Building a Better Tomorrow

During times of uncertainty we look for ways to make the best of our circumstances and especially the things closest to us. 

Major events have had and will have an impact on our lifestyle, industries and fashion to name a few. While we were discussing this newsletter, I remembered the new term post-9/11 that strengthened a term coined by Faith Popcorn (A trend forecaster and marketing consultant) “cocooning.” Faith saw this coming, and the events of 9/11 took this theory to a bigger reality. We all settled into our homes after the attacks and there was a desire for home theatres and larger scale and more open kitchens grew in popularity. In 2007-2008, while home improvements waned because of finances, there was still a strong desire to make the most of that place we share with our family and friends.
 
A month into this pandemic, many of us accepted that this wouldn’t be over as quickly as we hoped, and while we could sense the things in our home that were not working, we also weren’t thinking about having people in our home always working. Because of our geographic business location I have a lot of very intelligent and educated clients, and while we are all working out what we think is next, I thought I would give you my two cents, and share a book by one of my clients, Pandemic Aftermath. I am waiting on Trond’s book to arrive, if you read it, you can compare notes… I will not write a book, just provide a small statement of where I think life at home is going.
 
I know that staying at home more now doesn’t mean that people will want to stay at home more in the future. Many folks had great trips planned that had to be cancelled and I suppose many of you are already planning on getting away as much as can be planned now. I do think that the future; however, will involve more desire to make home that safe and loving center of our lives and we will likely just do this more deliberately. Our homes will likely become scalable in use and provide the means to entertain large groups and provide us intimate individual settings. The top things people are looking to resolve with us right now are; the home office/education zone, the way a floor plan can be open and separate, getting outside and ways to get back together with friends and family.  The image in this post is of a flexible room that was intended for outdoor grilling in the winter months, but also allows for a unique lounge space in the off season (the picture was taken before Corona stood for more than a beer)!
 
Living rooms and dining rooms may have become your home office/school work areas; as well as adding desks in any room that was originally something else. You may not need additional space if the living room becomes a “den” where there is a nice workspace and a soft seating zone where mom and dad can have some conversation time alone at the end of the day. If you are adding on, a full basement instead of a crawlspace (because you didn’t need more basement before) is a scalable add on that will let your little dancer take a zoom dance class and have future slumber parties.
 
The popular open floor plan is the next debate open for discussion. The inability to allow people to retreat was never more obvious. Remember the conference room walls in hotels and convention centers? I wonder what ideas we will see that will turn the living, dining, kitchen into two to three spaces. That may also be one of the steps as we let people return to visit, but maybe we don’t want everyone in the same space.
 
While I do see people considering more cocooning type of projects, some are more temporary… like the once despised above ground pool being OK till we can gather at the lake. Some are just more deliberate, like a new larger porch… or lounge we are designing where it would have been nice to have now, and will be nice to have next.
 
Be safe, be well, be you! And let’s see if Trond or I were able to see into the future… my money is on him.