Tech Infused Homes: Modern Architecture Meets Smart Home Design

by | Jan 2025 | INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Today’s technological landscape is more innovative and advanced than ever before. Technology has become an integral component of our daily lives as it streamlines workflows, fosters connection, and places unbound information at our fingertips. These innovations have also reshaped architectural design as they transform how we experience our most intimate sense of place: our homes.

Integrating intelligent systems throughout the home provides an intuitive and personalized experience that automates operations and optimizes building systems. Smart home design has the power to drive energy efficiency, fortify security, and enhance our quality of life – both now and into the future. At its core, technology embodies the vision of what a home can be and how it can evolve alongside our lived experience.

Tech-Infused Homes: Merging Cutting-Edge Technology with Modern Architecture

Ford Residence

Smart home automation is the fastest growing influence on custom home design. Using intelligent sensors, nearly every element within the home can be connected from mechanical systems such as HVAC, to entertainment components and appliances. Each connected point works together as a synchronized system and provides unmatched control that is tailored around personal preferences, routines, and lifestyles. Operation is centralized providing access via intuitive home and mobile interfaces that can recognize voice or gesture-based commands, sense proximity, and function on preprogrammed timelines.

The concept often feels complex but when executed successfully, smart home automation is in fact designed to simplify the home experience.

Wooded Hill Estate (Residential) lounge and fire place

“Designing a high-performance home is an inspired process that requires a deep appreciation for truly unique placemaking,” notes Hunter Johnson, AIA, Founder & CEO at TONO Group. “Every project must first begin by understanding the quality of life the homeowner aspires to achieve within the space. This notion can then inform the functionality and aesthetics of the smart home integration.”

Wooded Hill Estate (Residential) work space

TONO Group approaches the discipline of smart home automation from the perspective that technology itself must be unobtrusive and virtually invisible within the design of the home. In this way, tech disappears within the home’s architecture creating an experience that is seamless within the home’s aesthetic. Even within projects that prioritize simplicity or a connection to nature, technology can remain harmonious. Such is true within the Treetops residence, a bespoke home situated on 22-acres of ridgeline overlooking a watershed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The space was intentionally crafted to submerge the homeowners within the tranquility of their wooded surroundings. Equipped with a Lutron home automation system, the home’s functionality is synchronized with nature’s rhythm. Features such as lighting, heating, and cooling align with solar cycles and ambient conditions to enhance well-being while also maximizing energy efficiency.

Machinists' Workshop (Residential) floor space

In many ways, technology serves as a foundation within the home and it must be approached early within the design-build process. As homeowners begin to envision the possibilities of a bespoke home experience, partnering with a turnkey architectural firm can streamline the process and serve as a guide to navigate rapidly changing advancements.

Three Trends Leading Smart Home Design

Enhanced Connectivity

Residential Home Portfolio

As the “brain” of the smart home, fast, reliable, and secure connectivity is crucial. The infrastructure must be designed to unite multiple systems while also enabling seamless device roaming throughout both interior and outdoor spaces. Because of this, it is important to understand how the location, size, and layout of the home will impact its Wi-Fi and networking requirements, as well as considerations that need to be made around building materials such as flooring and wall densities. It is also imperative that the smart home infrastructure not only meets the intention of the home today, but also how it will evolve over time as lifestyles change and technologies advance. Building this flexibility from the start allows smart home capabilities to be scaled and expanded without necessitating complex changes to the foundational system or disrupting the aesthetic qualities of the home’s design.

Intelligent Lighting

Mod Lodge (Residential) lounge with fire place

Light is a dynamic element of the home experience that can enhance productivity and support well-being. An intelligent lighting system integrates layers of illumination by combining ambient, task, mood, and feature lighting that work in harmony with the presence of natural light. In addition to brightness, tone and color can also be customized to elevate the mood within the home. Individual fixtures and zones are intuitively controlled through motion-sensing or programmed to align with personal routines. Connected window shading can also be integrated to auto-adjust in response to daylighting intensities or programmed timeline. Similarly, interior lighting can be programmed to adjust in unison with natural light cycles to further support circadian rhythms and healthy sleep-wake patterns.

Distributed Audio/Video

Mod Lodge (Residential) lounge with fire place

The smart home entertainment experience is rooted in a network of distributed audio and video components. This enables sound and television to be displayed seamlessly throughout the home or individually by device. This connected format allows A/V outputs to effortlessly roam “following” homeowners throughout their space. Built-in broadcasting functionality simplifies transitions between mobile to mounted devices, and from streaming and cabled inputs. The result is an immersive entertainment experience that is robust, easy to manage, and sleek in design.

Curate Your Smart Home Design

Today, technology underpins most aspects of daily life, however integrating these developments into the home is a highly personal decision. Execution requires thoughtful consideration to the structure, function, and feel of the home in equal measure.

At TONO Group, our expertise in IoT and our established partnerships with industry leaders allows us to blur the lines between technology and architectural design, creating an experience that is elegant and intuitive. From custom builds to bespoke renovations, every detail of the home design process is precisely considered to reflect our clients’ vision and intended quality of life. Whether you are interested in learning more about smart home possibilities, or you are ready to take the next step toward building your dream home, contact our team to start a conversation.

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TONO Group office exterior at night

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