997 when it went on sale and in 2001 was on sale again.
Saving Xanadu
Dozens of those who visited Xanadu in its glory days of the 1980s today want to help, not financially, but in another way to save the last Xanadu in Kissimmee, Florida from being demolished like the other two franchises were. Although all those who want to save the building to restore it, they do not have the budget required to purchase the home, which was last on sale for $1.7 million. All of Xanadu's fanatics find it a disappointment that its current owners are using the building simply for storage when it could be restored to its original beauty as a futuristic home.
Xanadu today
Today, the last Xanadu left is abandoned, and is being used for storage by its owners. The remaining Xanadu has not survived the weather well, and because of this has suffered greatly of mold and mildew throughout the interior. Its basement is entirely flooded of brown water (estimated a foot deep); in the basement were certain utilities, which controlled the electric and microcomputers. Xanadu is owned by a vacation ownership property, Star Island Development Corporation, 5000 Avenue of the Stars, Kissimmee, FL 34746. It was purchased to be the sales office for this timeshare resort. It is presently empty, but is still patrolled by Star Island security.
Future
In the near future, we may begin to see more and more futuristic homes being built that use recyclable materials which are both strong and efficient for use in building a home. Considered materials include clay, glass, cardboard, concrete, timber and steel. The demand for new house designs and computerized homes is slowly growing, but before these homes can become a standard the cost must first be lowered. High tech homes of today are expensive, meaning only a minority of people can afford them to be built.
Possible concepts for appliances in homes have been shown in other places apart from Xanadu, such as in films. The film Back to the future: Part II shows a home of the year 2015 where thumbnail prints are used for identification of who you are, video conferencing on a large Television screen was predicted in the film but is already a reality today because of the Internet and Personal Computers. The living room/family room shown in the film shows a large TV screen where you can watch more than one channel at once, this was also shown in Xanadu's family room.
See also
References
- Tom Halfhill. "Using Computers in the Home" (Compute Magazine Article, December 1982)
- Catherine O'Neil "Computers Those Amazing Machines" (Book, 1985), Page 90, 92. (Computing the Future) ISBN 087044574X
External links
- 1982 Compute Magazine Article "Using Computers in the Home"
- glowlab neuroscape's random thoughts on Xanadu
- Xanadu : Home of the future
- Kissimmee's Xanadu articles
- Photos and more Information
- Xanadu Photo Gallery from 1998 Photos of Xanadu in it's glory days of the 1980's.
- Kissimmee's Xanadu as of 2004 Urban Explorers photos of Xanadu in 2004.