Full article first published on Houzz

Vanessa Walker, Houzz contributor

How will we be living 10 years from now? With property prices on the rise, more of us working from home and technology permeating practically every corner of our lives, it’s a question on many people’s lips.

Here, futurist Morris Miselowski gives his predictions on where and how we’ll be living a decade from now.

How will we be living?

Attitudes towards property ownership are changing. For baby boomers, owning property was evidence of a successful life. Their children and grandchildren aren’t interested in that. For today’s twentysomethings, success is judged by how many likes you have on your social media accounts – success is about adventure and experiences, not assets.

With many people priced out of the housing market, they will be renting long-term rather than looking to buy. They’ll take the opportunity to lead a more nomadic lifestyle – travelling more and happy to pack up their lives and accept that job on the other side of the world.

The trend of downsizing and moving closer to the city will continue, particularly among baby boomers, whose life expectancy is longer than ever. Expect to see an increase in compact, four- to six-storey urban dwellings near good transport links - convenience will be key.

These homes will be in mixed-use buildings, often above shops and cafés. There was once a stigma attached to living above a business, but attitudes have changed greatly over the past couple of generations.

In 10 years, moving to a city abode will be a lifestyle choice – these homes will be easier to maintain than the traditional larger houses in the suburbs that previous generations valued so highly. Few people will want a huge, high-maintenance home.

Smart kitchens

The kitchen will see some of the biggest changes in the future. A decade from now, it will be a multi-purpose space that shifts smoothly between cooking, dining and entertaining.

Worktops will come into their own. Today they are static objects, but in 10 years, the average kitchen worktop will perform myriad functions. Touch the surface and it will transform from prep area to induction hob or technology station. It will even perform time-saving tasks such as measuring ingredients and choosing the correct cooking temperature.

The kitchen will be a fully connected space that can monitor the progress of your cooking, connect to social media to discover what your guests like to eat, and tell you whether the milk in the fridge is still fresh.

Want a tech-savvy kitchen? Check out these intelligent appliances to bring you into the future

Less drudgery

There will be a focus on smart surfaces that reduce the amount of work you have to do around the home, such as self-cleaning cutlery and crockery, as well as surfaces that tell you when it’s time for a deep clean. The cleaning of floors and windows will be done robotically.

The rise of multi-generational homes

As property and childcare costs continue to rise, the trend for multi-generational living will also increase. Three generations living under one roof won’t be unusual. Homes will be designed to accommodate this, with features such as two or more living spaces (or a separate granny flat), a separate kitchenette and a large communal space where the family can come together.

Need your bathroom to meet the needs of both young and old? See how to create a space that will please everyone

Ambiguous spaces

With more of us working from home, our properties will be in use 24/7, and we will expect our homes to adapt to our changing needs throughout the day. Floor plans will be flexible; walls will move and ceilings will rise, allowing us to configure the space as we want it, turning our homes from meeting places to chill-out zones in an instant.

Flexible furniture

With floor plans shrinking, we won’t be able to accommodate as much furniture as before, and what we do have will need to perform more than one function. Multi-functional designs, such as the Ori robotic furniture system – a compact, adaptable unit containing a bookshelf, bed, table and more – will become increasingly popular.

Your home will adapt and change shape throughout the day, according to how it’s being used.

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Intuitive technology

Technology will feature increasingly in our lives and will be smarter than ever. We’re already moving from touchable devices to voice-activated ones, and in 10 years’ time, intuitive devices that do the thinking for us will be the norm. With access to your calendar and emails, your phone already knows more about you than just about anyone else, and soon it will be able to make predictions about you based on your movements, and then tailor your home to suit.

'Your home will also be able to distinguish between the different people entering it and create environments to suit them as well'

You’ll walk through the door and your home will automatically create a customised environment to meet your needs, including setting the temperature, opening the blinds and suggesting what to have for dinner based on what’s in the fridge. This sort of technology has already begun to enter our lives with Google Home and apps such as Nest, which can detect when you’re 10 minutes from home and open the garage door for you.

Your home will also be able to distinguish between the different people entering it and create environments to suit them as well.

While the influence of technology in our lives will increase, its presence will be more seamlessly integrated. Wi-Fi, for example, has already begun to be integrated into the walls of new buildings, providing perfect connectivity anywhere in the home.

The care factor

Our homes will be able to monitor our health and take care of us, allowing us to stay in them for longer. They will remind us when to exercise and take our medication, tell us how many calories we’ve consumed that day and make suggestions for healthy meals.

Being your own decorator

Technology will also give us new ways to explore products and make shopping decisions. Apps that allow you to see a room in 3D already exist.

Blurred lines

With more of us living in urban areas, we’ll see greenery integrated into our homes in increasingly creative ways, such as vertical gardens both inside and out, balcony and community gardens.

A passion for the handcrafted

Our increasingly transient lifestyle will give us greater access to different countries and cultures – but less ability to acquire big things. Large pieces of furniture, such as sofas, beds and tables, will often come with the property you rent.

As a result, we’ll be investing in transportable pieces, such as unique artwork and handcrafted soft furnishings, that stamp our personality on the spaces we inhabit.