We are walking into the Rêve, one of Tridel’s latest developments on King West in Toronto. This 14-storey residential building is one of the most advanced, enabled, and green communities in town.
As we walk in, we are greeted by the concierge that is not actually there. A high-definition Cisco TelePresence video solution beams the concierge in from some remote location. It’s as if she’s there and provides us directions as no in-person experience would have done any better. [Virtual Concierge]
On the 14th floor, we enter the Eco-Suite. This sustainable home combines high quality design, environmental features, and the latest technologies in an effort to augment and improve the experience of condo living as we know it.
Where we once would expect light switches, we now find touch displays that control much more than light. For every room in the suite, we can control our lights, blinds, energy, TV and audio. It provides also the platform for accessing new web-based applications and value-added services. The same features and functionalities (and look and feel) are available on the TV screen, internet, and handheld devices.
Solar panels on the roof generate and augment power for the building, and many other environmental features such as recycled building materials and water-saving automatic faucets further help the environmentally conscious residents in the Rêve.
Surely, it is not about the technology or the panels on the roof, or even the TelePresence video solutions in the building. All those are merely a means to an end: creating an environment (both physical and virtual) that becomes an extension and enabler for the rapidly changing expectations we have of life in an increasingly connected world.
We are looking for comfort, safety and security (both physical and virtual), health, flexibility and future-readiness, access to friends, family, and information, anytime and anywhere, and the ability to personalize everything around us as we see fit and when we see fit. We want to have all this while using as few resources as possible and leaving a smaller footprint in the world.
With the proliferation of connected devices (from tablets, smart phones, laptops, to the intelligence in our cars, and even our fridges and stoves) we can now surround ourselves ubiquitously with enabling technologies that provide the means to that end. Where typically this ability is limited to the devices that we carry; Tridel now made it integral part of the spaces that we live in.
Design, technology, the environment, innovation, and life… are becoming one.
Check out Tridel’s Eco-Suite during GreenBuild and at CaGBC’s Canada House in the week of October 4th.
