Designing for the Next 20 Years: The New Luxury Is a Home You Don't Have to Leave

Most people begin designing a custom home around the life they're living today. A thoughtful design team also considers the life they may be living 10, 20 or even 30 years from now. Children grow up and leave. Parents may eventually move in. Work patterns change, mobility can change and rooms that once served one purpose may need to serve another. A home designed with those possibilities in mind can adapt without requiring major renovations every time life evolves.

Future-proofing is sometimes confused with designing a home that looks institutional or obviously accessible. In reality, many of the features that make a home easier to navigate later can be virtually invisible today. A curbless shower looks clean and luxurious. Wider doorways can create a sense of generosity. Minimal thresholds provide seamless transitions between spaces. Lever hardware can be both beautiful and easier to operate.

Other considerations can be built into the house without being used immediately. Reinforcement installed behind bathroom walls during construction can make it easy to add grab bars later without opening finished walls. A main-floor office can be designed with the proportions and nearby facilities necessary to become a bedroom in the future. Small decisions made early can preserve options without changing how the home functions today.

Vertical circulation is another consideration in multi-level custom homes. Installing an elevator immediately may not be necessary or desirable, but certain homes can be designed with vertically aligned spaces that allow one to be added later. In the meantime, those areas might function as closets or storage. Planning for the possibility during design is dramatically easier than trying to carve an elevator shaft through a finished home years later.

Flexible rooms can also extend the useful life of a house. A children's playroom might eventually become a gym. A home office may become a guest suite. A lower level could potentially accommodate extended family. Instead of defining every room by what it is today, architects can consider what it might need to become later.

There is a sustainability argument here as well. A home capable of adapting to changing circumstances may require fewer major renovations and may allow its owners to remain there longer. Longevity is one of the most practical forms of sustainable design.

A successful custom home shouldn't only fit perfectly on move-in day. The greater achievement is creating architecture that continues to make sense as the people living inside it change.