The Detroit News reports....
The "keep-it-simple" design philosophy, which according to the GenShift 2011 survey suggests "cleaner lines, less countertop clutter and easy-to-clean surfaces," clearly appeals across generations, from young singles to parents with small children to adult children with live-in parents.
Karen Strauss, president of the Masco Cabinetry Group based in Ann Arbor encouraged a group of design professionals at the Kitchen and Bath Show to be innovative, but added this dose of reality: "No one cares about your products; they only care how your products will improve their lives."
The Kansas City Star states...
“Over the last five years, design has been elevated,” says Michelle Lamb, editorial director of The Trend Curve, a trade newsletter that forecasts trends in color, pattern and design for manufacturers, interior designers and retailers. “Good design is an expectation, so we can go below the surface. There’s an option to a lot of things that we weren’t looking to in the past.”
That was especially evident in May at the annual Kitchen and Bath Show in Las Vegas. The desire for better, more accessible storage, for example, has made pullout shelves a near standard. Water-saving features in showers, faucets and toilets are increasingly integral to manufacturers’ product lines. Recycled materials further a growing eco-consciousness.
The Wall Street Journal impact is....
What will the energy-efficient house of the future look like?
It could have gardens on its walls or a pond stocked with fish for dinner. It might mimic a tree, turning sunlight into energy and carbon dioxide into oxygen. Or perhaps it will be more like a lizard, changing its color to suit the weather and healing itself when it gets damaged.
Those are just a handful of the possibilities that emerged from an exercise in futurism. The Wall Street Journal asked four architects to design an energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable house without regard to cost, technology, aesthetics or the way we are used to living.
"This is a time of re-examining values, re-examining what we need," says one of our architects, Rick Cook, of the New York firm Cook + Fox. "We are re-examining the idea of home."
The Cook + Fox house has a modern look, but it's designed to fit into a traditional neighborhood setting.
Inside, rooms are easily configurable for lounging or work. Walls and furniture are on rollers, for instance, to take advantage of the fact that some spaces, such as bedrooms, are underutilized most of the day.
What's more, toilets and washrooms are separated, serving more people with less space. Making a house that's more conducive to work is important for energy efficiency because it eliminates driving -- and thus reduces energy consumption.
What do I personaly think?
Homes in future years will be much more individualized as people decide they would rather focus on 2 issues.... safe environments for their own families and to be debt free. Their houses will be personalized and created for their own comfort rather than the importance of it's selling potential. Smaller will be attractive and more efficient, while spaces will divided up for custom usage. Growing their own food sources will provide nutrition and promote health conscious lifestyles. I think the future is bright with possibilities as the conventional house changes to fit the changing climates, the eco friendly educated and the development of the new normal neighborhood. We are in the middle of a slowly changing home design and the future development for our homes will be based on our energy losses, economic challenges and safety needs. They will be private, more custom tailored to personalized family needs as the conventional rules of rooms changes and becomes more fluid.