
Luxury Home Mainstays May Be Gone in 20 Years - jseliger
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-23/these-luxury-real-estate-staples-may-be-gone-in-20-years
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jarjoura
I don't think dudes changing under a towel in the locker room, (which I always
find hilarious anyway), is related to people wanting more private spaces at
home. Open floor houses seem glorious in the photographs, but in real life are
noisy/echoey and annoying to say the least.

Want to go take a nap after a long week? If your partner is home, chances are
your nap will be disturbed. Especially if you work in an open floor office,
you actually look forward to coming home to something where you can shut the
door.

Another annoyance is food smells from the kitchen work its way all over.

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woofyman
Open floor plans are a more efficient use of space. They're also great for
entertaining. Ever notice how everyone congregates in the kitchen.

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nradov
Open floor plans aren't great for entertaining, they're just a reasonable
compromise for those of us who can't afford a large home with specialized
rooms.

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flukus
You can't cook a meal while talking with friends if you've got specialized
rooms for both activities.

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nradov
If you can afford a huge house with specialized rooms for entertaining then
you can afford to hire a catering service for your parties. :-)

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candiodari
If you forego waiters that's not nearly as expensive as people think.

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makomk
"new amenities as centralized cooking and catering within a development". Hah.
A few years back, my sister rented a place in a 1930s block of flats in London
that was designed to have a central restaurant rather than individual
kitchens. The restaurant was converted to more apartments due to lack of
demand. I guess sooner or later, everything old really is new again.

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kmicklas
This reads like one of those futurist pieces from the 60s that we look back at
now to laugh at.

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coldtea
Yeah, only all the things it says are tame and they make much sense, as
opposed to being some extravagant predictions about flying cars and robot
assistants.

Other than that, totally like those futurist pieces from the 60s.

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doppelganger27
The part about 3d printing "to create specific housewares for a dinner party
when you throw it" to minimize the need for storage seems pretty out there,
but that's the only part that really stuck out to me.

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loafa
What about the fact that we no longer need kitchens because we've got Uber
Eats?

Food delivery has existed for a long time, and going out to eat has existed
even longer, but I still want a kitchen.

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coldtea
> _Food delivery has existed for a long time, and going out to eat has existed
> even longer, but I still want a kitchen._

Yes, but people increasingly cook less for decades.

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redm
Urban areas with easy access to mass transit, ridesharing, etc., usually don't
have huge garages. Rurally or in the suburbs, where mass transit is less
applicable, people not only store vehicles, but also things like bikes, yard
equipment, tools, and other outdoor equipment/toys.

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jondiggsit
I agree with the trend in home theaters. While a few of my recent projects had
traditional "movie theater" designs, the trend is moving towards a more casual
setup.

The living rooms, family rooms, master bedrooms all have the same
sophisticated surround sound, high quality large LED screens, etc. It's harder
now to justify the space and expense of a dedicated theater. I like the idea
of a VR-room. Maybe multi-directional moving floor, padded walls, wind
simulation, surround sound etc... Now that would make for an interesting home
talking point.

As far as kitchens go, the trend I see is this: "Showroom kitchen" with large
eat-in breakfast area and family room in one. An auxiliary kitchen connected
to this either thru service doors or connected by dumbwaiter in the basement.
So people can hang in the kitchen, eat appetizers, open the fridge, open a
bottle of wine, etc.. while the heavy cooking prep is done in the service
kitchen.

The idea about an "appliance garage"... I don't know... No one is hunting
around looking for some appliance they use once in a blue moon. People are
always going to have counter-top coffee machines, etc, just sitting on the
counters.

As far as master-suites go... The advent of the internet is making people more
creative and specific about what they want. What I'm building are really that,
suites, like what you would experience in a high-end hotel. Double door
entrance with a small anti-foyer, a small study room/area, double door
entrances to the master bath and master closets. Sometimes the baths are split
into his and her, as well as the closets. The big addition I've been doing
lately are adding small, concealed bar areas. Mini-fridge, sink, coffee-
maker... who wouldn't want that? Wake up on the weekend, have a steam and a
shower, make a cup of coffee and sit out on a private balcony before ever
leaving your room.

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tbirrell
Wow. That's gotta be rough. I have no idea how they'll manage.

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Someone1234
While this is a niche topic, surprisingly interesting article. Talking about
home design trends and which ones they expect to disappear and _why_.

It might be focused on luxury, but trends often filter. Open plan was
originally a luxury feature (in part because construction was more expensive
for open plan) and now it is everywhere. Ditto with a master bedroom.

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rm_-rf_slash
Luxury trends filter by design. The greats are told to do something by a
client, and the lesser firms copy the greats because their clients want to
live like the people that the greats design for.

Edward Bernays has a great piece on this in _Crystallizing Public Opinion_ in
the explanation of how getting high end architects to include music rooms in
their designs leads lesser architects to copy them and everything they do to
stay current, so when the average Joe walks into the hardware store and sees a
piano (another Bernays innovation), they think of getting a musical instrument
in their music room in their new house, and they think the idea is their own,
except for the case that the subtle nudges to spark that idea have all been
carefully planned and out in place.

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tonyedgecombe
Bloomberg will be gone in 20 years if they keep posting drivel like that.

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bryanl
I find it weird to suggest that garage will go away. Once you get used to
parking your car outside of the elements, you won't want to go back.

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arethuza
We bought a house recently here in Scotland and we must have looked at 20
houses before choosing the one we bought - all occupied houses had garages and
not one was being used to house a car - they were mostly full of random junk.

Amusingly one house that wasn't currently occupied did have a car in its
garage - a rather shiny and unused looking Lamborghini.

We ended up buying a house without a garage as we really don't need to collect
more junk and our cars do fine outside. Only thing I did check was that it
would be feasible to install a electrical charging point so I can finally look
at getting an electric car!

[Edit: As expected of a British male of a certain age I am rather looking
forward to finally owning my own shed and possibly a greenhouse].

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secabeen
In Santa Barbara, CA, where I live, each home must have two covered parking
spaces, and the city will investigate and require you to empty out your garage
if it is too full to hold cars and you don't have a carport or other covered
parking.

Section 28.90.100.G.1
[https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.as...](https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=12171)

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arethuza
Out of interest, why do the parking spaces have to be covered?

Get much rainfall there? ;-)

[NB I did try reading that doc but got some nasty complaint from an IPS]

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secabeen
I believe the overarching goal is to prevent the neighborhoods from becoming
ones where there are two cars parked visibly in every driveway. The city
desires that cars are stored out of sight or attractively under a carport. I
don't think they'd approve a permit for a plain ugly covered parking structure
that sat over the driveway area (not compliant with setback rules at least).
As such, you end up with either cars in garages, parked out of sight behind
the home, or in an attractive carport adjacent to the home (which probably
only allows a single car). Cars parked on the street have to be moved every 72
hours, so that's not an option either.

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bsder
> Millennials don’t like to get naked—if you go to the gym now, everyone under
> 30 will put their underwear on under the towel, which is a massive cultural
> shift,” he continues. As gym designers are adapting, so are condo
> developers.

That's ... just wow. I guess I'm totally out of touch.

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jack9
As a single guy, I almost never leave my bedroom. The family room with the
huge screen TV is rarely used since I torrent most everything. I have a laptop
for bed and an attached bathroom. Food delivered by postmates on a lazy day.

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totallysnowman
Car sharing... Interesting. So I buy a car and some random dude crashes it for
me. This is the thing everybody can't wait to see.

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1812Overture
Who has time to crash their own car these days?

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frouge
Good clickbait

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maxerickson
Yah, the headline says 'luxury' and it really means it.

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brutus1213
When I saw ... average renter has a salary of 300K and aged 30 ... I stopped
reading. These seem like alternative facts to me. While there surely exist
people like this, I call BS that they are in a significant enough number to be
statistically significant for real estate developers.

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kmicklas
They are for high end luxury developers in cities like NYC though. I don't
think this article is implying these are widespread trends for the "99%"
market (except maybe some of the stuff about privacy).

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brutus1213
In places like the Bay area and Manhattan, it is not atypical to see rents of
4-5K for a 3 bedroom apartment. My personal experience (n=1) indicates that
many of these places are inhabited by young adults (single or childless
couples) who accept roommates as the only way to survive in these expensive
areas. I don't consider this type of expensive real-estate luxury (despite the
price tag). If you go to the middle of the USA or the southern states, you'll
find luxury apartments/houses with all the mainstays (as the article put it) -
large master bedrooms, home theatres, etc. The people buying these make a lot
less than 300K I can tell you that (80-100K income will get you there and the
home price would be 400-500K).

