“The pendulum is swinging back,” said Bob Ernst, president of FBN Construction in Hyde Park. “The reality is that life can be loud.”
There may be few real estate trends as enduring or as aspirational as open concept — the name realtors and home designers gave to vast living spaces that are all about happy-together time. The message is so powerful that to admit you don’t want to live in a house as open as a soccer field is to reveal something shameful:
- That you’re not a parent who wants the kids RIGHT THERE when you’re in the kitchen, your only alone time, or what used to be your only alone time.
- That you’re not a host relaxed enough to chat with guests while preparing a three-course meal.
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“I miss walls,” she said.
Wait, what?!? For decades, Open Concept, and the togetherness-loving, friend-filled lifestyle it was supposed to bring, has been a home buyers’ religion, the one true way to live. Go to Houzz, the home remodeling site, type in “open concept,” and up come 221,569 photos. Over on HGTV, DeRon Jenkins, costar of the popular “Flip or Flop Nashville ,” will tell you, as he recently told the Globe, that an open floor plan “allows the love to flow.”
But now, experts say, people are starting to openly yearn for walls.
“Buyers are moving away from uninterrupted views,” said Loren Larsen, a real estate agent with Compass, in Boston, who is hearing from clients who don’t want their kitchens — and the dirty dishes — on display.
“The pendulum is swinging back,” said Bob Ernst, president of FBN Construction in Hyde Park. “The reality is that life can be loud.”
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“It’s Official: Open-Plan Offices Are Now the Dumbest Management Fad of All Time,” read the headline of a 2018 Inc.com story.
It reported on a Harvard study that found open offices kill teamwork, and the lack of privacy drove employees to wear headphones and correspond electronically rather than talking face to face.
As a second story in Inc. noted, “You might as well all be working from home.”