Report: Compact living and the growing opportunity for designers
With the size of living spaces decreasing, the need for innovative ways of utilising space is increasing. This report explores the factors contributing to this growing trend and the opportunities for designers to create more value in a compact space.
Compact living has been a growing buzz word in the construction and home interiors industries over recent years. Even if you turn on your TV you’ll find lots of inspiring content such as the popular Netflix show Tiny House Nation, a home renovation show inspired by the ’tiny-house movement’, which advocates downsizing living spaces and the idea of living a simpler life with fewer material items.
This way of living has also found its way onto social media, with people around the world sharing how they’re transforming their spaces into stylish and Instagrammable homes that enable them to live a flexible and cost-effective lifestyle – for example, splitting up a large bedroom into two with integrated beds and an internal door to accommodate multiple children, or adding cleverly-designed fitted furniture into a basic bedroom to achieve ultimate functionality.
Although the aesthetics and ingenuity of compact living have made it an attractive option for some as a way to get on the housing ladder or to live a freer lifestyle, it’s actually a design trend that most people can benefit from, particularly when you consider how our day-to-day lives and homes continue to evolve. From multiple generations living under one roof to people needing space to work from home during the week, the individuals living in more traditional homes and how they’re using the space differs from even just a few years ago.
Here, we explore why compact living is such a key trend and some key considerations when it comes to designing, building and fitting out homes that can work as effectively as possible to meet the demands of modern life.
Homes are shrinking, households are evolving
Homes are now more than a fifth smaller than they were in the 1970s[i], and have even shrunk dramatically in the last 20 years alone; houses in the early 2000s were, on average, 72.38sqm, while in 2021 they were just 67.7 sqm[ii]. Living rooms, master bedrooms and kitchens have all seen a reduction in space over the past 40 years, with the average number of bedrooms falling from 3.32 in 2000 to 2.95[iii] today. In the last two decades, the average private renter in Britain has seen their individual living space decrease from 31sqm in 1996 to 25 sqm[iv] today.
While sizes of homes are being squeezed, so are bank accounts. The average house price in the UK reached £278,000 in March 2022, compared to £254,000 a year earlier[v] – both are a huge increase from 1970, when the average house in the UK cost just under £5,000[vi].
And with rising property prices, we’re seeing it become more common for different generations to come together under one roof. Some studies show that a third (34%) of people in the UK are living in multi-generational households, representing more than 9 million homes[vii].
Adult children living at home with their parents is the most common type of multi-generational category, accounting for nearly two in five of these types of homes. ‘Boomerang children’ who have returned to the family home after university account for 11% and a further 11% are living with parents while they’re studying at university or college. It’s thought that around 1.28 million homes across the UK have older relatives living with family members, driven in part by health and/or financial reasons.
And this trend is expected to grow due to people living for longer. According to the government’s Future of an Ageing Population report, nearly one in seven people will be aged over 75 by 2040, and there is expected to be 1.42 million more households headed by someone aged 85 or over by 2037 – an increase of 161% over 25 years.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean there are more people per home. The so-called ‘nuclear family’, made up of adults and children, is declining with a rise in single-person and single-parent households[viii]. In nearly all developing countries, it’s expected that the number of children per household will decline between 2000 and 2030. As fewer couples have children, the number of ‘childless-couple’ households will surge around the world, outpacing the growth in ‘couple-with-children’ households. Families with fewer children or none at all are part of the driving force behind smaller homes such as apartments in city centres that benefit from urban convenience and access to amenities[ix].
The need for flexible, multi-functional spaces
Not only do we need to consider the size of properties and the makeup of the households living in them, but we also need to think about how people use their homes and interact in the space.
The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in many people suddenly needing to work from home, and 24% of businesses said that they intended to use increased homeworking going forward[x]. Adults who found themselves setting up an office under their own roof welcomed the opportunity, with 85% stating they wanted to use a ‘hybrid’ approach of both home and office working in future. This change in working life is reflected in what people want in a home, with Rightmove reporting a 326% jump in the use of terms ‘office’, ‘workspace’ and ‘working from home’ in property listings[xi].
Findings from our own research mirrored just how flexible and multi-purpose spaces need to be. As outlined in our whitepaper, Functional Spaces: Kitchens for Living, homeowners use the kitchen for all kinds of activities other than cooking and cleaning:
- 4.55 million homeowners (26 per cent) use their kitchens for socialising and entertaining,
- 2.8 million (16 per cent) use the room to relax in
- 1.9 million people (11 per cent) use it as a playroom or homework area
- 1.75 million homeowners (10 per cent) create a makeshift office in their kitchen
- 0.7m homeowners (4 per cent) use the room to exercise in
With the average kitchen size just 13.4 square metres[xii], that’s a lot of activities to fit into a small room, and this is where designing for compact living can help.
What does the future hold for compact living?
As the population and demand for space in urban areas keeps growing, it’s expected that we’ll need to continue looking at innovative ways to design and build homes that are multi-functional and enhance our quality of life – all while crucially not taking up too much room.
With sliding and pocket doors teamed with broken-plan living, we’re already able to change the layout and space of a room depending on our needs. However, some reports suggest that the adaptability of living spaces could transform even further in the future with technology integrated into walls, floors and ceilings to enable them to change position. According to the Samsung SmartThings Future Living Report[xiii]: “These smart walls will be able to change their own shape in 3D by using small responsive actuators pushing and pulling a flexible skin - creating temporary seats or shelves. All this hardware will be connected to wearable devices to which we will add and manage the components of our homes in a similar way to how we currently buy and use apps.”
It’s thought that homes could be controlled through software that learns from our habits and lifestyles to suggest the best wall configuration, as well as furniture or other features that can not only be 3D printed, but designed to suit our specific body shapes, health and lifestyle needs. In theory, the bespoke nature of 3D printing means that furniture and fittings can be designed to the specific dimensions, needs and tastes of the end-user.
Alongside this, we also need to crucially consider the sustainability of our homes; from how they’re powered and the materials used to build them, to how homeowners can grow their own food and innovatively recycle household waste.
When it comes to compact living, there are already numerous creative ideas and innovative products available to help meet the requirements of households. However, with technology advancements alongside the increasing need to make homes and the built environment smarter and more sustainable, the changes we see when it comes to compact living are only going to get bigger over the coming years.
For more support on Compact Living, read the COMPACT LIVING LAYOUTS PRODUCT GUIDE
References
[i] https://www.labcwarranty.co.uk/blog/are-britain-s-houses-getting-smaller-new-data/
[ii] https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/property/a35405209/average-house-price-england-square-foot-yes-homebuyers/
[iii] https://www.labc.co.uk/news/what-average-house-size-uk
[iv] https://www.buyassociation.co.uk/2018/04/10/micro-homes-why-are-properties-in-the-uk-shrinking/
[v] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/housepriceindex/march2022#:~:text=The%20average%20UK%20house%20price,to%20%C2%A3165%2C000%20(10.4%25).
[vi] https://www.ukhousingreview.org.uk/ukhr1011/updates/pdf/11-047ab.pdf
[vii] https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2020/09/1-in-3-homes-are-multi-generational/
[viii] http://go.euromonitor.com/rs/805-KOK-719/images/sbFutureOfFamily-v0.3.pdf?mkt_tok=ODA1LUtPSy03MTkAAAGEsvEzq1B-
[ix]
http://go.euromonitor.com/rs/805-KOK-719/images/sbFutureOfFamily-v0.3.pdf?mkt_tok=ODA1LUtPSy03MTkAAAGEsvEzq1B-709e_AhTg0cPKq0kT9u6TMuDVEtVGkxVdV532DOqlvMcZEjYA18_FBuPZ0dd2FKzIAqWij4xWl3PvHv1TNPsQs3uP7dCl-d-gzBo7C4
[x] https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/businessandindividualattitudestowardsthefutureofhomeworkinguk/apriltomay2021
[xi] https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/articles/property-news/most-popular-property-features-working-from-home
[xii] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1056040/average-kitchen-sizes-new-british-houses-1930-2020/
[xiii] https://wewanttolearn.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/future-living-report.pdf
