The “new” retirement would wisely be referred to as “unretirement,” a decades-long, active, involved extension of life. Home will be headquarters during this exciting stage of life, and the kitchen will be command central. From untraditional housing styles to universal design, the kitchen will be the first true age-free space.
Kitchen-Centric Housing
Retirement age is dropping steadily and even people in their twenties and thirties eagerly contemplate their move into the phase of life that used to mean the end of all that mattered. Not so in the 21st century; unretirement can bring new freedoms, lucrative ventures, broader horizons, personal fulfillment and global connections – and all this as you sit at the kitchen table enjoying a morning coffee. Kitchens will continue to come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. They will always be loved as much for their flaws as their charm and convenience. Housing styles and development patterns that isolate residents and create urban sprawl will be replaced by designs and plans that are both environmentally sound and people friendly. One trend will shift couples and single homeowners towards compact, green new homes and away from energy- hungry monster houses. These scaled-down residences will not just be smaller, they’ll be smarter. For instance, some homeowners may concentrate food production in the kitchen through hydroponic or soilless gardening in glassed-in extensions that double as dining rooms. Kitchen-centric, multi-unit housing will become more common with home-like variations that include:
- cluster homes constructed around central courtyards that function as common outdoor eating areas and kitchen gardens,
- co-housing communities which integrate separate family units with communal recreation and eating areas to strengthen community connections, and
- mingle-style high-rise units with private bed-sitting rooms radiating off central kitchens and living areas to offer affordable, elegant lifestyles.
Our First Age-Free Environments
Too often thoughts of the future focus on how technology will change our lives, ignoring an important fact: we’re going to change, too. Every aspect of life will be touched as the demographic revolution represented by almost 10 million Baby Boomers moves through life. Kitchens will be our first age-free spaces as they transform into multi-purpose, multigeneration work and entertainment spaces where safety and functionality are paramount for all sizes, shapes and abilities of users. Children and grandchildren, parents and grandparents, the able-bodied and those with disabilities must all be comfortable socializing, cooking and eating in these activity centres. Age-Free environments have flexibility designed in. Universal Design, an emerging concept that will soon become commonplace, stresses the elimination of all barriers to functionality and enjoyment for everyone. These Age-Free features range from wide hallways, levered door handles and adjustable-height counters to visually-cued ergonomic design applied to everything from control knobs to furniture. All of which furnish a kitchen that allows the joy of cooking to be the focal point.
Voice-activated appliances with robotic features for repetitive tasks like cleaning and equipment maintenance will be among future innovations that save time, effort and money. Comfort will be ensured by advances in computer-chip embedded products and materials like chameleon wall surfaces which change colour on demand to match mood and weather, and heated floors that recognize the walker and automatically adjust room temperature to suit that person’s preprogrammed preferences.
Room for Improvement
Home owners and tenants will continue to strive for a personal balance of affordability and luxury in their homes. Not every family or community will have access to the same levels of technology and sophistication of design–there will still be room for improvement. Here are a few improvements that may be available to you:
- Food shopping will shift from a time-consuming physical task to an automatic electronic undertaking. Home appliances that continuously monitor freshness and inventory levels will automatically place orders with grocery warehouses and food distributors to ensure you never run out of anything.
- Bulk ordering and cooperative arrangements for purchasing food and other goods will cut costs and support essential local infrastructures within subdivisions, condominium complexes and neighbourhoods.
- Systems and equipment will have back up capacity to protect food during power brown outs and failures. Some kitchens may be designed to double as a self-contained safe living environment in times of natural disaster, pandemic or interruption of municipal services.
- Your refrigerator, through its wireless connection to the health monitor you’ll wear, may keep track of calories, salt or other health issues for you and make suggestions or issue warnings when you open the door. Particularly outside urban areas, online medical services will reinforce the connection between nutrition and wellness using the kitchen as the health hub. No aspect of home and housing will see as many changes as the multi-purpose kitchen over the coming decades. Since the origins of the word “kitchen” relate only to cooking, these evolving spaces may eventually even earn themselves a new name.
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Now with energy prices rising not just at the petrol pump but also for the home more and more people are looking at energy efficiency in a completely different light to the way would have done say 20 years ago. You will often find now that people when looking to purchase a new appliance for the home will not only consider the price but also the impact it may have on their future energy bills. Although they may find that some of the more energy efficient appliances are a tad more expensive, the savings that they will get from it when placed in their homes will certainly outweigh the price paid very quickly. An additional benefit of someone purchasing an energy efficient appliance is that is causes less stress to the planet and this results in less damage to the environment that we now live in.
However deciding which appliance is best suited to you can be quite difficult as not only appliances but other home products such as windows and insulation can all have their own terms for what makes them so energy efficient and trying to compare one product to another can be quite a task. However a good place to start is by looking for an energy symbol (such as a star or letter/number). But it is a good idea if you had information on what an energy symbol is and what it actually means in relationship to the appliance and the environment.
The US Government set up the Energy Star Program in 1992 (in the UK they have a lettering system) and was a joint project between the DoE (Department of Energy) and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). They provide a list of consumer goods which have qualified for the energy star rating and this list has steadily expanded since it first being produced. If you were to visit the Energy Star website you would discover that products which have the Energy Star label have met strict standards that have been set by the DoE and EPA both in respect of energy efficiency and low emissions. Though there are some appliances not listed, you will find that some Energy Star labeled products will give tax credits to their purchasers and manufacturers of Energy Star appliances are also eligible for business tax credits, which often means that these savings are passed on to their customers. So by switching to an Energy Star rated appliance you can on average save about $80 a year on your home energy bills.
So by looking for an appliance with an Energy Star rating is a good place to start when making such an important purchase, but it is wise to remember that not all appliances available are eligible for the Energy Star rating and such products as clothes dryers, ovens and ranges are included in this. However the DoE can provide you with guidelines for purchasing an appliance which falls into these categories and you can visit their website (Energystar.gov) for this information. However you will certainly find the Energy Star on such appliances as washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and freezers (all essential appliances in any home) as well as many other appliances for the home such as computers, telephones and light bulbs are just a few.