Filed under: precedents, Social / Cultural Issue | Tags: House Types, multi-generational, precedents, the american family
In previous decades, an individualist mindset and affordable housing in the United States slowed the once traditional progression of parent-child to child-parent living arrangements. Second and third generation families were not returning to the family home. A common outcome: elderly parents selling their home to live out their lives in planned communities for the aging or assisted living. The current economic slowdown, longer life spans and changing cultural values are now causing families to re-adjust their living situations. The frequency of multi-generational households is on the rise and Grandma and Grandpa are now competing with their teenage grandchildren for control of the remote.
Families are now looking for ways to either modify or build a home to satisfy the needs of young children along with those of aging parents, accessibility and privacy are resulting concerns. Developer Jim Greenup, of Spokane, Washington, comments on the resulting frustration of current housing types for multi-generational families. “Twenty to 25 percent of families in America are caring for an aging relative, and duplexes aren’t designed right for the concept of joined housing. There are problems, because the bathrooms don’t work right for aging in place, and the stairways and other circulators do not function well.”
Multi-Generational House, Kyoto, 3-- Lab
In Kyoto, Japan an interesting multi-generational solution has been designed by Hiroe Yoshida and Tomoki Odani of 3 – – lab. An office space for a young couple and a home for their aging parents is melded into a 259 square foot duplex. View slideshow.
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