Living in a Historic Neighborhood in the Technology-Era: Understanding Residents' Expectations from Domestic Spaces

Abstract

Our use of everyday spaces continually transforms with the domestic technologies entering our homes. However, accommodating these technologies is especially challenging in historic neighborhoods as these spaces were built in eras suitable for different lifestyles. Understanding users' expectations living in this context could provide valuable opportunities to support occupants' everyday comfort and increase the built environments' lifecycle. Therefore, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 early-adopter residents in two historic neighborhoods to explore expectations towards future domestic spaces. Findings reveal four themes that cover individual values and neighborhood identity in shaping residents' expectations. We uncover three design directions for the field: (1) integration of location-specific multi-sensory experiences, (2) consideration of bodily interacted flexible and adaptable spaces, and (3) imagination of human-like interactions with domestic spaces. We further unveil the potential for design fiction studies and discuss for how Human-Building interaction researchers/practitioners, and architects could respond to these future directions.