“Smart Home” highlights 21st century living spaces

The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI), Chicago, Ill., invites guests into 21st century living spaces in its current exhibit, “Smart Home: Green + Wired.” MSI’s Smart Home is a real, functioning three-story modular house built in the museum’s back yard. It is fitted with sustainable materials, repurposed furnishings, energy-saving technology and high-tech gadgets. Solar film and wind turbines generate energy, rain gardens filter storm water and fabric selection goes au naturel.

Interior design firm Scout created the internal environment, making use of Hemp, a new fabric from Camira Fabrics Ltd., West Yorkshire, England. Hemp consists of two natural, renewable and biodegradable fibers, wool and harvested hemp, a sustainable fabric choice with a soft handle, inherent fire-retardant properties and a nubby handmade look that can be enhanced by dyeing. In most shades, only the wool is colored, bringing out the beauty of undyed hemp. In other colorways, both wool and hemp fibers are tinted to enrich the palette.