Environment, ecology, comfort - what defines the "House of the Future"?

The new generation and the development of technology are changing the requirements for real estate, now housing is not limited to the walls of the house, but includes the environment. However, further technological progress can dramatically change the construction industry. Representatives of government and business discussed existing and possible trends at a plenary session on the topic "House of the Future" within the framework of the International Forum and Exhibition 100+ TechnoBuild.

As Denis Pasler, the head of the Sverdlovsk Region, noted, environmental friendliness, digitalization, the use of living recycled materials, energy independence of buildings, additive technologies, and space transformation are among the global trends in the construction of the future.  

"All this is rapidly entering our lives. The question is no longer whether such solutions exist, but to what extent they are applicable in Russian conditions, taking into account our climate, landscape, urban features, the specifics of construction sites and the needs of residents themselves. And most importantly, how ready is the industry to move in this direction?" the governor set the tone for the discussion.

Alexander Vorozhbitov, CEO of Metropolis, drew attention to the fact that many of the technologies that are actively used today appeared much earlier, but it took time for them to become widely used.

"Artificial intelligence, which is now being talked about, probably from every iron, I responsibly declare, was invented 70 years ago. It is only now that technology has reached the point where it can be used. Solar panels, I think, will already be an integral part in 15-20 years. But in the future, if we fantasize, it is already clear that aerogels should be used, which are absolutely transparent, let sunlight through, but their thermophysical properties are many times better than any currently known insulation materials," he believes.

Vitaly Kryuchkov, head of the Construction Research Center, recalled that the main task of the house of the future is to constructively protect people from adverse natural phenomena and create a comfortable life for them.

"Over the years, despite the fact that technology is developing, everything is based on three basic building materials.: it's stone, wood, metal. In our view, the "house of the future" is when the core of rigidity is concrete, the stressed nodes are metal structures, and the human habitat is a biological product, a tree that consumes carbon and makes the habitat in this wooden space more comfortable and convenient. That is, a symbiosis of constructive engineering solutions to combine all three types of basic materials in one facility," the expert believes.

Alexander Nevmerzhitsky, CEO of Praktika, agreed that all new trends will be "integrated" into the structure of cities, but stressed that the main thing in housing of the future is an integrated approach.  

"I am sure that the future house is not limited only to the walls. This is a kind of complex territory. You can't just build a house and power it with some modern technology. No. A house is just a complex building," he explained.

The main thesis of Timur Ufimtsev, CEO of Sinara Development, is that the buyer has changed, and the developer must change with him. Zoomers are no longer "children of the future", but real customers with an approved mortgage. Millennials are the backbone of the market with uncompromising living standards. The requests increased, but the budget remained limited. How to solve it? Transfer infrastructure from a private area to a communal one. Strollers are in wheelchairs, bicycles are in the parking lot, inventory is in the storerooms. Loggias are for coffee, not for junk. The formula "35 meters of an apartment plus hundreds of meters of shared infrastructure" works

Stanislav Kiselyov, CEO of the KORTROS Group of companies, proposed to turn the construction paradigm around.

"Today we can see that the share of multi-family housing in the volume of construction in the Russian Federation has been decreasing for five years, with individual housing construction taking the predominant share today. People usually vote for individual homes. And at the same time, they invest their money, not credit. And this is quite a serious trend," he said, adding that it is necessary to develop small towns with this approach.

This idea was supported by the Governor of the Sverdlovsk region. Denis Pasler suggested that integrated development, the growth of residential housing, and in the future, the emergence of air transport will significantly change people's ability to choose a place of residence.  

"As soon as there is another type of transport, when there is no need to build expensive interchanges, roads and other related infrastructure, and it will be possible to cover 50-150 km in 10-30 minutes, we will create a completely different territory for life. This will radically change everything in the construction industry. I think it will happen sooner or later," said the head of the region.

Andrey Malakhov, moderator of the plenary session, also called for the support of small towns. "When I turned 50, I suddenly realized that I was paying taxes in Moscow, and they were disappearing into these tiles. And I returned to my homeland, to the city of Apatity in the Murmansk region. I registered there, I pay taxes in a small town, and I want to tell all the developers. We are going to big cities, but it seems to me that the next step, the house of the future, is when developers will enter cities with a population of less than 100 thousand. Yes, you can't build a whole neighborhood there, maybe, but if you built five houses, they will simply fly apart during the construction phase. Because there is no big construction going on in small towns in Russia," he added.

In turn, Alexander Gaidukov, head of Strana Development Group, suggested resettling emergency homes in Yekaterinburg at his own expense: "1300 citizens live in houses that today, according to various standards, do not meet living conditions: there is no water, there is no heat, sometimes there is no electricity. Yekaterinburg is the flagship in terms of the number of territories of the KRT. I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the authorities for large territories in the city center," Gaidukov said.

The company is ready to invest in the resettlement of emergency housing in exchange for the opportunity to build up large areas in the city center. According to Gaidukov, developers are interested in such sites because of the ready-made infrastructure. Housing near parks and schools, in his opinion, remains in demand even in the current economic conditions.