Remember the Jetsons’ house? A bubble on a pedestal with a robot maid, walk-through shower, programmable meal preparation. The Jetsons’ house is not the house of the future.
“The house the babyboomers grew up in won’t be that different in 50 years,” says Rosemary Goss, faculty member in housing, interior design, and resource management at Virginia Tech. “Builders and people don’t change that rapidly,” says Goss, who, with faculty colleague Julia Beamish, does research on people’s acceptance of innovation.
“Builders are traditional. Most of them build houses on spec – they want to know they are building houses that are going to sell. They are afraid to be too innovative,” says Goss.
Custom builders are more innovative because they have a client saying, “Let’s try this.” In the 1970s, innovative clients were saying, “Let’s build a solar house,” for instance, and “custom homes went for everything that was energy conserving, such as solar collectors and thermal storage walls. Now, everybody doesn’t have solar collectors. In general, people are reluctant to take a chance on new technology,” Goss has observed. “But everybody has ended up with a more energy efficient house.”
During the post-war construction boom, most homes were two- or three-bedroom, 850- to 1,000-square-foot “starter” homes with one bath, no garage, no dishwasher, no self-cleaning oven, no self-defrost refrigerator. “They were affordable, no-frills houses. Now, the typical starter home has a dishwasher, a microwave, air conditioning – at least in the South – one and a half or two baths, a garage or carport, larger closets, and an open kitchen and/or family area,” says Goss.
Trends
“A major trend is the kitchen becoming a center of activity,” Goss says. “It has a lot to do with the working mom. Dad and/or the kids often help in the kitchen. Housing has changed with lifestyle — but very slowly.” Read more about the kitchen of the future.
The new home of the '50s didn't have a family room. Then people added a “rec” room, such as a furnished basement room. Television changed how we use our homes, says Goss. “A trend we're seeing now in upscale homes is the media room or entertainment room with big-screen TV, surround sound, VCRs.”
In the '80s, computers began to influence how space in the home is used. Goss and Gerald Bird researched the impact of computers on how the family uses the home and how the computer impacts family life. “One family made their master bedroom into the computer room/office,” reports Goss. “New homes are now frequently wired for computers and designed with special computer spaces.”
The next trend is multiple computer work spaces.
According to the Quality of Life in Virginia survey conducted by Virginia Tech's Center for Survey Research, only 37 percent of Virginians had computers in their home in 1992. By 1994, when 42 percent reported having computers, only 34 percent of them were connected to the Internet. As of the spring of 1996, 50 percent of survey respondents had computers at home, and half of them are connected to the Internet.
"The changes we saw beginning to happen in the '80s are going to mushroom,” Goss predicts. "One way we are accommodating more computers is with larger houses. Families are smaller but houses are bigger. People are going to expect to have media spaces and homes pre-wired for computers and telephones.”
Other trends:
Built-in security. "Safety and security is a trend, and it is cheaper to build in security systems than to retrofit them," Goss says.
Universal design
Most homes are designed for the "average"-sized person who is in excellent health, says Julie Beamish -- but an aging society and babyboomers with elderly parents are changing that. More homes will have spaces and products designed to be used by people of all ages, sizes, and abilities, she says. Sink faucets with one handle, lever door handles, wider doors and halls, a bedroom and bath on the first floor — all are finding their way into new homes.