Loxone in action at Casa Botelho

Exquisite design meets intelligent home automation at a recently refurbished London home.

It was a very early morning for us at Loxone last week Thursday as we jumped on to the M4 and made our way to Casa Botelho in London for a press event that we would be hosting.

The designer and owner of Casa Botelho, João Botelho, describes his home as ‘part interior design practise, part the most fabulous home in London and part furniture design’ and as soon as you walk through the door (which can be unlocked from the Loxone Smart Home app) you can see why it would be difficult to disagree with that rather bold statement.

Walking into this beautiful home we were greeted by Mr Botelho and his two well-behaved Cocker Spaniels; Prince and Oscar. You could tell immediately that careful attention had been paid to the selection of every aspect of the interior – from the artwork, to the deep grey walls, to the grain of the wooden flooring which ran seamlessly from the entrance throughout the ground floor and up the stairs. It’s no wonder that Mr Botelho decided to start his own interior design company off the back of renovating his own home – aptly named Casa Botelho – simply so that he could do it all over again for someone else.

The design palette behind this one-year-long refurbishment was exquisite. I personally felt proud that the discerning owner of such a beautiful home had chosen Loxone as his smart home solution of choice to seamlessly control his lighting, blinds, music and security.

The presence of Loxone may not have been visually evident, but as we made our way through the house – the autopilot way of living demonstrated itself before our eyes. As this was the first home that I was seeing Loxone in, I admittedly had to hold back the inner child in me, beaming from ear to ear, with how awesome it was to experience a room coming to life just by me walking into it. I guess that is what smart home living is all about.

But the event wasn’t there for me to be amazed, it was for us to show journalists and smart home industry experts just some of the capabilities of having Loxone in a real-life home rather than a demo showhouse.

The Loxone products that Casa Botelho boasts include a fully integrated entry and exit system. This means when one of our guests would arrive and press the button on the network-linked intercom, the door chime would be audible over the concealed ceiling speakers in the reception room. The Loxone Smart Home App on the homeowner’s iPad or iPhone then allowed us to talk to the guest through the device, announcing they could ‘come on in’ before unlocking the door – all without moving from the kitchen/dining area (and to be fair, that is where the coffee and snacks were so it seemed a natural place for us to congregate).

Once inside, ladies from Wildfire PR welcomed our guests one-by-one before introducing them to Loxone UK’s Managing Director Philipp Schuster and Partner Consultant Omid Nikroo – who were both given the enviable tasks of showing off the other Loxone features installed in Casa Botelho.

The ground floor comprised an entrance hall, lounge and reception areas, and guest loo. To the rear was the kitchen and dining area with three double French doors opening up to the ideal courtyard for sunny-day entertaining.

The Loxone Smart Home app has been configured to clearly identify these areas, allowing Mr Botelho to use ‘room mode’ on his iPad to control the lighting, music, blinds and security in a summarised interface. The same could be said for the rest of the rooms at Casa Botelho, but for the purpose of the event, we only invaded the ground floor.

Each of these rooms is equipped with a Loxone Motion Sensor Air which integrates with the lighting and security features configured on the Loxone Miniserver. This means that when walking through the ground floor, the dimmable lights (installed in twin vintage chandeliers in each room) turn on – while the brightness is determined by the amount of light that is required at that time of day. And of course, if we weren’t meant to be in the house and the alarm was set, then the same Loxone Motion Sensor Air units would alert the Loxone Miniserver as to our presence and set the alarm off, which meant that the home’s lights would start flashing, the blinds would all open and an alarm sound effect would play through the speakers linked to the Loxone Music Server. The system is configured to then alert Mr Botelho via the Loxone Smart Home App on his iPhone of the fact that the alarm has been triggered.

With the capability of the Loxone Miniserver being so infinite, a particularly neat feature was incorporated into the French door blinds in the kitchen/dining area. With each of the blinds being motorized and the doors each having a Loxone Door Contact Air on them, the system was configured to set a command for the blinds to open as soon as the door contact was broken. This means that when Mr Botelho uses the rear doors to enter his property after a night out for example, instead of having to stick his hand inside first and fumble around for the switch that controls the blinds, the blinds now open automatically when the door opens. And of course the Door Contact Air’s are configured for security too, so if the doors were opened while the alarm was set, then the would-be-intruder would soon regret the smart home automation that would be unleashed.

The custom-made kitchen housed everything behind a wall of deep grey retractable doors. One of the sections if you will, housed the drinks area complete with a coffee machine and custom drawers with an endless supply of coffee capsules. This was a great space to place a Loxone Touch Air – giving Mr Botelho complete control of the blinds, lighting and music from a place he would most likely be socialising around – without having to walk to the wall to find a switch. There were also Loxone Touch Air devices placed in the lounge and reception areas so that Mr Botelho could get the best use out of his Loxone smart home setup, whether it be through the Loxone Smart Home App or one of the Motion Sensor Air and Touch devices.

Overall, it was amazing for me – and for our guests too I hope – to see Loxone in action in such a tastefully renovated space.

Thank you to journalists and industry experts Jon Porter, Gina Grbic, Steve May, Iain McLean and Marc Ambasna-Jones for joining us on the day. We were pleased to have you all there so that we could share with you our excitement about what a Loxone smart home solution can offer.

And of course a big thank you to Mr Botelho for allowing us to showcase Loxone in his outstanding home, Casa Botelho.

The installation at Casa Botelho was carried out by Loxone Silver Partner; XO Home.