A Complete Guide to Multigenerational Living and Home Design

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a rise in homeowner requests to adapt their homes to support multigenerational living as a savvy alternative to deal with the rising cost of living and a housing market that younger generations are struggling to access.

If you’re considering moving your parents in, or pooling resources to purchase a home with your adult children, read on to find out more about the realities of designing a multigenerational home.

What is multigenerational living?

Multigenerational living is where two or more adult generations live in the same house. Examples include parents, children and grandparents living together.

It’s not a new concept, but in recent years there has been an increasing trend in families opting for this approach, as shown in the last census (2021). Factors driving this trend include the high cost of living, including unaffordable rents and unattainable mortgages. Pooling resources and finances makes economic sense and generally gives your more bang for your buck.

Aside from the financial advantages, one of the benefits for many families is the built in support structure for caring, both in terms of grandparents providing childcare so parents can work, or supporting and caring for elderly parents and relatives in the comfort and familiarity of their family home.

How to design a multigenerational home

The key theme when designing a multigenerational home is flexibility. Whether you are utilising an annexe space, creating space for everyone in a large home, or extending the existing home to add space, there are some design principles that we use as architects to help set your multigenerational home up for success:

Creating personal space in a shared environment
It’s really important to provide everyone with their own personal space. Our goal is to maintain connection without sacrificing each family unit’s privacy and comfort.

Design strategies that help to achieve this include:

  • Creating clear zones within the home to strike the balance between personal areas and shared spaces.
  • Self contained bathrooms and kitchen areas. Even if the idea is to have a large shared kitchen, it’s also worth considering an additional kitchenette to provide independence and convenience for different age groups.
  • Creating separate entrances for each family group so they can come and go without disturbing others. This also helps to create distinct living zones.
  • Considering the flow throughout the home to minimise traffic and noise in key areas, as well as appropriate insulation and acoustic measures between floors and walls to ensure privacy.

A flexible design for evolving families
Over the years, your family will evolve. It’s important to design a home that can adapt with you and your family. Flexibility is key here, and includes:

  • Rooms that can be adapted for different uses. For example, a bedroom that can become a study or additional living room.
  • Rooms on the ground floor that can be turned into ground floor bedrooms for ageing or disabled relatives.
  • Sliding doors and temporary partitions provide so much flexibility and allow you to switch large communal rooms into smaller, more private rooms without the need to make major building changes.

Accessibility
As architects, we are guided by universal design principles to ensure spaces are accessible to everyone. When planning your home, small but significant design decisions make a big difference. Examples include:

  • Step free entrances
  • Wider hallways
  • Walk in showers and wet rooms
  • Non slip flooring
  • Accessible placement of fixtures and fittings.

Focusing on the communal space
While private areas are incredibly important, don’t overlook the communal areas and how these sociable areas of the home support family connection. Things to consider when designing a communal area include:

  • A large kitchen island with enough seating for everyone. Consider different forms of seating for different age groups.
  • Open plan living rooms with multiple seating zones.
  • Well planned covered outdoor spaces to ensure everyone can have access to the outside areas throughout the year,
  • Clear zones in the outdoor areas, with play friendly zones for younger generations, and quiet garden nooks for adults.

Secondary Dwellings – the Annexe or Granny Flat

One of the most effective ways to support multigenerational living is to incorporate a secondary dwelling or annexe alongside the main household.

As a self contained unit, an annexe helps to achieve many of the principles set out above in terms of privacy and independence.

We can tailor this secondary living space according to your family’s needs and budget, but typical examples include:

A detached granny flat or garden suite
Located separately from the main household, an annexe provides the highest level of independence. Generally spanning one floor, a typical layout includes:

  • A main bedroom
  • A compact kitchen
  • Bathroom
  • Living area
  • Outdoor access

An annexe that is attached to the main dwelling
Although connected to the main household, with some careful design and planning, it can feel like a separate residence. Try to aim for the following:

  • A private entrance
  • A lockable internal door to connect the annexe and main house
  • A small living space, bedroom, kitchenette and bathroom.

The future of home design

With an increasing number of families starting to consider this way of living thanks to the social and economic benefits it provides, multigenerational living is going to shape the future of residential architecture,

If you’d like to find out more, or discuss a potential project to support multigenerational living, get in touch to see how we can help.