House of the Future, Cardiff

The House of the Future, more recently renamed Ty Gwyrdd, is a modern house located in the St Fagans National History Museum on the western edge of Cardiff, Wales. Completed in 2000, it was originally a showcase of the latest green building technologies, but was later transformed into an education centre. It was described by architectural writer Owen Hatherley as "a rather ambitiuous gesture for a place devoted to reconstructing the past".

The House of the Future project was a joint venture between the National Museum of Wales, BBC Wales and Redrow Homes with support from Malcolm Parry, head of the Welsh School of Architecture. An architectural competition was launched to design an adaptable, eco-home, which received 321 expressions of interest. These were reduced to a shortlist of six finalists, from which the winner was announced in July 1999 as London firm Jestico & Whiles.

Redrow Homes were tasked with constructing the building within a £120,000 budget, but because many of the components of the project were not widely available (for example the oak frame and the green roof) the costs spiralled. It was completed in December 2000 and the process also resulted in three 40 minute BBC television programmes.

A competition was then held to choose a family to live in the house for a week. It was won by the Powell family from Bridgend, who enjoyed the open plan kitchen, but disliked the bedrooms and had problems with the computer controls.

The house was officially opened by Welsh Assembly Minister for Culture, Jenny Randerson, at the end of April 2001.

It went on to win several design awards, including the National Homebuilder Design Award (2001) and the Welsh Housing Design award (2002). Redrow meanwhile were criticised for building houses only 10 minutes away that were the antithesis of the St Fagans house, with The Telegraph saying they were "getting ever further away, not closer, to the house of the future it has sponsored."

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Wikipedia