Australian home design is changing in some highly significant ways writes Trevor Fasham.

Against all expectations, a housing revolution is being led not by young buyers, but by the generation now in their 50s. What are these changes and what is their long-term significance?

The story of change in housing forms in the period from the post-war years to the early 1990s was largely a straight line. As prosperity grew, so did our houses. Two bedroom homes yielded to three bedroom homes. The single toilet off the back porch moved inside, next to the laundry and then further inside to be handy to all bedrooms. Next came the en-suite. By the end of the eighties any self-respecting new family home would feature, in real estate terminology, 'bathroom, sep. toilet, en-suite plus powder room’. Phew! That was just the bathroom arrangements. Bedrooms grew too, not just in number but in size. Kitchens also became substantially larger with 'family meals areas’ or 'breakfast rooms’ alongside, not to be confused with 'separate dining rooms’. The latter remained a distinguishing feature of quality homes—never mind that they were progressively becoming museum pieces as the 'casualisation’ of family life saw most meals being eaten in the informal dining areas. However the really serious growth in housing size came from the new rooms. A 'living room’ was no longer enough. A 'family room’ became essential as well. Project builders began to add a further 'rumpus room’, even a 'great room’.

The trend reached its zenith in the late '80s and '90s when astute volume builders married the construction economies of the cube (the lowest-cost form of two-storey construction) with the seemingly insatiable desire of consumers for more "area". Now, with the two-storey box, you could buy a remarkable amount of 'squares’ at prices that represented attractive value. 'How much per square?’ became, for a time, the most discriminating question the market could come up with.

The over-50 empty nesters have called a halt to this incessant striving for ever-larger homes. For the first time in at least a couple of generations, we are seeing substantial numbers of people deliberately opt for smaller—often much smaller—homes than the ones they have previously lived in. Smaller, not for economic reasons but for reasons of comfort and lifestyle.

So the main change in the over-50s led revolution is one of size. Homes are smaller but more liveable. Superfluous rooms are out. Inside-outside flows are optimised. And every room now has a purpose; quite often a very specific one devoted to an owner’s hobby or interest. The space saved from all those unwanted rooms (3rd and 4th bedrooms, formal dining, formal living, grand entrance) can partly contribute to a reduction in overall size and partly be re-allocated to make the remaining spaces larger. These homes truly reflect the way their owners live

This is a new kind of housing. A generation or so ago as children grew to adults and moved out Mum and Dad stayed in the family home. The fabled triple-fronted three-bedroom brick veneer may have been too big for their needs but it was not an unmanageable proposition. When one of the parents died, the family would discuss "what to do about Mum?" There were basically three options. Mum could come and live with one of her family, be put in old peoples’ home or, if she was in robust good health, buy a villa, perhaps 'one-of-three’. These villas were typically compressed versions of the standard homes of the day, a sort of 'Readers’ Digest condensed book’ style of housing. Views from curtained living rooms would be across driveways and paved parking to the units opposite. Privacy was not a notable feature.

How things have changed. To start with, staying on as empty nesters in a family home that may have five bedrooms and a study plus rumpus room, is not a sensible proposition. But today’s empty nesters are fit, active and expect to be around for a long time yet. (In a recent article on retirement property I read the prediction that a child born today will live to an average age of 132 years.) None of the options in the paragraph above is attractive. The over-50s are defining a new kind of housing to suit the way they want to live. For some, high-rise apartments in near-city developments are meeting their needs. But for a majority who want to retain their established community links, to be able to walk out their door into their own garden or climb into their car to visit a friend, a stand-alone home remains their preference. It is just that the homes they are asking for today are different to forms we have seen before.

What are some of those differences?

Firstly, as I have said, the overall size of the home will be smaller, although most of the rooms may be larger than they have enjoyed before. This magic pudding outcome is simply achieved; today’s over 50s want only those rooms that they will regularly use.

Which rooms go? Any bedrooms superfluous to requirements (one "spare" is the norm) are out. The separate formal living room is out. The separate formal dining room is out.

It is not all one-way traffic. Most houses individually designed for over-50s buyers call for dedicated space for a hobby or interest. In my experience a surprising number of buyers in this age group paint or draw and a purpose-built studio with good natural lighting provides an infinitely richer artistic experience than working at an easel in the spare bedroom. In the past year my own company has designed for very many individual buyers in this age profile including a collector of rare religious artefacts, a restorer of classic cars, and an antique clock enthusiast. With intelligent design these owners did not have to resign themselves to restoring clocks on the dining room table, keeping valuable collections in inappropriate storage, or working on cars in the driveway. Special interests won the place they deserved in these owners’ lives, in space traded off from traditional rooms that they might never use.

Which brings me to the core of the home, the living areas where we spend 90% of our waking hours. These have changed out of sight. Over-50s buyers want open, airy, light-filled living areas. Invariably this is expressed as a kitchen open on one or more sides to an informal dining area and a smart but informal living 'room’. The whole space will be contiguous, with 'rooms’ defined by furnishing arrangements, or by changes in the floor or ceiling treatments. The big thing is—no walls. (It is this absence of non-essential walls which allows light to penetrate deep into a home.) And lastly, this whole kitchen/dining/ living area will open onto a paved or timber-decked patio or terrace. Over-50’s love to garden but have more to do with their time than mow vast lawns and weed acres of flowerbeds. Patios and terraces provide for the flexibility and colour of lots of terra cotta pots and floral borders without the labour demands of a larger property.

There are several other age-specific factors worth commenting on briefly in relation to housing. Over-50s buyers:

• Know what they want in a home. Let’s face it, if they don’t by now they never will!
• Know what they don’t want. It takes confidence to say, No, I don’t need a formal dining room in my life.
• Are generally able to fund a modern, comfortable home along the lines described in this article, from the proceeds of the sale of the larger family home.
• Don’t feel the need to make a statement to the street, with soaring columns and towering porticos. They prefer to spend their money on the inside of the home.
• This drive towards a more user-friendly, less formal, more compact and lower-maintenance style of home is being driven by the over-50s. In my judgement it is only a matter of time before younger generations see the wisdom of 'the way Mum and Dad live’ and begin adapting their own aspirations to suit.

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Trevor Fasham, with 49 major design awards, has been at the leading edge of contemporary housing design in Australia for almost three decades. A substantial proportion of the homes designed and built by his Melbourne-based company, Fasham Johnson Pty Ltd., are for owners close to or already in retirement.

These articles and many more, are in the current
(14^th edition) of Your Retirement, Your Life.

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