Long before voice assistants and connected appliances, architects, inventors, and industrialists were imagining how technology would transform everyday life. At the turn of the last century, the "house of tomorrow" was defined by new technology, mass production, and bold new ideas about how people should live. From Sears mail-order houses to Le Corbusier's modernism and the spectacular homes showcased at the 1933 and 1939 World's Fairs, this was the era that laid the foundation for the future that followed.

What They Got Right

• Electrification transformed daily life. The prediction that electricity would become the backbone of every home proved completely accurate, powering everything from lighting and refrigeration to entertainment and communication.
• Standardization and prefabrication. Sears Homes demonstrated that houses could be manufactured, shipped, and assembled using standardized parts, an idea that continues today in modular and prefab construction.
• The automobile reshaped the home. Visionaries correctly foresaw that garages, suburbs, and need for parking would become inseparable from the American home.

What They Missed

• Environmental sustainability. These homes celebrated abundance and technological progress with little awareness of energy consumption, resource limits, or climate impacts.
• Homes are more than machines. While many architects pursued efficiency and standardization, they often underestimated the emotional, cultural, and personal reasons people resist radically new ways of living.

The pre-war "House of Tomorrow" legacy wasn't any single invention, it was about free'ing humanity from the drugery of domestic work and creating more comfortable living spaces, setting the wheels in motion for major societal changes. Join McKay, Ian, and Greg as they explore the first great age of domestic futurism, when the future home wasn't yet smart or energy saving, but it was becoming unmistakably modern.