10 crazy concepts for homes of the future

• Danielle Muoio

The traditional suburban home with a wraparound porch still exists, and maybe always will, but it won't be the standard housing option in the future.
Photo Courtesy of Vincent Callebaut
As cities grow and lifestyles change, the homes we decide to live in will change as well. In fact, we are already starting to see unique housing alternatives.
Here's a look at the homes of the future:

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We're already starting to see many options for tiny homes, like the Ecocapsule that is meant to support you living entirely off the grid.

Nice Architects

It is solar- and wind-powered, but if both options fail there's a battery that will allow the pod to run for three to four days.

The ecocapsule, which costs $87,000, has a unique egg shape to minimize heat loss and capture rain water that is filtered in a water tank.

Ecocapsule

Keep in mind shipping can cost as much as $3,890 depending on where you are.

But if that's too small for your liking, you can try the ALPOD — a small mobile home made out of aluminum.

Aluhouse

It has a skylight and sliding doors to provide natural air.

A bathroom and kitchen are pre-installed, but the rest of the space can be divided in whatever way you want.

Aluhouse

It'll be available for purchase in 2016.

Harvard students actually designed tiny homes for future getaways, but we wouldn't be surprised if these innovative designs were used for more long-term purposes some day.

Courtesy of Getaway

Solar panels are installed on some homes to provide electricity and power the electric toilet.

Courtesy of Getaway

You can rent the tiny houses in Massachusetts for $99 a night.

Modular homes are only going to become more popular.

Rob Ludacer

Above you see a prototype of such a home that was designed by French architecture firm Multipod Studio.

The PopUp House costs between $1,200 and $1,900, not including the cost of the construction team that comes to put it together.

Rob Ludacer

The best part is it can be built in just four days using an electric screwdriver. The future of homes will include ones like the PopUp House that can easily be taken apart and put back together.

But not everyone will live in actual homes. We're already starting to see more people electing to live in microapartments.

AP/Julie Jacobson

New York City's first microapartments will be available for leasing in November. Located in Kips Bay, the Carmel Place apartments measure under 370 square feet.

The Carmel Place apartments utilize space fairly efficiently and come with a kitchen, a desk that turns into a 10-seat dining table, and a bed that turns into a sofa.

AP/Julie Jacobson

But not all microapartments are designed to be so chic — here we see one that has only 27 square feet of living space.

Lee Jae Won/Reuters

And there are several examples of people from around the world moving into microapartments.

Microapartment living can certainly be tough.

Lee Jae Won/Reuters

As buildings get taller, your entire living experience might actually take place in a building, according to futurist Ian Pearson, a fellow at the World Academy for Arts and Science.

Flickr/Taylor Herring

Both Pearson and a report released by Samsung called the SmartThings Future of Living Report think advancements in the way we do construction and the building materials we use will result in taller buildings.
Pearson said this could result in buildings becoming their own mini cities.

"We might have... thousands of people living in a single building as a self-contained city," Pearson told Tech Insider.

Andy Scales

But if heights aren't your thing, you could live underground.

BUNKER ARQUITECTURA

The Samsung report envisions people will live in subterranean structures called Earth Scrapers in 100 years.
There's actually a planned Earthscraper for Mexico City, which would be an upside-down, 65-story pyramid. But we haven't heard anything about the project since the schematics were released in 2011.

There could even be underwater cities.

Flickr/Taylor Herring

The Samsung report envisions there will be aquatic communities in 100 years that will be powered by the waves and solar.

You could potentially even live in a floating city.

Rob Ludacer

This floating city concept, called Aequorea, would house 20,000 residents and be built using garbage. 

Aequorea is still in concept phase, but it provides a glimpse of how people are thinking of the future of homes.

Rob Ludacer

You can learn more about how the concept could be made here.

Perhaps even space colonies are not too far off.

Flickr/Taylor Herring

The Samsung report predicts space communities could emerge as asteroid mining becomes a viable commercial enterprise.

There's no telling if all these concepts for future homes will play out, but one thing is for sure: how we live is bound to change.