Other Things I Thought Up
Some more of my ideas that I've run across recently.
The D. U. H. The Dilbert Ultimate House
For years now I've wanted a round house. It would take maximum advantage of the sun's path through the sky to light different parts of the house at different times of day, and the main areas for as much of the day as possible.
By using the southern semi-circle with lots of windows and skylights, the central area of the house can get nearly direct sunlight for just about the entire day. Plus, other areas of the house on the northern, western, and eastern edges can take advantage of their lack of sunlight, good morning, or good evening sunlight.
A breakfast nook in the morning, with just enough kitchen to make pancakes and sandwiches would be on the east side of the house to take advantage of the morning sun, and on nice days, you can take it outside on to the wrap-around porch. The wraparound porch is uncovered, except in the northern area, which would be mostly in shadow anyway. The covered area is for rainy days when there wouldn't be much sunlight anyway.
The center would be the master bedroom, also circular, with a giant skylight for star gazing in bed. This would open/close at the push of a button, and can be on a timer so you can fall asleep under the stars without being woken up by the sun. An alternate semi-opaque version can be used to let some sunlight in without being too bright.
The main kitchen and perhaps a dining area would be to the west, along with a fire place, and other things for evening-ish activities, like a television or board games.
The northern areas would be dedicated to bedrooms, bathrooms and computer/television/game areas that could be used all day long outside of the glare and heat of the sun. Guests could choose an eastern or western vista to select how much sunlight they would get in the morning to wake up to.
The wall opposite the southermost part of the house would have a sundial, which, combined with a circular skylight in the roof would act as a sundial, tracking the route of the sun throughout the day, and through the months. Depending on the time of day/year, the sun coming through the skylight would hit different parts of the wall.
The following rough sketch gives you some idea of what I'm talking about. It's much smaller than the Dilbert house, and I guess it's not so "ultimate," but I think it's rather nice. The good part is, many of these ideas could be easily incorporated inexpensively into a square house as well. It's really all a matter of getting good, insulated windows (because there would be a lot of them) and placing things according to where the sun will be when you're using them.
Also see the IDEO Dilbert's Ultimate Cubicle.
This one is a bit of a no-brainer. How do you get someone to walk on a treadmill, when we know it's the most boring thing in the world to walk for miles without going anywhere? Why, you turn it into a game, of course.
This isn't an entirely new idea, bicycles that show scenic paths to you while you ride have been around for a while, so neither of us are being extremely original, but it's still a pretty good idea.
My idea was a little different though. Rather than using an existing game, you could create games for it that would take advantage of the movement you were generating, and choices would be fewer. It would be more of an immersive story than a first person shooter, though I can see how this idea is probably better. You don't have to make a game specifically for it, and by allowing it to use existing games, you can keep interest over the weeks, months and years without coming up with new games yourself.
Talk about your geek tools though, using television & video games to get you to exercise! Whoda thunk it. Actually, I think even more motivating, but perhaps more risque would be something like "strip treadmill" where every quarter mile, half mile, or mile (depending on your *ahem* stamina) you could get a virtual model to do things, like take off her clothes.
Follow Up
Following up the previous article, Amazing Inventions That Were, I've gotten my sister hooked on Activated Charcoal. Apparently it's a gastro-intestinal cure-all and will sooth an upset stomach, and being a fiber, it promotes healthy bowel movements. I'm beginning to think you should carry around a few capsules everywhere just in case, like those commercials encourage you to do with whatever product they're promoting.
Other articles in this series
- More Ideas
- Social Networking IM Client
- More Things That Should Exist
- More Brainfarts
- Even More Things I Thought Of
- Amazing Inventions That Were
- Things to do on Earth When You're Bored (or Depressed).
The Hanse Colani Rotor House is another house with a round design, but with a sleightly different twist...
page first created on Thursday, September 30, 2004
© Mark Wieczorek