The House of the Future (1959), by Vinay Ghai

8 Responses to "The House of the Future (1959), by Vinay Ghai"

Noah Steinberg says:

April 26, 2014 at 2:06 am

I think this was a very good, clear, and concise slidecast. Perhaps, on some slides, the narration was bit too fast and I had to go back and listen to parts i missed the previous time. Nonetheless, that means there was a lot of good information you wanted to tell. There were many examples in which the narration indicated important features of different images to show the values of houses over time. Explaining society, such as the “obsession” over plastic, in examples of houses was very interesting. Taking a step back, the idea of houses changing over time is a very important value in itself. Since the beginning of time, humans have needed houses as a way to survive unfavorable weather conditions. Once that is satisfied, anything under the stars imaginable can be implemented in the system, and I think this slidecast does a great job of provided some of those ideas throughout time. I thought it was really cool how, in the past, futuristic houses were depicted in newspapers, and then from magazines to TV to video games, specifically Call of Duty. I look forward to seeing how the final project will turn out using a similar style to one that was used in this slidecast.

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Mike Fogarty says:

April 27, 2014 at 2:59 pm

I thoroughly enjoyed watching your slidecast. Your narration was very clear, although on a few slides it seemed as though were trying to rush the narration to fit it in the 20-second time frame. Your information was great though. You did a really good job in the beginning three slides of introducing what homes were envisioned as during the 1950s, and what they actually were, which was this very mundane, flat, square building that had no extra architectural detail. In addition, your description of suburban living was extremely clear: people wanted to move away from the dirty city and be with “like-minded people.” Furthermore, you did a really good job of introducing what life inside the 1950s home would be like. The transition to describing future homes of different decades really illustrated a shift in what people were envisioning of the “future home.” Tying in what the assembly line and mass production brought to industry and how it really helped transform homes, I thought, was thinking outside the box and executed well. Overall, you did a really good job.

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Jesse Greenfield says:

April 27, 2014 at 5:56 pm

I really liked your presentation because I never really knew about the housing future and I thought that this gave me a great basic background into it. I thought you spoke too fast however and tried to cram a bunch of narration into a single slide and sometimes that made it hard for me to follow. I loved the Monsanto house slides as you do a great job summarizing why the house existed and the futuristic aspects included in the house. The children drawings slide was also one of my favorites as you showed that this thought of the future was developed at a very young age. I thought you did a great job with everything but you need to include less material in your narration so you can give me time to digest it before moving onto the next slide and you need to speak slower because at times I had trouble understanding what you were saying.

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Dani de Lucio says:

April 27, 2014 at 8:07 pm

I really enjoyed this presentation. The use of images was very relevant with the topic, and each image had a strong purpose in the presentation. I also enjoyed the aspect of including modern day references from the media such as Smart House and Call of Duty to demonstrate some of these aspects of the futuristic house that was discussed. I did however find it a bit difficult to keep up with the slideshow because the narration was a bit fast. Other than that I thought this was a very well thought out and organized slide cast.

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Anthony Vecchio says:

April 28, 2014 at 12:27 am

I thought that there was a lot of pertinent content and images that explained the future visions of houses in the 1900s and the common themes portrayed in these images. I liked that you compared today’s perceptions of future houses to perception of future houses in the mid-1900s and mentioned similar values. I learned that accessories in the house and communal living were major topics of public opinion. I also learned that automation was a common feature in futuristic houses and included ultrasonic laundry and moving cabinets. Houses also featured picture phones, solar power, and wristwatch TVs. I thought it was interesting that some houses were designed to be easily updated and factory assembled. I learned that people’s inspiration for these fancy houses was that they desired a better life after the hardship imposed by World War II. Unfortunately, these houses seemed to be only affordable to the more affluent in society. I felt that you needed to take a longer pause before beginning your narration of each slide and before ending the slide. The narration was too fast; it seemed rushed and was difficult to hear everything that was being said.

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Sean Burke says:

April 28, 2014 at 4:19 am

Houses in the future is a pretty cool topic to talk about. Mr. Ghai made a good point that advertising always looks to the future to try and get people to buy items. There was a lot of good, logical information. I learned that automated houses were seen as progress and futuristic since the 1950s and before. Personal helicopters and ultrasonic washers and dryers sound cool. I like how Mr. Ghai used the term “glory of the future” in the context of technological development. The one image from back in the day pictured cell phone towers and TV. It is cool to think that these modern day things were predicted way back then. It was interesting that although materials were expensive and nobody wanted to build a house that was much different from conventional houses, Tomorrowland and Disneyland built a plastic house. These houses of the future have aspects we have in our houses today, such as climate control, air filters, heaters, air conditioning, and sensors that test the air inside. It is crazy how accurate the one image from the early 1970s is to today’s American houses. The residents experienced computers, electronic mail, television with remote control, video cameras, sound system, and headphones attached to the computer, television, or other device. Talking a little slower would be helpful, but overall great slidecast.

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Addison Wechter says:

April 28, 2014 at 3:18 pm

I thought this slidecast was very well done and contained a lot of good information. Showing the appearance of normal houses of the time was helpful in understanding the innovations and changes that were present in the future predictions. I liked that you showed a variety of future houses and discussed their features in detail. The historical context of World War II was interesting, clearly indicating how Americans felt after the war. I also thought it was cool to show a children’s future prediction of houses. It was a good comparison to look at current visions of future houses and to see that some of the themes have remained the same. Your narration was a little fast and hard to follow at some spots. I also felt that the transitions between slides could have been smoother. However, the slidecast as a whole was great.

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Ethan Ossolinski says:

April 28, 2014 at 3:37 pm

I really liked the focus of this slide-cast, you were able to pull a lot out of one topic. You really captured how the context of the times led to certain predictions of the future. You really seemed like you knew what you were doing. My one critique would be to slow it down a little bit, but at the same time I think if it had been any slower it certainly would have eclipsed the six minute mark. I think that the prediction of future living is a really good way to show how the people of the times envisioned the future, because the home environment was the one that the average person in the fifties was most comfortable with. I think it’s interesting that the future was predicted to involve more condensed living in contrast to the spread out suburbia of the mid twentieth century. Great job, it was a very informative presentation.

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