Glitzy out, functional in

Without the large appreciation in home values between 1995 and 2005, kitchen and bathroom design has become more modest. Meanwhile, residential architects are continuing to report declining business conditions, according to the American Institute of Architects Home Design Trends Survey for the fourth quarter of 2009. The survey focused on kitchen and bathrooms.
This survey indicated that functionality is now preferred to more and larger kitchens and bathrooms in U.S. homes. Households are planning more importance on products that promote energy efficiency. Products that are adaptable in the use of space for seniors and people with accessibility concerns are also becoming more important.
Overall, homes continue to be smaller on average than they were during the past 10 years, says Kermit Baker, AIA chief economist. "But since kitchens remain the nerve center of the home, doing more with less space is a key consideration. "Integrating kitchens with family space remains a design priority."
Baker says that homeowners want areas devoted to recycling, pantries, computer workstations and spaces devoted to recharging cell phones and PDAs. The most popular kitchen products and features in the most recent survey were: recycling center (52 percent); larger pantry space (47 percent); renewable flooring materials (46 percent); renewable countertop materials (46 percent) and computer area/recharging stations (43 percent).
In the bathroom, Baker says that homeowners are moving away from glitzy features such as steam showers and towel warming drawers/racks and instead are looking for water-saving toilets, radiant heated flooring and LED lighting options. Popular bathroom features included water-saving toilets (63 percent); radiant heated floors (52 percent); and accessibility/universal design (50 percent).
Although it is too early to think that the residential market has fully recovered, there are two encouraging signs in the survey. Overall business conditions are far better than they were a year ago at this time, and there is improvement in those housing sectors that need to lead a broader improvement in the housing market: remodeling and alterations of existing homes. Both segments were reported to be growing.