Webinar: How the Pandemic May Change Future Home Design

  • April 22, 2020
  • BIA Southern California
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Designing for Livability When Everyone is Always Home

In a webinar hosted by the BIA Orange County's Greater Sales and Marketing Council, DAHLIN Senior Designer Ryan White and William Lyon Homes Vice President of Corporate Marketing Janet Kemmerer discussed how home design can respond to the challenges resulting from COVID-19, such as multiple adults working from home while their children are learning from home, in a way that still addresses attainability challenges.

From the perspective that quality of space is more powerful than quantity of space, a few top conversation points included:

Simple, Immediate Solutions
– Integrating convertible and moveable furnishings that enable the same space to flex to serve multiple uses, such as a coffee table that can turn into a desk, a murphy bed, or moveable partitions that can temporarily sub-divide a room, offers builders and homeowners alike an immediate solution for built homes, no re-design or renovation required.

Creative Land Planning
– Rather than duplicating the same conventional block shaped lots over and over, jogging the property lines allows a larger lot to sub-divide into smaller lots of different shapes. This provides a builder increased density to support attainability and a designer more flexibility in creating more usable space for the homeowner despite a smaller footprint to support their needs associated with working from, learning from, and recreating from home.

Designing Better, Not Necessarily Larger
– A high quality space can provide the same livability of larger homes in less square footage. When spending more time at home, this is key to support work and family demands as well as our mental health. Designing for good airflow and lots of light significantly enhances space quality, which is easier to do now with three-dimensional design tools. Virtually walking through a home during design enables you to feel a space before it is built, informing space quality elements such as window placement that maximizes light without compromising homeowner privacy, a common challenge in denser communities.


For additional insights, read Single-family Design: Connectivity and Adaptability for Wellbeing https://www.dahlingroup.com/perspective/Insights/Single-family_Design:_Connectivity_and_Adaptability_for_Wellbeing

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Listen to the Webinar for the full conversation


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