Entries for the 2025 Performance Home Awards Now Open! Entries are open to Best Product and Best Design categories. Visit the TechnologyDesigner.com website for details.
Photo Courtesy of Lutron, 2024 Performance Home Award Best Product, Ketra D2 Recessed Downlight
We’re excited to announce the opening for entries of the Technology Designer Magazine 2025 Performance Home Awards! These prestigious awards recognize the finest products and designs that support modern performance homes, including energy management, intelligent lighting, appliances, climate control, entertainment and well-being that are the hallmarks of the fantastic homes and design firms we profile throughout the year.
Over the years we’ve covered many exciting new product releases that push the frontiers of design. Sometimes it is the simplest solution to an existing problem, sometimes it is more complex and requires advanced engineering. Most of our winners in recent years have the innate ability to simplify a homeowner’s life and bring added value to any home. A noticeable trend we’ve witnessed is the steady drumbeat to make our homes more comfortable, safer and entertaining to live in. And especially where we look at residential technology, not only are we designing more intuitive environments, but the overall aesthetic quality of individual products is refreshingly better across every product segment. Which means our manufacturers are just as concerned with how something looks and feels as they are in how homeowners interact with their products.
Photo Courtesy of Crestron, 2024 Performance Home Best Product Award, Horizon Glass Keypad
As long-time readers will know, there are a lot of moving parts to consider when designing a performance home. It all begins with resilience and a passive home design, which significantly lowers energy costs and creates a building that can stand up to mother nature. As we electrify our homes, we in turn are detoxifying and decarbonizing our interiors in order to provide a healthier environment for our families. Intelligent lighting design significantly enhances any design work, illuminating our lives in our homes and offices. Kitchen and bath design sets the overall tone of any residence as major sanctuaries in our daily lives. User experiences ranging from sleek keypads to voice control make living in a performance home a dream – we used to fight technology, now it disappears from sight and our spaces become effortless to control. And advancements in entertainment for indoor/outdoor living elevates the senses with incredible audio and video experiences that bring us all together as we enjoy our favorite sporting events, concerts and movies.
Of importance when we judge entries for our Performance Home Awards are the products that enhance the lifestyle experience consumers are becoming accustomed to in the modern performance home, with an emphasis on functionality, innovation and the user experience. How do homeowners experience the best that technology has to offer with natural, intuitive interfaces? What benefits are they realizing for their investments? What are the aesthetics of the product designs and interior designs and how do they compliment the overall vision of the homeowner? These are just a few considerations our judges look at when determining the best- of-the-best from the many entries we receive each year.
Photo Courtesy of Steinway & Sons, 2024 Performance Home Best Product Award, Model S Soundbar
From a designer’s reference point, we will be considering a wide variety of interior and exterior design work including infrastructure, energy management, home entertainment, intelligent lighting, window treatments, outdoor living, kitchen/bath, interior design and home theater/media rooms. The manufacturer product awards will highlight audio, video, control, user interfaces, lighting, window treatments, energy management, infrastructure and building materials.
And, of course, since our trademark is Where technology meets design™, we will weigh the beauty and elegance and sophistication of products and designs. The bottom line – we believe our performance home awards will capture a uniqueness that goes beyond sheer numbers and specs. After all, when you consider the product group that includes in-wall speakers, is there more than just the sound to consider? How about invisible speakers that can be integrated behind wallpaper or wood veneers? Is not the uncluttering of wall space a major design goal? At the end of the day, how we weigh each facet of a product or design has many components that our judges must take into consideration.
Entries for the 2025 Performance Home Awards can be made via our technologydesigner.com website and are open from April 14 through July 18, 2025. We will announce the winners shortly before the CEDIA Expo convention this coming September.
