Forgive me commenting on a 2 year old thread, but now that people are largely no longer quarantining, I am still interested in the answer to this question. For me personally, and the impression I get from listings in multiple areas across the eastern and southern areas, and open floor plan is still very desirable… but I understand how the long narrow house on the long narrow plot with a kitchen at one end and all the “rooms” in a long line… well, I just think it looks awful.
That being said, I am actually on both sides of this question, really. In a modern house without any character, I think it is beneficial to have a mostly open concept for public rooms, Of course if there is room for a living room and a family room, one should be separate and more of a hangout space.
However, and I feel very strongly abut this, if you are dealing with, for example, a truly lovely craftsman house with loads of wood trim and character features, or a victorian house, or something else which is spacious enough to work as separate rooms and has a load of character, I feel it is a crime to erase all the walls, slap a coat of hideous grey paint on everything, and put in a glitzy-glammy colorless kitchen open to the majority of the first level. I have seen many a gorgeous historic home in fine condition be assaulted and battered in this manner in the more chic and expensive areas near me, and it is something done usually by a contractor who has no architectural literacy about these styles. Unfortunately, it is usually irreversible, because that high level of trim work and materials is so expensive.
I own a house that used to back to a brook. I was upset when developers came in and put houses in the backyards of the houses on either side of me, facing but not in any way designed to take advantage of the view of the brook, and then put a road between me and the brook and park. My feeling is, if I wanted a house that backed to a park that is what I bought, and if other people wanted a house on a road, they should buy one and not destroy the neighborhood to put in yet another “luxury” cookie cutter house.
I feel the same way about homes that are perfectly wonderful and function beautifully with separate rooms that have tons of character. If you want to live in one, buy one and live in it. If you don’t like that kind of house, buy a different house, don’t destroy a frankly better quality home to follow a trend when there are brand-new and not-so-new houses that will give you what you want without killing it!
That all being said, I really don’t think open concepts or great rooms where the kitchen, living, and dining areas are either wide open or visually connected is going away at all. If there is a separate family room, great. If not, my experiences with designing for families is that once kids are teens they retreat to their bedrooms on their phones, and only come out for pizza, so don’t worry about a “family space that includes teens.” Yes, noise does carry through these spaces, so watching tv and quiet reading or studying or working can be an issue, but not an insurmountable one. Plus, if you’ve ever read the three “Not So Big House” books, you know that eliminating hallways between rooms means less WASTED space. Plus, it just looks damn good.
As for me, give me a “live-in kitchen” and I’m happy. That’s where I spend my time, and if I found a historic house I loved and decided to move to, I would change my living style to suit it, not the other way around.
