‘Smart Home: Green + Wired, Powered by ComEd’ is a three-story modular and sustainable ‘green’ home exhibited in the Museum of Science and Industry’s backyard. Illinois-based textile house Brentano has once again provided eco-fabrics for the interior of the house. The exhibit runs through January 3, 2010.
The redesign includes a bold color scheme, new furniture, the addition of a ‘green’ baby nursery, a space-maximizing hallway office, new cutting-edge technologies, wind power, earth-friendly and city-friendly landscaping ideas.
Named ‘Chicago’s Greenest Home,’ the Smart Home is a free-standing, fully-functioning modular home that showcases the big and small ways to make eco-friendly living part of daily life. The exhibit focuses on environmentally-conscious architecture, practices, technology, and products, including an array of fabrics from the Brentano green collection of eco-friendly interior textiles.
Smart Home interior designer Michele Fitzpatrick, owner of Verde Design Studio, selected several of Brentano’s eco-friendly faux leathers for use in the dining room, lounge and kitchen areas.
The home is designed for an urban family with adventurous tastes, and the polyurethane-based textile is a durable and sustainable choice for upholstery. On the second floor, Fitzpatrick selected eco-fabrics with a soft hand to construct tailored bed linens. For the boy’s bedroom, a saturated teal color of Casita, 100% post-consumer recycled polyester is used. The master bedroom features gray eco-wool fabrics.
The Smart Home is designed by Michelle Kaufman Designs and built by All American Homes. The exhibit is considered as a must see for anyone who wants their home and life to be more efficient and more in tune with the environment.
Among its diverse and expansive exhibits, MSI features a working coal mine, a German submarine captured during World War II, a 3,500 square feet model railroad, the first diesel-powered streamlined stainless-steel passenger train, and a NASA spacecraft used on the Apollo 8 mission.
