3 Mega Trends Shaping Interior Design & Architecture

In this video, I'm talking about the mega trends shaping the future of interior design and architecture for 2025 and beyond. These trends go deeper than stripes or colours, highlighting shifts in living practices.

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⏱ Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:53 - Multigenerational Living
04:50 - Prefabricated Housing
07:47 - Sustainability/Biophilic Design

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[laseximexi]

I clicked because it said 2025 and I’m over 2024.

[settame]

If you are doing multigenerational housing have a clearly defined ownership in your wills (both parties). I grew up in a multigenerational home where my parents owned the majority of the home, but because of how the will was set up, we did not have ownership when it came to selling when my grandparents passed. This meant my aunts and uncles could sell their portion of the home (meaning ours as well since it was a single home) despite having a minority ownership of the home. This is just something to keep in mind especially if you’re dealing with siblings or a larger family.
I think it’s incredibly precious to have multigenerational living close together, but it does make it very difficult at end of life, and you have to accept that you will also likely take on the “caretaker” role which many are not prepared for.

[migrabar]

I completely agree! My stepdaughter and her boyfriend have a tiny home in our property (399 sq ft). It is working great for them, and for us! We love having them close to us. We live on 10 acres so we all have our privacy, but we are able to help each other when needed. When we travel, they take care of our animals, and we in turn do stuff for them too. It's a win/win situation. We are even considering eventually renting our larger home and living in a tiny home ourselves as a way to be able to stay in the property we love. It's all about adapting to new circumstances, right? I love the topic of this video, it is fascinating to see how housing design responds to the changing needs of the population.

[karenk]

In Hawaii, they allow you to build a small house behind a larger one on the same lot, understanding that the parents who own the original house move into the smaller one and the young family with children occupy the original, larger one. They like to keep their elders close.

[teddieryan]

My mother-in-law came to live with us for the last seven years of her life and died in my arms. What a blessing! Best thing ever. Taught me what a wonderful thing multi generational living can be.

[MerryWidow]

A professional decorator doing a series on making prefab houses look great? I think that will be a very interesting series.

[vanillacakes]

My parents just upsized to a bigger house outfitted with an elevator, ADA bars/standards in all bathrooms, and additional ramp entrance in the backyard in preparation for their retirement years. My brother and his young family live with them and it works so perfectly! I know my parents will age well in to the home and still be able to move around while having their grandkids to keep them young and active. I live 20 mins away and visit almost every weekend and have a permanent bedroom in their home still. We are an immigrant family and it’s totally in keeping with our culture to live in extended family homes. With the absurd rise of housing prices and wage stagnation, hopefully this trend of more communal/familial living will be a silver lining!

[cindyonyoutube]

I'm very interested in the "kit" house trend. I stayed in a home from the 1800's that was a Sears kit home. It was delivered to the Colorado frontier by the railroad & assembled on site. It was beautiful & obviously stood the test of time.

[lap]

Very thoughtful comment Nick. I’m Australian (used to be a Canadian Vancouverite, so I have a foot in both camps). I think you are right about the inter generational change in nations like yours and mine. And maybe it’s not a trend, but a permanent pivot. I have visited Egypt, a favorite country of mine, a number of times and seen that in action there. In the tradition of Egyptian culture a young engaged couple can’t marry until the young man can provide a home for his bride. And in a city like greater Cairo with a population nearly as great as either Canada or Australia, land is at a premium. Very common approach is for an established couple who have managed to snag a bit of land and a home is to build upward. First son gets engaged, they add a second story. Next son gets himself a girl, another floor is added, and so on. All over Cairo you see these buildings that are essentially tall apartment blocks. They usually have an incomplete upper floor, with partially built brick pillars and reinforcing rod poking out all over the place. They are either prepping for the next son, or are actually finished but don’t have to pay full property taxes on “incomplete” buildings. This is apparently an easy process in a country with fairly fluid building standards and inspection procedures.

Not taking too kindly myself to living overly close to my much loved, but exhausting family, I am about to move into an “over 50s leisure community”, aka “old geezers’ retirement village”. I have been very pleased to see the emphasis on sustainability and environmental care in this new project. Things like shared community solar panels cut the load on the main network while saving homeowners a bundle on electricity charges. When I came to Australia 30 years ago from many years in Ottawa I was stunned to see things like single glazing and next to no insulation in new homes, but that standard has gone and construction of my new place is very much in line with best practices and has become a major selling point for new developments. The attitude here has gone from “So what?” to token compliance to a consumer-driven insistence on higher standards.

[gailwood]

I really love the idea of generations being able to have their own space but on the same property. A family compound idea.

[jdxx]

My parents have lived in their lovely one bedroom unit that sits at the back of our house for 23 years now. Dad passed 3 years ago but still lucky to have mum (she’s 92) and it has worked out so well. Wouldn’t have it any other way, as we are only 3 steps away and able to help out easily.

[PunkSlap]

I love the last one because I’ve always wanted a courtyard or atrium in the middle of my home and not just a backyard.

[laurameisenhelter]

I serve on the local zoning board. In January 2024 ADUs were allowed in our city's zoniing code. Every month starting in January there has been at least one ADU before the zoning board. All of them have been to provide an apartment for elderly parents or adult children who want to start a family. Definitely multigenerational living is coming.

[susanb]

I am 64. When i was a kid in riverdale, Toronto it was standard for multigenerational families with lots of kids in 3 bedroom houses. Everyone lost their minds and got me-first-itis and started worrying about stuff instead of folks around us. Really sad. No one lives in Riverdale who grew up there, we all got priced out and they screwed the neighbourhood/ all neighbourhoods have been screwed. Really need a paradigm shift

[getumusike]

I think this is your best and most substantial videos yet. The housing market becoming more and more unavailable to younger generations is a huge problem across the world. In particular I think that the prefab houses are a big trend in Europe and Australia because they are more affordable (often smaller in scale and energy efficient) so even if older gen family members have a bigger lot or some of them even have land in (sub)urban areas, it is much more cost-efficient to younger people. For instance, Estonia where I live, is a trailblazer in the prefab housing movement as we have whole communities built like that for young families and many great companies that have expanded their operations worldwide. Innovation in housing is increasing in importance so thank you for hitting the nail on the head with this one. Love your videos.

[pixie]

Great show...as always Nick. But, I ran away from my children and their noisy spawn. Don't get me wrong I adore them all, even *The Spawn* and I will eventually have a granny flat on my youngest daughters place. But for now, I'm enjoying the freedom of living alone for the first time ever, having my home decorated exactly how I want it and not having to answer to anyone. Freedom!!! There's nothing on earth like it ❣

[starady]

I live in a tiny, manufactured new house set in many acres of woods in a city near my children. The house and property is as sustainable and biophilic as possible. Hundreds of people have paid me for tours (mostly virtual tours). Your video touched on topics I hold dear. Thank you. One problem. Most traditional banks in the US are hesitant to provide mortgages for manufactured homes. With limited options, I was left with a subpar mortgage lender. The house is also hard to appraise correctly, because there are no comparables. Real estate agents resort to using recently-sold, hundred-year-old houses with twice the square footage, which is not at all representative. I love the trends you talk about, and hope that soon it gets easier for people who want to explore this route.

[marcielston]

Two things: 10 years ago I didn't know any middle/upper middle class families living multi-generational on purpose, long term. Now I know several thriving multi-generational households or on the same property. #2 geothermal heating and cooling. It should be much bigger than it is for what it provides.

[ellenfoster]

Nick, here is my experience constructing a pre-fab home 6 years ago in Vermont. I was 60 and newly divorced. I opted pre-fab for speed and for environmental reasons. My only local choice of company made homes with flat roofs that you would love if the alternative was a trailer. I wanted a house that looked like a house. Those companies were all in the middle of Pennsylvania. I actually drove down and visited the big 3 companies at the time. The company most willing to customize design and sell me the most energy efficient home was Apex, under new management. They did not work with anyone in my area to finish the house, so I contracted with a local builder. I could only find one with experience of finishing a pre-fab house. Also new management. There were red flags but I felt I had no choice. It took them 10 months to finish what should have been 2 months max. I ended up about 35% over budget. If it was my first home, I probably would have been delighted. Wanting a higher end type house, I was not delighted. The house was delivered with lots of poor attention to detail- shelves hung crookedly, kitchen counter installed with 1/2 of the “veining” in one orientation, 1/2 in the opposite direction. The “bullnose” edging of the countertop was a separate piece of laminate curved over the edge, with a gap that will be problematic eventually. The stairway was carpet grade wood, when I wanted it exposed wood. Many similar corners cut. My front porch leaks. Perhaps I could have insisted they be redone, but I did not. Any conflict that arose was blamed on the other side. “ No, that was a factory error.” “No, that is the responsibility of the completing contractor.” I am left worried about the overall construction quality, given the poor attention to detail.

I don’t recommend others go pre-fab. Too many details completed when you are not there to oversee the process and catch errors early enough to fix them. If you do go pre-fab, go with an experienced company that also finishes the product, so a better known commodity with less buck passing. And realize that little details will probably not be as you pictured them.

[belatedly]

I tried SO hard to make a prefab house work for my new build in New England, and it was so freaking complicated I gave up and went with a stick build. Zoning and building codes, transportation, licensing, installation, etc. I really hope it picks up and the process gets easier for folks!