Gadget
Gadget (n.) The word “Gadget” is a small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty.1 Commissioned by the Daily Mail for its Jubilee Ideal Home Exhibition, Alison and Peter Smithson’s House of the Future was displayed in London for 25 days in March, 1956. Fully equipped with numerous new gadgets, including “self-washing glass walls, easy-to-clean rounded corners, a self-cleaning bath and a shower with integrated hot air”2, the House of the Future was considered to be a probable design for living of 1981. One has to admit that, Alison and Peter Smithson's application of technology for everyday living radically shifted the architectural direction in the following decades. However, compared to Graham Caine’s Eco-House or Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s Conshelf, the House of the Future tended to offer delightful convenience by a large amount of gadgets, rather than assisting with the demanding aspects of housework, core services or maintenance3. It is controversial that in term of the space distribution, the House of the Future is understood as a bunker intending to survive in an isolated environment, however, when it comes to the utilization of the gadgets, it is marked as a transient house.