Research
Home Report – Post Pandemic Trends in Residential Design
- PLP Labs created the ‘Home Report’, to investigate current and upcoming trends in how we live and the impact that this will have on how we design homes.
- The report found that the 21st century home is defined by demand for integrated nature, multifunctional zones, and personal home expression. These trends are likely to continue as homes become even more integrated with technology, multi-purposes, ages, and animals.
- These trends are being driven by changes to household makeup, increased time at home, and a rise in inaccessibility and/or disinterest in home ownership.
Homes refract major worldwide changes, resulting in a variety of observable, emerging home space trends. Although the way we live has always been subjected to change, wide-scale reactions to disruptive global events have accelerated the pace of home adaptation. Sustained changes in household makeup, increased time at – and the importance of – home, and inaccessibility and/or disinterest in home ownership are on the rise. PLP Labs’ Home Report visually connects these wider trends to the rise of well-being, privacy, adaptability, and personal expression in home space during the midst and aftermath of COVID-19.
The way we live has always been subject to change but the pandemic has drastically accelerated the pace of this evolution. We are seeing record-high rates of young adults living with their parents, spurred on by widespread financial difficulty. At the same time, an increase in single-person households is being driven by longer life spans and mind shifts on traditional adulting milestones, like marriage and childbearing.
Not only are household compositions changing, but so are our habits during the time we spend at home. Approximately 96 percent of people took refuge in their primary residence during COVID-19 lockdowns or related restrictive measures. To cope, people turned their homes into places of work and education, into cafes, gyms and playgrounds. We rediscovered certain activities, like cooking and exercising at home. We revalued family time, health, and wellbeing. The amount of time we spend at home remains steadily higher than pre-COVID level.
Meanwhile, younger generations struggle with rising house prices and diminishing affordability. Renting is becoming the norm in countries that it never used to be, which is changing how we decorate, adapt and claim agency over our personal spaces.
This shift in perspective draws on common values amongst households, which are driving major changes in dwelling preferences. In this home report, we explore how wellbeing, personal expression, adaptability and privacy are the fundamental pillars that have supported the recent changes in our homes, and what this means moving forward.
The Home Report is an internal product, created by the PLP Labs team as part of a wider series of work for LG Electronics.
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