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{{short description|Series of experimental homes in the US}}
'''Xanadu''' was an architectural house project started in the late 1970's which turned into three differently designed homes, in Kissimmee, ], Wisconsin Dells, ] and Gatlinburg, ]. All three Xanadu homes were built with foam rather than concrete to make the home both easier to build and more cost effective. Xanadu was built as a visitor attraction to showcase how we can use computers in the home to carry out automated tasks. In the early 1990's two of the Xanadu homes were closed down and demolished, leaving only the Kissimmee Xanadu left which was then later closed down in ].
{{Primary sources|date=August 2009}}


], 1990|alt=Exterior of the Xanadu House in Kissimmee, Florida in 1990.]]
]


The '''Xanadu Houses''' were a series of ]s built to showcase examples of ]s and ] in the home in the ]. The architectural project began in 1979, and during the early 1980s three houses were built in different parts of the United States: one each in ], ]; ], ]; and ], ]. The houses included novel construction and design techniques, and became popular ]s during the 1980s.
== History ==
Xanadu ("ZAN-uh-du") was an ] house project originating from the 1970's. Roy Mason, an ], planned the Xanadu home by creating a clay concept. His vision of the future home of the 1990's was to use plastic foam for the building's main structure.


The Xanadu Houses were notable for their easy, fast, and cost-effective construction as self-supporting ]s of ] foam without using ]. They were ] designed, and contained some of the earliest ] systems. The Kissimmee Xanadu, designed by ], was the most popular, and at its peak was attracting 1000 visitors every day. The Wisconsin Dells and Gatlinburg houses were closed and demolished in the early 1990s; the Kissimmee Xanadu House was closed in 1996 and demolished in October 2005.
Architect Mason believed Xanadu would alter the way people think of houses - as little more than inanimate, passive shelters against the elements. "No one's really looked at the house as a total organic system," says Mason, who is also the architecture editor of The Futurist magazine. "The house can have intelligence and each room can have intelligence."


==History==
There were originally three Xanadu homes built, one in Kissimmee, ], one in Wisconsin Dells, ], and the third in Gatlinburg, ]. The estimated cost of construction for one home was $300,000. Roy Mason did however plan for an even lower cost home at only $80,000 to show that homes using computers do not have to be expensive.


=== Early development ===
== Exterior and Interior==
Bob Masters was an early pioneer of houses built of rigid insulation. Before conceiving the Xanadu House concept, Masters designed and created inflatable balloons to be used in the construction of houses.<ref>{{Citation
The exterior (outside) of Xanadu looked similar to a ] out of outer space, featuring white painted walls, a ] pole, an outside public toilet, and a lake. Xanadu had at least two entrances, very large windows, and porthole type windows in the roof. Xanadu consisted of domed pods built by spraying ] foam onto removable molds. The polyurethane hardens in a couple of days, then paint can be applied and space cut out of the foam for windows and doors to be mounted in.
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|page=132}}</ref> He was inspired by architect Stan Nord Connolly's Kesinger House in ], ], one of the earliest homes built from insulation. Masters built his first balloon-constructed house exterior in 1969 in less than three days during a turbulent snowstorm, using the same methods later used to build the Xanadu houses.<ref name="bob earlydev">{{Citation
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|pages=124–125}}</ref>


Masters was convinced that these dome-shaped homes built of foam could work for others, so he decided to create a series of show homes in the United States. Masters's business partner Tom Gussel chose the name "Xanadu" for the homes, a reference to ], the summer capital of ], which is prominently featured in ]'s famous poem '']''.<ref name="firstxanadu">{{Citation
The interior (inside) of Xanadu is best described as a cave, featuring curved walls, rounded port hole windows in the ceiling, cramped rooms and low level ceilings. The interior used a cream color for the walls, and a pale green for the floor. At the center of the house was the living room, supporting the roof was a fake tree which may have looked interesting at first but is very strange.
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|pages=126–129}}</ref> The first Xanadu House opened in ], ]. It was designed by architect Stewart Gordon and constructed by Masters in 1979.<ref name="firstxanadu"/> It was {{convert|4000|sqft|m2}} in area, and featured a geodesic greenhouse. 100,000 people visited the new attraction in its first summer.<ref name="firstxanadu"/>


== Xanadu Tour == ===Popularity===
]The most popular Xanadu house was the second house, designed by architect ].<ref>{{Citation | last = Ferris | first = M. | title = Tomorrow's Living Today | newspaper = Softalk Magazine | pages = 106–117 | date = August 1983}}</ref> Masters met Mason in 1980 at a futures conference in ]. Mason had worked on a similar project prior to his involvement in the creation of the Kissimmee Xanadu House &mdash; an "experimental school" on a hill in ] which was also a foam structure. Both Mason and Masters were influenced by other experimental houses and building concepts which emphasized ergonomics, usability, and energy efficiency. These included apartments designed by architect ] featuring detachable building modules and more significant designs including a floating habitat made of fiberglass designed by Jacques Beufs for living on water surfaces, concepts for living underwater by architect Jacques Rougerie and the ] built in the 1970s which took advantage of the earth as insulation.<ref>{{Citation
]No one ever lived in Xanadu, It was built as a ]. Many visitors went there to peek at the computerized home of the future. Following an electronic tour guide, the visitors see the constantly changing computer-graphics art show on video screens in the family room. They learn in the master bedroom about the ] and fire systems, they can then visit the master bath where a bather can enjoy a sun-heated steam bath or choose from a variety of computer-produced weather conditions.
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|pages=32–36, 196}}</ref> Fifty years before Xanadu House, another house from the ] at the ] Exposition in Chicago introduced air conditioning, forced air heating, circuit breakers and electric eye doors.<ref>{{Citation
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|pages=95–96}}</ref>


Mason believed Xanadu House would alter people's views of houses as little more than inanimate, passive shelters against the elements.<ref name="commodore">{{Citation
Although Xanadu was built as a visitor attraction, many features of the house were functional such as the Jacuzzi, Fountain and Television. Due to the limited amount of affordable and powerful computers in the 1980's, Xanadu struggled in certain areas rendering many parts of the house useless and in-functional.
| last = Halfhill
| first = Tom R.
| date = December 1982
| title = Computers in the Home of 1990
| periodical = ]
| access-date = 2008-05-27
| url = http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/home_automation_compute_dec_82/compute_dec82.htm
}}</ref> "No one's really looked at the house as a total organic system", said Mason, who was also the architecture editor of ''The Futurist'' magazine. "The house can have intelligence and each room can have intelligence." The estimated cost of construction for one home was $300,000.<ref name="commodore"/> Roy Mason also planned a low cost version which would cost $80,000, to show that homes using computers do not have to be expensive. The low cost Xanadu was never built. Approximately 1,000 homes were built using this type of construction.<ref>{{cite news |title=Time Passes Xanadu By: What Now? |publisher=] |last1=Tin |first1=Annie |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1994/06/10/time-passes-xanadu-by-what-now/ |date=June 10, 1994 |access-date=August 16, 2017}}</ref>


] opened '']'' in ] on October 1, 1982 (originally envisioned as the ]).<ref>{{Citation
== Using Computers in the Home ==
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
Xanadu was controlled by ] , in this case ]. Each feature of the house, and each room was controlled by computers. Including the kitchen, party room, the health spa, and many other parts of the house. Xanadu was ], meaning the computers did a lot of work for you, the use of computers in the home in this particular way was efficient and handy as a concept because your time schedule could become more free. An example of this in use is using the computer to heat the bath at a specific time and date so that it will be ready when you get home from work. The concept of using computers in the home to do housework and make sure the house is secure is not a new idea, these concepts date back to the 1950's and earlier, Xanadu brought these concepts to life because the technology was finally available.
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|page=128}}</ref> Masters, fellow Aspen High School teacher, Erik V Wolter, and Mason decided to open a Xanadu House several miles away in Kissimmee. It eventually opened in 1983, after several years of research into the concepts Xanadu would use. It was over {{convert|6000|sqft|m2}} in size, considerably larger than the average house because it was built as a showcase. At its peak in the 1980s, under the management of Wolter, more than 1,000 people visited the new Kissimmee attraction every day. A third Xanadu House was built in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.<ref>{{Citation | title=Schlocky Gatlinburg antithesis of Smokies | date=June 1, 1986 | periodical=]}}</ref> Shortly after the Xanadu Houses were built and opened as visitor attractions, tourism companies began to advertise them as the "]" in brochures encouraging people to visit.<ref>{{Citation
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|pages=132–135}}</ref>


=== Kitchen === ===Demise===
]], 2014|217x217px]]By the early 1990s, the Xanadu houses began to lose popularity because the technology they used was quickly becoming obsolete, and as a result the houses in Wisconsin and Tennessee were demolished, while the Xanadu House in Kissimmee continued to operate as a public visitor attraction until it was closed in 1996. It was consequently put up for sale in 1997 and was sold for office and storage use. By 2001, the Kissimmee house had suffered greatly from mold and mildew throughout the interior due to a lack of maintenance since being used as a visitor attraction, it was put up for sale again for an asking price of US$2 million. By October 2005, the last of the Xanadu houses had been demolished, following years of abandonment and use by the homeless.
] Some of that food is grown by the house itself. Xanadu has a built-in greenhouse. Naturally, a microcomputer monitors the watering of plants, artificial sunlight, ventilation, humidity, soil content, and the shutters and awnings. The groceries you can't grow can be bought by tele-shopping at the household workstation, these may be groceries that won't grow in your area's climate, the catalog used to order food from home is on a ] system hooked up to a microcomputer and the transaction is handled with the help of tele-banking. The ] computer also maintains a household calendar, records, and home bookkeeping. Both ordering food from home and maintaining a household calendars, records and home bookkeeping can today be done because of the Internet and Secure Online Credit Card Payments.


The Kissimmee house was featured in the 2007 movie '']''. It showed the house in disrepair with doors wide open, mold growing everywhere and a homeless man living inside. The "explorers" walked through the house filming the decay firsthand as the homeless man slept in a chair on the main floor. At the end of the segment, the man wakes up and threatens the "explorers" telling them to leave his home.
=== Work at Home ===
Xanadu suggested a way to do business at home, with an office room and the use of computers to use electronic mail, access to stock and commodities trading and news services. This concept has been adapted to today's homes because of the Internet, and Personal Computers, the majority of people working will work from home running a home business or either working for a company through email and websites. Having access to news services from home has become even more easier with RSS newsfeeds. In the recent years, working at home has advanced to a new level that the creators of Xanadu did not even dream of having: Video & Audio conferencing over the internet.


=== Living Room === ==Design==
The living room was probably the largest room in the entire Xanadu home, sporting a ], small ] set, as well as a ]. The form of ] where family members sit around a television set is passive with little or no interaction between the family members and the Television or with each other. A home computer, on the other hand, allows interactive entertainment. Nearby the living room was the dining room, featuring a glass table with a curved seat fitting around half of the table, behind the seats was a large window covering the entire wall.


=== Construction ===
==Security==
Construction of the Xanadu house in ], began with the pouring of a concrete slab base and the erection of a tension ring {{convert|40|ft|m}} in diameter to anchor the domed roof of what would become the "Great Room" of the house. A pre-shaped vinyl balloon was formed and attached to the ring, and then inflated by air pressure from large fans. Once the form was fully inflated, its surface was sprayed with quick-hardening polyurethane plastic foam. The foam, produced by the sudden mixture of two chemicals that expand on contact to 30 times their original volume, hardened almost instantly. Repeated spraying produced a five-to-six-inch-thick structurally sound shell within a few hours. Once the foam cured, the plastic balloon form was removed to be used again. Once the second dome was completed and the balloon form removed, the two rooms were joined by wire mesh which was also sprayed with foam to form a connecting gallery or hall. This process was repeated until the house was complete. Window, skylight, and door openings were cut and the frames foamed into place. Finally, the interior of the entire structure was sprayed with a {{convert|3/4|in|cm}} coating of fireproof material that also provided a smooth, easy-to-clean finish for walls and ceilings. The exterior was given a coat of white elastomeric paint as the final touch.<ref name="centerpages">{{Citation
One of the many advantages of using computers in the home includes security. A computer can control the locking system of doors and windows in the home, require a user to enter a password to enter their home, or either use their thumbnail print as a key of identification that you own the home and have the privilege to enter. Xanadu was able to speak with a HAL voice, generated by computer, the voice would speak when someone enters the home to make them think someone is in the home, this idea is seen as rather silly because computers can be used to do much more than speak to increase security levels in the home.
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|pages=Plate A–L (Center insert)}}</ref>


== Disadvantages == === Interior ===
A Xanadu House was ergonomically designed, with future occupants in mind. It used curved walls, painted concrete floors rather than carpets, a light color scheme featuring cool colors throughout, and an open-floor plan linking rooms together without the use of doors. It had at least two entrances, and large porthole-type windows. The interior of the house was cave-like, featuring cramped rooms and low ceilings, although it is not clear whether these accounts describe the same Xanadu House with a thirty-foot dome. The interiors used a cream color for the walls, and a pale green for the floor.
One of the concerns of Xanadu was the cost of ] bills since running several computers 24/7 all year is bound to cost a lot of money, But Mason figured that a central computer could control the energy consumption of all the other computers in the house. Many dislike Xanadu as a practical home because of it's low ceilings and curved walls preventing picture hanging and also because of the cramped rooms.


The Xanadu house in Kissimmee, Florida used an ] system controlled by ] ]s.<ref name="commodore"/> The house had fifteen rooms; of these the kitchen, party room, health spa, and bedrooms all used computers and other electronic equipment heavily in their design.<ref name="dayatxanadu">{{Citation
Many believe using computers in the home is a disadvantage, because if the hardware fails, it restricts you from getting food, having a bath, getting out of the house if doors are closed, etc. Many also dislike the concept of computers in the home because it may make you less social and take automated tasks for granted, resulting in you thinking you never have to do housework again. Some also see no use of computers in the use, but many argue that it is good for security and to get housework jobs such as cleaning done quickly.
| last1 = Mason
| first1 = Roy
| last2 = Jennings
| first2 =L
| last3 = Evans
| first3 =R
| title = A Day at Xanadu
| newspaper = Futurist Magazine
| pages = 17–24
|date=February 1984}}</ref> The automation concepts which Xanadu House used are based on original ideas conceived in the 1950s and earlier. The Xanadu Houses aimed to bring the original concepts into a finished and working implementation. Inside the house, there was an electronic ] for the benefit of visitors, and the family room featured video screens that displayed computer-graphics art. These art displays were constantly changing, being displayed on video screens as opposed to static mediums.<ref>{{Citation
|last=Harb
|first=Joseph A.
|date=February 1986
|title=No place like home - beep - zzzt - "smart home" technology reviewed
|periodical=Nation's Business
|access-date=2008-05-27
|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1154/is_v74/ai_4116362
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023161416/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1154/is_v74/ai_4116362
|archive-date=2008-10-23
}}</ref>
<ref name="computers_amazing_machines_pg92-93">{{Cite book
| last = O'Neill
| first = Catherine
| date = 1985
| title = Computers: Those Amazing Machines
| publisher = ]
| isbn = 978-0-87044-574-3
| pages =
| url = https://archive.org/details/computersthoseam00grac/page/92
}}</ref> The home also featured fire and security systems, along with a master bath that included adjustable weather conditions and a ] ].<ref name="dayatxanadu"/><ref name="computers_amazing_machines_pg92-93"/>


At the center of the house was the "great room", the largest in the house. It featured a large false tree supporting the roof, and also acted as part of the built-in heating system. The great room also included a ], small television set, and a ]. Nearby was the dining room, featuring a glass table with a curved seat surrounding it; behind the seats was a large ] the entire wall. The family room featured walls covered with television monitors and other ] equipment.<ref name="computers_amazing_machines_pg92-93"/> The ] in the family room was described as an "electronic hearth" by the home's builders.<ref name="computers_amazing_machines_pg92-93"/> It was planned as a gathering place for family members and relatives along the same lines as a traditional hearth with a ].<ref name="centerpages"/><ref name="computers_amazing_machines_pg92-93"/>
==The Book==
] A book about Xanadu and computerized homes was written by Roy Mason with Lane Jennings and Robert Evans and was published by Acropolis Books on November 1st, 1983. The book was a hardcover, with 260 pages of material explaining how computers can be used in the home, suggesting many concepts of which some today are in use and some too outdated to be considered any longer. The book was titled "Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!" and is still available from Amazon in used condition. The book also includes an interview with Bob Masters, the creator of Xanadu.


The kitchen was automated by "autochef", an electronic dietitian which planned well-balanced meals.<ref>{{Citation
== The End of Xanadu==
|date=July 1983
Towards the early 90's, It was clear that the Xanadu homes were failing to become successful and ever-lasting visitor attractions. The technology used in Xanadu was quickly becoming obsolete, still using ] based machines rather than a ] based system which is more user-friendly to the user. The Xanadu in Wisconsin Dells, ] was also struggling and saw the addition of jokey robots and pricey souvenirs in the gift shop. In the early 90's the Xanadus in Wisconsin and Gatlinburg were demolished; the Xanadu in Kissimmee lived on until ] and was then put on sale in ] when it went on sale and in ] was on sale again.
|last = Mason|first= EA
|pages=143–144
|title=Medical engineering: meetings on research priorities
|volume=12
|issue=3
|pmid=6685066
|journal=Engineering in Medicine
|doi=10.1243/EMED_JOUR_1983_012_037_02}}</ref> Meals could be cooked automatically at a set date and time. If new food was required, it could either be obtained via tele-shopping through the computer system or from Xanadu's own greenhouse. The kitchen's ] could also be used for the household calendar, records, and home bookkeeping.<ref name="centerpages"/>


The Xanadu homes also suggested a way to do ] at home with the ] room and the use of computers for electronic mail, access to stock and commodities trading, and news services.
== Xanadu Today==
Today, the last Xanadu left is abandoned, and is being used for storage by it's owners. The remaining Xanadu has not survived the weather well, and because of this has suffered greatly of mold and mildew throughout the interior. It's basement is entirely flooded of brown water (estimated a foot deep), in the basement were certain utilities which controlled the electric and microcomputers.


Computers in the master bedroom allowed for other parts of the house to be controlled. This eliminated chores such as having to go downstairs to turn off the coffee pot after one had gone to bed. The children's bedroom featured the latest in teaching microcomputers and "videotexture" windows, whose realistic computer-generated landscapes could shift in a flash from scenes of real places anywhere in the world to imaginary scenes. The beds at the right of the room retreated into the wall to save space and cut down on clutter; the study niches were just the right size for curling up all alone with a pocket computer game or a book.<ref name="centerpages" />
Xanadu is owned by a vacation ownership property, Star Island Development Corporation, 5000 Avenue of the Stars, Kissimmee, FL 34746. It was purchased to be the sales office for this timeshare resort. It is presently empty, but is still patrolled by Star Island security. If Xanadu was to be rebuilt with today's design and technology, It would most likely be more sufficient in many areas - Mainly including the use of computers. Xanadu used many microcomputers, today the power Xanadu used could be done by one single personal computer at a very low cost.


In the spa, people could relax in a whirlpool, sun sauna, and environmentally-controlled habitat, and exercise with the assistance of spa monitors.<ref>{{Citation
== Links ==
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
*
|year=1983
*
|last = Mason
*
|pages=149, 173}}</ref> One of the advantages of using computers in the home includes security. In Xanadu House, a ]-type voice spoke when someone entered to make the intruder think someone was home.<ref>{{Citation
*
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
*
|year=1983
*
|last = Mason
*
|pages=82–85}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
|title=Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|year=1983
|last = Mason
|pages=134–135}}</ref><gallery>
File:Xanadu - master bedroom.jpg|Master Bedroom
File:Xanadu - whirlpool bathtub.jpg|Whirlpool Tub
File:Xanadu - dining room.jpg|Dining Room
File:Xanadu - lily pads.jpg|Indoor Ponds


File:Xanadu - kitchen.jpg|Kitchen
]
File:Xanadu - futuristic architecture.jpg|Outdoors View
</gallery>

=== Concerns over energy consumption ===
An initial concern was that electricity costs would be excessive, since several computers would be operating continuously.<ref name="commodore"/> Mason figured that a central computer could control the energy consumption of all the other computers in the house.<ref name="commodore"/>

==See also==
* ]'s ]
* ]
* ]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

== References ==
* {{Citation |title = Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!
|first1 = Roy
|last1 = Mason
|first2 = Lane
|last2 = Jennings
|first3 = Robert
|last3 = Evans
|author-link = Roy Mason (architect)
|pages =
|publisher = Acropolis Books
|isbn = 978-0-87491-701-7
|publication-date = November 1983
|year = 1983
|url = https://archive.org/details/xanaducomputeriz00maso/page/260
}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Citation
| last = Corn
| first = Joseph J.
| publication-date = May 15, 1996
| title = Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future
| publisher = The Johns Hopkins University Press
| pages = 157
| isbn = 978-0-8018-5399-9
| year = 1996}}
* {{Citation
| last = O'Neill
| first = Catherine
| publication-date = June 1985
| title = Computers: Those Amazing Machines
| publisher = National Geographic Society
| pages =
| isbn = 978-0-87044-574-3
| year = 1985
| url = https://archive.org/details/computersthoseam00grac/page/104
}}

==External links==
{{Spoken Misplaced Pages|Xanadu_House.ogg|date=2008-05-15}}
* at ]

{{Home automation}}

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Latest revision as of 13:12, 27 December 2024

Series of experimental homes in the US
This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources.
Find sources: "Xanadu Houses" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Exterior of the Xanadu House in Kissimmee, Florida in 1990.
Exterior of Xanadu House in Kissimmee, Florida, 1990

The Xanadu Houses were a series of experimental homes built to showcase examples of computers and automation in the home in the United States. The architectural project began in 1979, and during the early 1980s three houses were built in different parts of the United States: one each in Kissimmee, Florida; Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The houses included novel construction and design techniques, and became popular tourist attractions during the 1980s.

The Xanadu Houses were notable for their easy, fast, and cost-effective construction as self-supporting monolithic domes of polyurethane foam without using concrete. They were ergonomically designed, and contained some of the earliest home automation systems. The Kissimmee Xanadu, designed by Roy Mason, was the most popular, and at its peak was attracting 1000 visitors every day. The Wisconsin Dells and Gatlinburg houses were closed and demolished in the early 1990s; the Kissimmee Xanadu House was closed in 1996 and demolished in October 2005.

History

Early development

Bob Masters was an early pioneer of houses built of rigid insulation. Before conceiving the Xanadu House concept, Masters designed and created inflatable balloons to be used in the construction of houses. He was inspired by architect Stan Nord Connolly's Kesinger House in Denver, Colorado, one of the earliest homes built from insulation. Masters built his first balloon-constructed house exterior in 1969 in less than three days during a turbulent snowstorm, using the same methods later used to build the Xanadu houses.

Masters was convinced that these dome-shaped homes built of foam could work for others, so he decided to create a series of show homes in the United States. Masters's business partner Tom Gussel chose the name "Xanadu" for the homes, a reference to Xanadu, the summer capital of Yuan, which is prominently featured in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem Kubla Khan. The first Xanadu House opened in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. It was designed by architect Stewart Gordon and constructed by Masters in 1979. It was 4,000 square feet (370 m) in area, and featured a geodesic greenhouse. 100,000 people visited the new attraction in its first summer.

Popularity

A photo of a welcome sign and entry path for the Xanadu house in Kissimmee, Florida.
Welcome sign at Kissimmee Xanadu house, 1985

The most popular Xanadu house was the second house, designed by architect Roy Mason. Masters met Mason in 1980 at a futures conference in Toronto. Mason had worked on a similar project prior to his involvement in the creation of the Kissimmee Xanadu House — an "experimental school" on a hill in Virginia which was also a foam structure. Both Mason and Masters were influenced by other experimental houses and building concepts which emphasized ergonomics, usability, and energy efficiency. These included apartments designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa featuring detachable building modules and more significant designs including a floating habitat made of fiberglass designed by Jacques Beufs for living on water surfaces, concepts for living underwater by architect Jacques Rougerie and the Don Metz house built in the 1970s which took advantage of the earth as insulation. Fifty years before Xanadu House, another house from the 1933 Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago introduced air conditioning, forced air heating, circuit breakers and electric eye doors.

Mason believed Xanadu House would alter people's views of houses as little more than inanimate, passive shelters against the elements. "No one's really looked at the house as a total organic system", said Mason, who was also the architecture editor of The Futurist magazine. "The house can have intelligence and each room can have intelligence." The estimated cost of construction for one home was $300,000. Roy Mason also planned a low cost version which would cost $80,000, to show that homes using computers do not have to be expensive. The low cost Xanadu was never built. Approximately 1,000 homes were built using this type of construction.

The Walt Disney Company opened Epcot Center in Florida on October 1, 1982 (originally envisioned as the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). Masters, fellow Aspen High School teacher, Erik V Wolter, and Mason decided to open a Xanadu House several miles away in Kissimmee. It eventually opened in 1983, after several years of research into the concepts Xanadu would use. It was over 6,000 square feet (560 m) in size, considerably larger than the average house because it was built as a showcase. At its peak in the 1980s, under the management of Wolter, more than 1,000 people visited the new Kissimmee attraction every day. A third Xanadu House was built in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Shortly after the Xanadu Houses were built and opened as visitor attractions, tourism companies began to advertise them as the "home of the future" in brochures encouraging people to visit.

Demise

Exterior of Xanadu House in Kissimmee, Florida, 2004
Abandoned sign in Hunter's Creek, Florida, 2014

By the early 1990s, the Xanadu houses began to lose popularity because the technology they used was quickly becoming obsolete, and as a result the houses in Wisconsin and Tennessee were demolished, while the Xanadu House in Kissimmee continued to operate as a public visitor attraction until it was closed in 1996. It was consequently put up for sale in 1997 and was sold for office and storage use. By 2001, the Kissimmee house had suffered greatly from mold and mildew throughout the interior due to a lack of maintenance since being used as a visitor attraction, it was put up for sale again for an asking price of US$2 million. By October 2005, the last of the Xanadu houses had been demolished, following years of abandonment and use by the homeless.

The Kissimmee house was featured in the 2007 movie Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness. It showed the house in disrepair with doors wide open, mold growing everywhere and a homeless man living inside. The "explorers" walked through the house filming the decay firsthand as the homeless man slept in a chair on the main floor. At the end of the segment, the man wakes up and threatens the "explorers" telling them to leave his home.

Design

Construction

Construction of the Xanadu house in Kissimmee, Florida, began with the pouring of a concrete slab base and the erection of a tension ring 40 feet (12 m) in diameter to anchor the domed roof of what would become the "Great Room" of the house. A pre-shaped vinyl balloon was formed and attached to the ring, and then inflated by air pressure from large fans. Once the form was fully inflated, its surface was sprayed with quick-hardening polyurethane plastic foam. The foam, produced by the sudden mixture of two chemicals that expand on contact to 30 times their original volume, hardened almost instantly. Repeated spraying produced a five-to-six-inch-thick structurally sound shell within a few hours. Once the foam cured, the plastic balloon form was removed to be used again. Once the second dome was completed and the balloon form removed, the two rooms were joined by wire mesh which was also sprayed with foam to form a connecting gallery or hall. This process was repeated until the house was complete. Window, skylight, and door openings were cut and the frames foamed into place. Finally, the interior of the entire structure was sprayed with a 3⁄4 inch (1.9 cm) coating of fireproof material that also provided a smooth, easy-to-clean finish for walls and ceilings. The exterior was given a coat of white elastomeric paint as the final touch.

Interior

A Xanadu House was ergonomically designed, with future occupants in mind. It used curved walls, painted concrete floors rather than carpets, a light color scheme featuring cool colors throughout, and an open-floor plan linking rooms together without the use of doors. It had at least two entrances, and large porthole-type windows. The interior of the house was cave-like, featuring cramped rooms and low ceilings, although it is not clear whether these accounts describe the same Xanadu House with a thirty-foot dome. The interiors used a cream color for the walls, and a pale green for the floor.

The Xanadu house in Kissimmee, Florida used an automated system controlled by Commodore microcomputers. The house had fifteen rooms; of these the kitchen, party room, health spa, and bedrooms all used computers and other electronic equipment heavily in their design. The automation concepts which Xanadu House used are based on original ideas conceived in the 1950s and earlier. The Xanadu Houses aimed to bring the original concepts into a finished and working implementation. Inside the house, there was an electronic tour guide for the benefit of visitors, and the family room featured video screens that displayed computer-graphics art. These art displays were constantly changing, being displayed on video screens as opposed to static mediums. The home also featured fire and security systems, along with a master bath that included adjustable weather conditions and a solar-heated steam bath.

At the center of the house was the "great room", the largest in the house. It featured a large false tree supporting the roof, and also acted as part of the built-in heating system. The great room also included a fountain, small television set, and a video projector. Nearby was the dining room, featuring a glass table with a curved seat surrounding it; behind the seats was a large window covering the entire wall. The family room featured walls covered with television monitors and other electronic equipment. The entertainment center in the family room was described as an "electronic hearth" by the home's builders. It was planned as a gathering place for family members and relatives along the same lines as a traditional hearth with a fireplace.

The kitchen was automated by "autochef", an electronic dietitian which planned well-balanced meals. Meals could be cooked automatically at a set date and time. If new food was required, it could either be obtained via tele-shopping through the computer system or from Xanadu's own greenhouse. The kitchen's computer terminal could also be used for the household calendar, records, and home bookkeeping.

The Xanadu homes also suggested a way to do business at home with the office room and the use of computers for electronic mail, access to stock and commodities trading, and news services.

Computers in the master bedroom allowed for other parts of the house to be controlled. This eliminated chores such as having to go downstairs to turn off the coffee pot after one had gone to bed. The children's bedroom featured the latest in teaching microcomputers and "videotexture" windows, whose realistic computer-generated landscapes could shift in a flash from scenes of real places anywhere in the world to imaginary scenes. The beds at the right of the room retreated into the wall to save space and cut down on clutter; the study niches were just the right size for curling up all alone with a pocket computer game or a book.

In the spa, people could relax in a whirlpool, sun sauna, and environmentally-controlled habitat, and exercise with the assistance of spa monitors. One of the advantages of using computers in the home includes security. In Xanadu House, a HAL-type voice spoke when someone entered to make the intruder think someone was home.

  • Master Bedroom Master Bedroom
  • Whirlpool Tub Whirlpool Tub
  • Dining Room Dining Room
  • Indoor Ponds Indoor Ponds
  • Kitchen Kitchen
  • Outdoors View Outdoors View

Concerns over energy consumption

An initial concern was that electricity costs would be excessive, since several computers would be operating continuously. Mason figured that a central computer could control the energy consumption of all the other computers in the house.

See also

Notes

  1. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, p. 132
  2. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. 124–125
  3. ^ Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. 126–129
  4. Ferris, M. (August 1983), "Tomorrow's Living Today", Softalk Magazine, pp. 106–117
  5. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. 32–36, 196
  6. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. 95–96
  7. ^ Halfhill, Tom R. (December 1982), "Computers in the Home of 1990", Compute!, retrieved 2008-05-27
  8. Tin, Annie (June 10, 1994). "Time Passes Xanadu By: What Now?". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  9. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, p. 128
  10. "Schlocky Gatlinburg antithesis of Smokies", Houston Chronicle, June 1, 1986
  11. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. 132–135
  12. ^ Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. Plate A–L (Center insert)
  13. ^ Mason, Roy; Jennings, L; Evans, R (February 1984), "A Day at Xanadu", Futurist Magazine, pp. 17–24
  14. Harb, Joseph A. (February 1986), "No place like home - beep - zzzt - "smart home" technology reviewed", Nation's Business, archived from the original on 2008-10-23, retrieved 2008-05-27
  15. ^ O'Neill, Catherine (1985). Computers: Those Amazing Machines. National Geographic Society. pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-0-87044-574-3.
  16. Mason, EA (July 1983), "Medical engineering: meetings on research priorities", Engineering in Medicine, 12 (3): 143–144, doi:10.1243/EMED_JOUR_1983_012_037_02, PMID 6685066
  17. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. 149, 173
  18. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. 82–85
  19. Mason (1983), Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!, pp. 134–135

References

Further reading

External links

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Home automation
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