Many of our clients, especially those building new homes, have built elaborate basement rooms in their new homes. One of the primary reasons for these expensive below-ground rooms is that they typically do not count against the maximum square footage allowed for a home on a given lot size. These rooms are typically used as wine cellars, exercise areas, home theaters, entertainment areas, and spare bedrooms.
The one common architectural element for all these underground rooms is an attempt to make these areas feel more livable and less like an underground bunker. Frequently light wells are dug around the sides of these rooms to allow above-ground light to filter in (if there is enough space around the perimeter of the property to build these light wells, that is). Skylights are pretty much impossible and any kind of window view is most likely a few shade-loving plants in the light well. So, how can technology make these basement rooms feel much more livable?
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Over the last several months I had the opportunity to visit the Ideaworks showroom in London, Hermary’s showroom in San Francisco, and the Screen Solutions showroom in Campbell, Calif., and I saw some amazing examples of how technology can completely transform the look and feel of an underground, basement room. For your next basement project, you may want to consider some (or all) of these solutions.
The Solar Skylight (as seen in the Ideaworks showroom)
From a company called CoeLux from Lomazzo, Italy, comes the CoeLux line of built-in ceiling skylight products.
The CoeLux High Tech 25 illuminates and projects a beam of intense light that replicates the light of the sun, enhancing colors, textures, and objects within a room. The area of projected light is slightly larger than the frame itself and illuminates the surrounding area in a soft, diffuse manner. It is available in Classic and Smart Sky. The Smart Sky version allows you to re-create the passage of time from sunrise to sunset, enjoying gradually shifting colors and light intensity throughout the day, and can be controlled by a smart home system using DALI and 0-10V control. See https://www.coelux.com/en/home-page/index for more information.
Light Well Lighting and Motorized Shades (as seen in the Hermary’s showroom)
With Hunter Douglas’s new Aura Illuminated Shades you can create a natural wake-up scene that simulates the rising sun. To simulate sunset, you can adjust the Auro LED lights built into the track of the motorized shades by adjusting them from bright to dim, from warm to cool. You can also adjust the speed at which the light fades in and out. These features can be easily controlled with PowerView+ automation and the PowerView app. Within the app, you can adjust the shade and liner positions, as well as the light intensity and temperature. See https://www.hunterdouglas.com/enhancements/aura for more information.
Million Dollar Views (as seen in the Screen Solutions showroom)
LiquidView, based in San Francisco, offers its groundbreaking Digital Windows. Using feature film motion picture cameras, National Geographic-level cinematographers captured views over 24 hours in stunning 8.6K video. The 24-hour views synchronize with your location and time of day, so sunrise and sunset are always accurate no matter where you are located. A future feature has the option of adding realistic augmented content that appears randomly throughout the day to mimic the unpredictability of a real window view — such as birds flying by or dolphins jumping out of the water. Stanford University is leading a study on how LiquidView’s windows not only add views and light to dark spaces but also provide similar health benefits to being by an actual window, such as lower heart rates and lower blood pressure. Imagine waking up to a picturesque sunrise over a serene beach or transitioning to a bustling cityscape at dusk. Manage all content conveniently from a web app, where you can change views at your fingertips. For more information, visit LiquidView’s website at www.theliquidview.com.
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Each of these products is perfect for showroom demonstrations — they truly have to be seen to be appreciated. These are highly customized products with correspondingly high price tags and margins — exactly the type of product that is best sold and supported by the custom integrator channel. Your showroom may already have the latest in audio/video, lighting, security, and control solutions, but increasingly these solutions are becoming more common in most high-end dealer showrooms.
If you want to stand out from your showroom competition, you should seriously consider installing any or all of the above products in a room you call the basement room. I guarantee that these are the products your clients will most remember long after they’ve left your showroom — and that’s a unique, competitive advantage for your business!
