The original note, as written at the time
A design set of novel domestic items meant to totally eliminate the need of household servants, using both tech-based and tech-less concepts.
Ongoing development
A design set of domestic items meant to eliminate the need for household servants, using both tech-based and tech-less concepts.
The words to hold on to are tech-less. Most of the effort in this direction assumes a machine for every task, and a machine for every task is a house that costs more than the servant did. The other half of the design set is the older tradition: the object that is shaped so that the work takes less, and takes it from the person who lives there rather than from someone employed to do it.
A sink with the right slope drains itself. A door that swings both ways does not need opening. A floor finish that does not show a footprint saves a daily task. A laundry basket on wheels, at the right height, at the top of the stairs. None of these are technology and each removes labour permanently.
The tech-based half should be judged by the same measure. A robot vacuum is worth it because it works while nobody is supervising. A smart kettle is not worth it, because it saved nothing; it moved a switch. The test is not sophistication, it is whether the household’s total attention went down.
There is a dignity argument running underneath, and it should be stated. The household servant is not a design problem to be eliminated; they are a person doing work that our societies have never properly valued or protected. A house that needs nobody to run it is a good outcome only if it is not achieved by pretending the work disappeared while somebody still does it, invisibly, for very little.
So the honest brief is: fewer tasks, in fewer steps, reachable by the person who actually lives there, with no one hidden behind the convenience. And a set of drawings — which is what makes this a design project rather than a wish list. Draw the objects.