How Covid-19 has fast tracked emerging trends for home design

The advent of Covid-19 has had an enormous effect on the how
we work, learn and play. Overnight our lives have been altered beyond anything
we could have imagined, and our homes have become our main ‘place’ more than
ever before. Trends that were once just emerging such as flexible workplaces
and sustainability are now at the forefront of every day thinking.

‘The home has become more than just a place to live during the pandemic, we now work from home, educate our children, socialise with our friends via zoom, exercise, relax and rejuvenate.’ John Sheehan, Home and Land Business Manager, Metricon.

Lot density and purchaser’s expectations of home inclusions
have both increased significantly in recent years. Inclusions such as butler’s
pantries, multiple living areas, outdoor dining and living spaces have come to
be expected as standard in many new builds. So how can we get all these
inclusions in under a smaller footprint? According to John and the team at
Metricon, ‘the need for
multi-purpose rooms with dedicated workspaces that can be changed and adapted
will be even more important.’

Indoor outdoor living spaces is a trend which will continue
to increase in popularity. As people are required to stay at home our
appreciation of the outdoors and nature seems to have increased. Intelligently
designed living zones which integrate the indoors and outdoors fit the bill for
multi-purpose living.

Its not just the design of our homes but the way they function
that has become a big consideration point especially as the cost of heating and
cooling a home increases with us home a lot more. ‘The inclusion of solar
panels, double glazed windows and additional insulation are just some of our
customers’ requests’ observes John.

With most of us forced to work from home, and remote working
possibly becoming the new norm, the makeshift dining room table/home office
isn’t going to cut it much longer. New forms of home offices whether that be
study nooks or dedicated rooms and zones are being explored.

There’s no doubt that the current environment has placed
complex layers of challenge to the property, housing and construction
industries – but by thinking outside the box, pre-empting needs of purchasers
and offering a collaborative quality driven product we will come out the other
side better off.