Houston Modern Home Tour using modern tech to go virtual
HOUSTON - The Modern Home Tour in Houston is shifting from walkthrough to virtual this year to maintain social distancing and will reach a nationwide audience. Tour Goers can not only see the most modern technology in homes, they will use modern technology to view it.
Since the 10th annual Modern Architecture + Design Society's Modern Home Tour was delayed from this Spring, it's been reformatted for virtual viewing. 3-D cameras will give tour-goers the feel of walking through six different Houston area homes. They'll see the latest in energy efficiency, prefab construction, and even a home that makes life easier for a woman with disabilities.
Jamie Leasure, the founder of the Modern Architecture + Design Society, gave us a sneak preview.
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"You'll 'walk up' to the home when the session starts, just like this, and we'll talk about the outside. This is a modern home by Gary Chandler Architecture," Leasure showed us of the 3-D video on the event website. "We'll then go inside the house and you'll walk in and look at the house right away, just like if you're walking in the front door."
"And after you're done with the tour, you can come back and explore these models at your own pace, your own time. So you can really zero-in on areas that you love, like this art wall, like this mirror here, or like this stone, if you want to check that out and learn what kind of trim it is for your own house," he clicked on the video, pulling up boxes with identifiers and explanations for the different features.
"One is a prefab, modular development," Leasure said of one of the homes. "It's really cool when you walk through the home. If I didn't know that, I couldn't tell you what the difference is, and I've been doing this for 15 years now."
"One home is built to be fully ADA compliant, for a homeowner who needs that for her lifestyle," he showed us on a 3-D video of another home.
"You can already see the entryway to this house, no stairs. The driveway all softly sloped into the house itself. That's the first thing you see there and let's go inside and you can immediately see the hallways are wide, the entryway is easy to get a chair through, and right here on the left is an elevator," Leasure showed us.
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Then pointing to what appears to be a framed picture on the wall, Leasure pointed out, "It's a TV that looks like a photograph or a piece of art. The TV comes with some Degas work, or there are a lot of classic artist looks that have their paintings. It looks like art on parchment. It's amazing."
"You can walk outside if you're sitting in Houston and it's a nice Spring or Fall day. You can walk outside and say hi to neighbors, which I love," he said of a balcony view.
The live tour is Sunday, November 1 at 10 a.m. But tour-goers can go back and look at the 3-D videos of homes for days afterward. Tickets are $40 per device by clicking here.