A surprising example of this is the exterior door. Since, exterior doors make a dramatic visual impact on a home, they are a frequent target of renovations. Unfortunately, doors also can be one of the home’s worst energy offenders. Traditional door materials, like wood and steel, incur major energy penalties. Due to thermal homeostasis, wood acts to absorb heat and draw it away from the conditioned interior, while steel doors require costly interior insulation to be sufficiently effective.

Photo courtesy of Marvin

The desire for better living at home starts with light, air, and views. Industry-wide, demand for more glass and bigger glass exposures is a dominant trend.

In answer to these problems, and to support the increased interest in energy efficiency and comfort, door manufacturers are offering innovative materials that provide the look clients desire while satisfying the performance requirements they need. One answer is fiberglass. Doors made from fiberglass are weather resistant and do not conduct heat well, so that a fiberglass door acts to keep outside elements from having an impact on the conditioned interior. Doors crafted from fiberglass have a longevity similar to steel doors and are harder to scratch than a steel door. Fiberglass is built to withstand intense conditions for long periods of time with little-to-no maintenance, compared to wooden doors. They can also be finished, sanded, and refinished. Aesthetically, the material can be formed into a number of different shapes to adapt to a client’s desired style, mimicking everything from classic wood mainstays to modern designs. Fiberglass doors offer a green alternative to traditional materials, since they are durable, have a longer lifespan, are energy efficient, and environmentally friendly.

Leading fiberglass door manufacturers have created a proprietary foam core that provides superior insulation for maximum energy performance, complies with the Environmental Protection Agency’s SNAP 20 regulations, and utilizes sustainable alternatives for foam blowing agents. The fiberglass material itself is designed to last for decades, reducing construction waste, and requiring less maintenance than traditional wood doors. This makes fiberglass doors more cost-effective over time.

Fiberglass doors offer a more energy efficient solution for concerned clients and home buyers looking for environmentally friendly and efficient products. Fiberglass creates the ability to fortify a residence at its exterior doors and take clients closer towards their home performance goals.

POST-PANDEMIC RESIDENTIAL DESIGN TRENDS

Whether clients are building from the ground up, or embarking on renovations to an existing space, surveys among design professionals demonstrate that they have a whole new list of demands for their home.

Quality and Wellness

Consumers are becoming very conscious about buying quality products and materials that will last. High quality products, made with timeless design and created to last for many years, are consistently seen as worth the investment.

Coupled with this enhanced emphasis on quality comes a focus on energy efficiency and the longevity and durability of products. For windows and doors, most homeowners report that it is essential or highly desirable to have energy-efficient windows that will hold up and perform as expected through cold winters and hot summers for years to come.

Hand in hand with quality products is the newly prioritized desire for wellness. For clients, the desire for better living at home starts with light, air, and views. Industry-wide, demand for more glass and bigger glass exposures is a dominant trend. Leading manufacturers report an exponential increase in orders for scenic doors and larger expanses of glass, with door panel sizes increasing 10% since 2017. Using windows to help with a home’s energy efficiency, daylighting, and natural ventilation are a client priority. Large patio and scenic doors, made from glass, facilitate the flow between indoor and outdoor space. The integration of indoors with outdoors is another commanding post-pandemic design trend.

Modern Railroad-Style Home – New Orleans, Louisiana

Photo courtesy of Marvin

Maximizing natural light allows the narrow footprint of the kitchen to transcend its boundaries.

At first glance, the long, narrow residence located in the historic Lower Garden District of New Orleans appears quite compact. The average pedestrian, in scanning the mere 18-foot-wide lot, might be surprised to know that a family of four comfortably lives inside. But this modern railroad-style home was designed by a husband-and-wife team who are architects and designers by trade, and they took on the challenge of maximizing the narrow-but-deep home to perfectly suit their family’s needs.

Sabri and Caroline Farouki, who co-own an architecture and interior design practice called Farouki Farouki, designed and renovated the 1,600-square-foot space in 2020, moving their family into the home in 2021.

“[The lot] looked more like where you would park a boat or an RV—not a house,” Sabri said. “But that was what attracted us to it. We felt that, if we used our imagination and creativity, we could make it work.”

Their vision for the space included a juxtaposition of beautiful materials and textures inside, a modern facade that paid tribute to the historic district in which it was located, and from room to room an impressive economy of space.

The main entrance is located along the side of the home, with an ornamental gate that faces the street, serving as a conduit to the front door. This was an important design choice from the start, and it allowed the homeowners to balance the flow of the interior spaces well. “The ornamental gate acts as the front door,” Sabri said. “To someone on the street, it gives you a sense of entry. Going through that gate, you then proceed halfway down the length of the house, where there’s a French door with a sidelight—that's the front door.”

“One of the most fundamental moves was to put the living spaces upstairs,” Sabri said. “We knew we’d want to spend more of our time in the kitchen and living room with our two kids.”

“Upstairs, there are windows on almost all sides,” Sabri said. This was intentional, as the family knew they’d be spending most of their time on the second floor. “We wanted to have as many windows as we could to open it up, and it feels really good. It doesn’t feel as skinny as it is, and that’s the feedback we get when people visit. The windows definitely play a big part of that.”

Numerous windows amplify access to natural light and make the space feel larger than it really is. In the kitchen, four interspaced casement windows illuminate the clean white hues and austere stone material comprising the kitchen island. The design choice to break up the space with clean, dark lines from window frames and steel structural support beams identifies spaces and guides the eye through the rooms. The kitchen is where the Farouki family spends most of its time, with the two boys sitting on the stools of the stone island while their parents cook. Light floods the space from casement windows, and off the dining room is a cozy rooftop terrace to enjoy fresh air and neighborhood views.

The Hybrid Home

The third edition of McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey provides a unique dataset on how the new, flexible work environment fits into the lives of today’s American workers. McKinsey worked alongside the market-research firm Ipsos to survey 25,000 Americans in spring 2022. The most striking figure to emerge from this research is the number of Americans who reported having the opportunity to work from home at least one day a week: 58 percent. Thirty-five percent of respondents reported having the option to work from home five days a week. McKinsey found these numbers particularly notable because the respondents represented all areas of the country and all kinds of jobs, including not only “white collar” professions, but also those traditionally labeled “blue collar” jobs that might be expected to demand onsite labor.5 When employees are offered the opportunity to work flexibly, 87 percent take it.⁵

This translates into a realization that the pandemic-induced need for multipurpose rooms is not going anywhere. Not only have homeowners adapted to working from home, they also have become accustomed to the conveniences of working out at home, doing schoolwork, and creating spaces that facilitate hobbies and recreational opportunities.

The trend towards hybrid homes certainly pertains to multiuse spaces; however, it also denotes the fact that increasingly homes are becoming multigenerational. As more elders choose to age at home, and with first-time homebuyers facing steep entry barriers into the housing market, the country is witnessing an increase in multigenerational homes. This shift brings a whole new host of design considerations. The wide diversity of family members under one roof results in needing to meet different schedules and requirements for well-being for each.

To enhance the ability to age in place, products that are durable and low maintenance become essential, easing the duties of home ownership for elderly occupants.