House of Tomorrow returning to Disneyland

Disneyland will team with Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and others to bring the $15-million Innoventions Dream Home to Tomorrowland in May, according to the Associated Press.

The two-bedroom demonstration home with a kitchen, living room, dining room, study and backyard (but no bathroom) will feature current and near-future technology, including:

* Closets that help select clothes and suggest matching outfits.
* Touch-screen kitchen countertops that recognize groceries and make menu recommendations.
* Digital artwork that adjusts to personal preset preferences.

Disney actors will play the fictional Elias family of four (an obvious nod to Walter Elias Disney) living a “digital lifestyle” in the 5,000-square-foot “smart house” inside the rotating-floor Innoventions building.

The Disneyland house of the future — Disney’s Epcot in Florida hosts a similar attraction called House of Innoventions — will look like a normal beige-and-brown suburban home made of wood and steel.

Many still fondly remember Disneyland’s 1957 Space Age House of the Future that envisioned a tomorrow filled with microwave ovens, electric razors and plastic chairs.

Workers spent two weeks painstakingly cutting the original House of the Future to pieces in 1967 after a wrecking ball simply bounced off the plastic exterior, according to Yesterland.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the
Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photo: Disney]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 3:59 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under Disneyland, Epcot at Walt Disney World, Family & Kids, San Diego, Southern States, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.