Casa Jasmina is the first open-source I.o.T house

“Most maker objects today have been for the laboratory, the university or design schools and not really made for a domestic purpose” says science fiction writer Bruce Sterling, the curator of Casa Jasmina, an experimental exhibition and live-in space that envisions the future home. “These products are not made for families, children or the elderly, therefore the geek is in command of the user base. This concerns me so I think it’s time for the maker scene to expand and talk to a wider demographic.”

Casa Jasmina sits within a renovated industrial building in Turin, Italy and hosts a lab, a gallery space and an apartment that will soon be available to book on Airbnb. Among the first to be displayed were works by open source designers OpenDesk, Jesse Howard, Aker andOpen Structure, as well as home electrical products from Energy@Homeand Italian kitchen appliance brand Valcucine. The space will be open for the next two years and besides exhibiting existing work, Sterling hopes that it will be a social centre for experimenting and creating new products - a real-world testbed for hacks, experiments and innovative IoT and digital fabrication projects. Live updates of new projects will also be broadcasted on a specially created website.

The smart home is upon us and products such as Motherare predicted to play a big part in our not so distant connected future. Casa Jasmina jumps forward to daily life in the 2020’s, exploring what it would actually be like to live surrounded by these smart objects, addressing what is a lack of understanding for many people when it comes to connected products.

Recently IOTORAMAattempted to demystify the IoT in an online setting but experiencing and interacting with products first hand will prove to be the best way to introduce luddites and laggards to the connected home.