Have you thought about what a residential building might look like in 2020? What a residential building in 2020 might have to look like? The world’s steadily increasing urban population probably won’t slow by 2020 which will likely exacerbate already major issues like scarcity of clean water, environmental pollution, global warming and dwindling resources.

Global conglomerate Philips has given it some thought and they see some alternative ways of designing intelligent living spaces that, “rather than increasing the burden on existing infrastructure, actually manage to function off the grid”, i.e. use only renewable resources that are captured and harnessed on-site. Their award-winning Philips Design probe project ‘Off the Grid – Sustainable Habitat 2020′ explores new ways of developing sustainable housing. Central to their approach is a fundamental shift in the way buildings are designed and constructed.

So for example, instead of having an inert outer surface whose primary considerations are strength and protection, “the probe suggests using sensitive, functional and responsive skins that respond to changing conditions. In this way the outer surface of the building can, for example, direct light into the apartments inside for illumination, capture rainwater that is then filtered and used for drinking and other domestic purposes, channel wind for air-conditioning, and turn sunlight into electricity. This intelligent membrane could mean that the building would no longer need to be connected to traditional energy and water supply systems.” We’re not that far, only 11 years to 2020, luckily we’re not that far technologically either.