1. A Holistic Approach to Home Building: The entire building industry will begin to place a high priority on integrating natural resources, health and community concerns into building design. This new holistic approach examines the impact of all elements inside the building, ranging from water conservation and indoor air quality to minimization of waste and toxin emissions. Planned communities will become the norm to integrate people of all ages and to encourage a healthy and convenient lifestyle.
2. Multi-Family Homes: Multi-family housing, including adaptive reuse, rezoned single-family neighborhoods, live-work projects and infill opportunities, are a few of the viable alternatives being embraced by all social classes.
3. Downsizing: Expect the building industry to respond with smaller, more efficient square footage that reduces building waste and utilizes technology.
4. Retire-in-Place, Multigenerational Living: With two and three generations living together, home designs will accommodate the elderly with areas for privacy on the first floor, living quarters for their children on the upper floor, and rooms for their grandchildren on sublevels. Homes will feature a large kitchen for shared meals on the main level with private morning kitchens on other levels.
5. Remodeling: The gross volume of remodeling now exceeds that of new single-family construction. Homeowners are finding new ways to finance remodeling, whether that is to modify the home for elder care, to accommodate children and their families, or to make the home suitable for cluster families.
6. Resurgence of Mid-Century Design: Organic architecture will express clean simplicity through the integration of nature, floor plans with an abundance of natural light, and passive solar consideration to reduce energy consumption, reflecting the principles set forth post World War II by Frank Lloyd Wright.
7. Reinventing and Re-energizing Streetscapes: Front elevations that are unique, targeted and memorable will project greater impact through an interaction of styles, textures, color and materials.
8. Americanization/Globalization: Global thinking will become evident in all aspects of home building through the cross-pollination of cultures among artists, designers, architects, builders and developers.
9. Fundamental Financing: Builders will have clearer goals to better match expenses with revenues and to offer added value to build buyer confidence through transparency.
10. Timeshares and Travel Clubs: As an alternative to buying a second home, people will choose to buy timeshares and travel clubs, which are less risky, significantly less costly, and offer thousands of choices in worldwide locations.
About the National Association of Home Builders: NAHB is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association whose mission is to enhance the climate for housing and the building industry. Chief among NAHB’s goals is providing and expanding opportunities for all consumers to have safe, decent and affordable housing. As the "voice of America’s housing industry," NAHB helps promote policies that will keep housing a national priority. Founded in 1942, NAHB is a federation of more than 800 state and local associations.
NAHB’s Annual Convention and Exhibition, known as the International Builders’ Show is the largest of its kind for the residential and light commercial construction industry.
The NAHB Design Committee is comprised of builder and associate members whose common goal is good design. Committee members include: Michael Nagel, chair, MAW Chicago; Lynne Pratt, vice chair, Pratt Building Co.; Kathy Browning, MIRM, CMP, CGP, Design Consultants; Paul Campbell, Kephart Community, Planning Architecture; Tony Crasi, CGP, Crasi Inc.; Don Dabbert, Contemporary Builders; Barry Glantz, Glantz & Associates Architects; John Gunkelman, CGR, CGB, CGP, Dakota Construction of Fargo, Inc.; Patti Guthrie, Marc-Michaels Interior Design; Jack Hebert, Hebert Homes; Skip Howes, CGB, CGP, Scott Homes LTD; Karen Kassik, Home Accessibilities by Karen Kassik Inc.; Heather McCune, Bassenian Lagoni Architects; Mike Means, Oklahoma State Home Builders Assoc.; Victor Mirontschuk, EDI Architecture, Inc.; Stephen Moore, BSB Design; Jillian Pritchard Cooke, ASID, DES-SYN; Andy Rosenthal, Rosenthal Homes Inc.; Larry Smith, Larry Smith Architect/Builder; Sanford Steinberg, Steinberg Design Collaborative LLP.