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Top Emerging Home Design Trends From The Architect Survey
The American Institute of Architects’ latest survey looks at home and property design trends for the second quarter of 2025. Each quarter, the professional association asks its members to complete questionnaires on what they’re seeing in their practices and then they produce the reports from hundreds of responses. Five of the design trends in this report fit into a wellness design conversation.
Decreasing Size
Why is this a wellness trend? First, less square footage means less to clean and maintain, and less to heat or cool. Both, especially the climate control, mean more financial security and money to spend on healthy pursuits. It also signifies a possible return to what architect and author Sarah Susanka described in her “Not So Big House” book series: homes that are human-scaled and designed for comfortable living. In the liner notes for the 2008 10th anniversary edition is this observation: “The author’s ‘build-better-not-bigger’ message has been embraced by a generation of readers who are looking for alternatives to soulless, oversized houses…” I think that’s even truer after the Great Recession and Covid pandemic. Another signifier of the size decrease was the AIA observation that home sizes have fallen significantly for entry level homes, and only modestly in the custom/luxury segment. The former points to the affordability crisis and how some builders are addressing it by providing homes in smaller footprints with fewer amenities, as I shared in a September article titled “What Does Out-Of-Reach Homeownership for Gen Z Mean For The Country?”
Rental Units/ADUs/Micro Housing Popularity
This growth too likely points to the country’s housing affordability crisis via creating earning potential, but it can also signify the growing multigenerational trend, which Pew Research saw accelerate during the Great Recession. There are adult children and grandchildren moving back with their parents and parents moving closer to adult children and grandchildren — sometimes called “baby-chasing.” This echoes the norms of an earlier era, which bumped up during the economic downturn, but also made a comeback during the pandemic; it was at this time that nursing homes began sending residents home for their safety and those who remained felt acute isolation and loneliness.
Decreased Accessibility
This significant trend runs counter to the second, and to the need for more accessible homes in this country. Very little of our nation’s housing stock is either aging-friendly for residents or visitable by guests with mobility challenges. A 2020 Census.gov post shared this: “Only 10% of U.S. homes have key features to accommodate older residents, according to the report: Old Housing, New Needs: Are U.S. Homes Ready for an Aging Population?” Current statistics point to 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day this year. That is a significant mismatch in needs. According to the AIA survey, overall designs for aging in place and easier accessibility within the home both significantly dropped in the latest survey. I can only attribute this to inflation putting any non-immediate needs on the back burner.
Outdoor Living Spaces Still Popular But Down From 2024
Extending your interior living spaces to your patio, deck and other outdoor living areas continue to top the list of outdoor features, the survey reports, but in all categories surveyed, they’re down from last year. (That too is likely a result of inflation postponing many projects.) Security lighting and pools saw the least change. Security lighting makes sense in terms of crime fears held by 49% of Americans, according to the latest Gallup poll, while pools are a feature you can’t easily enhance later. (As an example, if you remodel your kitchen, you can add cabinet accessories in the future and reuse some appliances and faucets temporarily.) If you want a pool on your property, however, you’re going to create the size and features you intend to live with for as long as you own the home because changing it later isn’t realistic.
Lot Sizes Decline
As with smaller home sizes, smaller lots aren’t surprising. Land affordability is a leading factor, of course, but so is maintaining, insuring and protecting the property against natural disaster. Lot sizes have been trending down since what the National Mortgage Professional called an “anemic housing recovery” following the Great Recession, but the rising insurance affordability and availability crisis might be exacerbating the issue.
Text by Jamie Gold | Photo by Getty | Read More Here
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