Renovation with Technology

I walk along Cambridge MA and see very beautiful old houses. I figure there are many of those scattered in the US and old Europe. While the view is charming and nostalgic, I'm pretty sure the inside of these houses are problematic at best, due to old plumbing, electricity and general maintenance. Obviously, one can tear down the house and build a new modern one, but that will break the style of the city and will leave a gaping hole in the fabric of nostalgia.

I propose a project that will both renovate the house and keep the style together. There are technologies today that can easily create a full 3D reconstruction of buildings out of mere photos taken from many sides (e.g. Building Rome in a Day). Furthermore, there are other very cheap technologies that use range sensing that can map the 3D structure of the house, e.g. Kinect. I propose to take an old and beautiful house and create a full 3D reconstruction of it. Then, design a fully modern, fully technologically equipped house that is both energy efficient, green and carry the most advanced technologies of the smart home, with the "minor" constraint that the outside appearance of the house would be exactly the same as the old one, with the failing paint job and rusty looking frames. Modern paints can have the look of old one but still be completely functioning in any weather. Moreover, by designing the house to be modular in every aspect, i.e. accessible panels for electricity and plumbing, light and strong interior walls, etc. one can build a house that will keep the appearance of old but be continually renovated as technology progresses.

This is a purely architectural and design project, but it holds the future of keeping the beautiful landscape of old towns with a renovation that is based in technology: living in an old-looking house should not be equivalent to living in an old house. Technology can definitely fix that.