Jordan O'BrienThere may be Alexa-powered smart homes popping up across Virginia very soon – with American housebuilder Brookfield Residential partnering up with Amazon to integrate some of the latest smart home technology in its new build houses.
Announced at AWS re:Invent 2016, Brookfield Residential is preparing to build a whole host of new houses in the Avendale housing community just outside Washington, D.C. Unlike other houses in the area however, these houses will be built with smart technology at the forefront – with a whole host of scenarios already imagined by the developer.
“The best part about The Brookfield Residential Smart Home is that it will adapt as new technology appears,” Robert Hubbell, division president, notes. “If the homebuyer wants to incorporate the latest device in the months and years ahead, the home will immediately recognise it. This was important to us to ensure that the home stays on the leading edge of technology.”
Dubbed the Brookfield Residential Smart Home, future buyers will be able to control various functions using just their voice. Already planned for these homes of the future will be the ability to check the security camera, unlock the door, turn on the lights, raise the blinds, water the lawn, pre-heat the oven, change the thermostat and play music using nothing but voice control.
Smart home technology has thus far only been adopted by high-end housing developers, but this approach should open it up to more families than ever before. Houses on the Avendale community have thus far retailed for around $429,000, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t all that premium for new builds in the Virginia area.
This isn’t the first time Brookfield Residential has toyed around with the smart home idea however. Earlier this year the company featured at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, where it announced that it would be building HomeKit-enabled smart homes in the near future. Those homes were planned for Los Angeles and featured much of the same functionality as those powered by Alexa. It’s not known why the developer chose HomeKit for West Coast, while East Coast gets Alexa.