How the pandemic is changing home design

[brooklynite]

Axios

The pandemic has changed what Americans want from their homes, and builders say they expect those changes to last.

The big picture: A ton of pandemic-era adaptations are becoming common fixtures in new homes. The model homes that builders are showing off today are meant for working, living and learning, not just coming home and crashing at the end of the day.

Details: Big pre-pandemic trends — open plans with big kitchen islands — aren't going anywhere. "My verdict is that people really like open floor plans, and they’re here to stay," says Nancy K. Keenan, president of Dahlin Group Architecture and Planning, who helped conduct the America at Home Study of pandemic-era consumer tastes in home design.

But overall footprints are getting bigger as builders add on more smaller rooms, which may need to function as offices, play rooms, home gyms or dens, depending on the family.

Bathrooms are getting bigger, in part because we use them more often when we're home all day. And every room of the house is more wired — builders are adding power outlets and USB ports to accommodate the devices essential to working or attending school from home.

Some homes also feature separate entrances for guests, with easy access to a powder room for hand-washing.

[70sEraVet]

1. It seems like the increase in 'overall footprint' is a poor choice and a missed opportunity

To me, the ideal solution would be to have the ability to easily close off one or two portions of the large open space to create an office or den when needed. Older homes did this by having a big pair of pocket doors.
Our 100 year old home has pocket doors that separate a dining room from the main space.

[mainer]

2. Bigger pantries. We need places to store all the food and toilet paper.

I've got my supplies tucked all over the house.

[Hoyt]

3. And, without the daily commute, homes can be built much further out with internet connections.

[lastlib]

4. Good internet connections with high speed further out are BADLY NEEDED!

I'm six miles from town, and my DSL service is barely faster than dial-up, but the alternatives aren't out here.

[Hoyt]

6. That's a real shame. In my rube/red part of country, we have really good internet service.

[Novara]

5. Count me among those who don't like open floor plans

It really doesn't make sense with the logic they're using regarding the pandemic. With more people at home working, schooling, etc, you need places where you can do your work separate from the rest of the family. And with everyone together all the time, people need to shut themselves away from each other once in a while. Too much closeness can drive people nuts.

[frazzled]

7. They have their pluses and minuses

The biggest minus for me is noise. Nothing like reading or trying to watch the climax of a film in the living space while your spouse suddenly decides to run the noisy garbage disposal or the coffee grinder (or whip a meringue) at the crucial moment. And then there's the issue of the mess left in full sight of dinner guests of the last minute pots/chopping boards/dirty mixing bowls in your kitchen. (Fortunately, we have an unusual, but I think clever partial wall between the kitchen and living/dining spaces that obscures a part of the kitchen.) Also, I like to be alone in the kitchen when I am executing the last-minute steps of a complicated meal: I get distracted or confused easily!

Another con is that if not done very ingeniously, some of these open plans (especially retrofitted ones) create an aesthetically unpleasing, actually quite boring, boxy visual space.

On the plus side, it is a boon to people needing to watch their young kids at the same time they prepare meals, etc. And there's a certain efficiency to having combined living/eating/cooking spaces. But keep the offices and bedrooms very separate!

My preference is for a modified open plan (which is, thankfully, kind of what we have).