Let’s Stick to the House of Today

There’s a fundamental reason why houses of the future usually don’t work: The visionaries don’t live in the real world (“The House of Today, Tomorrow,” by Nancy Rommelmann, Style, Jan. 9). For example, they are imagining a house without keys or knobs. Or they imagine window-less walls that are controlled by computers to become translucent, a giant TV, etc. That’s fine, but what happens when El Nino or an earthquake hit in the future and cause a sustained power outage? How would you open cabinets or doors to access your emergency supplies?

When cabinets no longer open, would you rather purchase a new knob for $1, or would you rather pay technicians $100 an hour to repair the sensor? If there are no windows and no power, then how would you let in light? How would you open a window when the air-conditioning no longer works? Knobs and windows have been used for a long time for a simple reason--they’re very useful and work well.

Raymond Tam

Temple City