Designing the homes of the future

Chances are your next house will look unlike any you’ve seen before. New ideas are shaping architecture, creating superior, happier, more fulfilling places to live

What will the decades ahead look like, and how will your house evolve to incorporate them? Probably in more ways than you might expect, as your next home is likely to look very different from those of today. No, we’re not talking space for a Jetsons-era robot housemaid, but architecture that embraces and enhances the changes in our lifestyles.

One major shift is the rise in blended or multi-generational families as well as single-person households, meaning that traditional home layouts need updating. And because more people are working from home, a trend is emerging that is part of the ‘sharer economy’, where communities share resources such as meeting rooms and gardens.

COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

This new way of thinking is shaping developments such as Marmalade Lane, a RIBA award-winning project in Cambridge by Mole Architects. With 42 terraced houses and apartments, it’s one of the new co-housing concepts springing up around the UK, where residents collaborate to run the estate. Aspiring towards mixed, intergenerational living, it boasts vegetable gardens, a communal kitchen and a Common House containing guest bedrooms. The collective approach improves everyone’s wellbeing, from families to singles who may need more social interaction.

Perhaps your next home will be taking its lead from the architects AHMM and developer Solidspace, who have reinvented the mansion block in their project at 81-87 Weston Street near London Bridge station. The design avoids the dated one-size-fits-all approach with eight flats that include flexible open-plan rooms and self-contained bedrooms that can be rented out. Multi-level entrances offer privacy for those living together but separately. ‘We build on the principle of long life, recognizing that there are times when you might need a relative living with you, or visitors, lodgers or carers,’ says Roger Zogolovitch of Solid space.