Best of #ModernMonday: High-Tech Living After CES

They replaced the tile floor with perobinha, an inexpensive local wood, and enclosed part of the terrace, integrating it into the dining room. J104 chairs by Jørgen Bækmark for Hay are arranged around a freijo wood dining table by Etel Carmona.

Dwell: First off, when did modern wayfinding come about? What large-scale historic and present-day wayfinding projects did you research and how did these inform the WalkNYC plan? Michael Bierut: Wayfinding is as old as mapmaking, and maps of New York go back almost to its first European settlements. There were probably three useful precedents for the work we did on Walk NYC. First were a series of urban wayfinding programs in Great Britain that many of our team members, including CityID and T-Kartor, have been involved with over the years. Second was a wayfinding system I worked on for the downtown New York business district back in the '90s. This was, at the time, the largest single coordinated wayfinding program in New York City and we learned a lot, not only about how people navigate a complex urban district, but what you have to deal with when you install things like maps on the streets of New York in terms of regulations and maintenance. Finally, there were the graphics that Unimark did for the New York subway system in the late sixties and early seventies. I worked for Massimo Vignelli at the start of my career, and I was always impressed by the way the Unimark system managed to superimpose an abstract visual logic on a city that seems so illogical at every turn. WalkNYC attempts to do the same thing.

Once installed, Dojo's software adds all the devices—cellphones, printers, tablets, security cameras, etc.—that use your home's wireless network. It then begins to track with whom they communicate: for instance, if one device begins sending data to an unusual server abroad, it raises a red flag. Dojo itself comes with two pieces of hardware: a palm-sized pebble and its dock. The latter connects directly to your router. The former, which glows red when there's unexpected or alarming network activity, is mobile and can be placed in easily-accessed or visible parts of your home.

Timer-activated coffee makers have been around for years, so it's almost hard to believe it took this long to make the device smart. Finally, Belkin made one from a partnership with Mr. Coffee, and it goes beyond scheduled brewing.

Clad in copper panels that Holl had fabricated by the Kansas City, Missouri, company Zahner, the house is daylit by a host of rectangular skylights (inspired by the musical staff) punched through the roofs and the pool’s floor.