How to Dress and Undress Your Home

So many good ideas in this article on using textiles and movable structures inside and outside can cool and heat your space. I’m most enamored with the toldos - I can picture many areas in Providence hoisting them above streets and common areas to provide shade and relief. The outdoor farmers markets could hoist them between stalls, too.

I’m not too much into the idea of a smart home, but it seems like this is one area it makes a lot of sense. There are automatic curtain and shade controllers, and I’m sure there are automatic home window devices too. Why not automatic awning controls? Tie these into a smart home hub, and they can move the textiles and structures around to handle the heat, sun, wind and cold. I’d bed the savings in running the home heating and cooling systems would more than offset the outlay in equipment, and it could work while the occupant is away or distracted.