Multigenerational Housing in an Expensive Locale Part 3

Brandon Baunach is an architect 
with 17 years of experience in designing
multi-family projects.

This post appears courtesy of Brandon Baunach, an architect with 17 years of experience.

When I started posting here in August, I shared the challenges of finding affordable multigenerational (multigen) housing when my wife and I decided to buy a house with my mother. (You can read about it here.)

Since that post, I explored solutions for multigen housing in dense urban environments.

My second post explored some broad design considerations such as a family’s privacy, willingness to share and responsibility – all of which help guide successful projects when building multigen housing. (Read that post here.)

Now, I’m going to explore some other design considerations: Life Stages, Ethnicity and Economic Status.

Life Stages

Designing for the interaction between life stages is very important. 

The most common life stage interactions in multigen households are empty-nesters whose kids finish college and move home, young families who have young kids and share a household with a young grandparent or grandparents, and older families with older and possibly frailer parents.

If you know that a multigen housing development is for a specific demographic, then designing for a particular group can be much easier. 

For instance, a newly graduated adult child would most likely prefer as much separation as allowable which might mean better sound ratings in walls or separate bathrooms and kitchens. 

Older adults with elderly parents, however, might prefer less separation to keep tabs on each other or because an elderly generation household member needs help with domestic chores.

If a demographic isn’t clear in the design of a multigen project, then a baseline of options should be developed that incorporate a range of generational needs that go above standard apartment construction. 

Take, for example, accessibility of bathrooms. Code requirements in most dwelling units require that only one bathroom be accessible to persons with disabilities. 

In a multigen unit, the baseline should clearly make all the restrooms accessible to accommodate multiple parties that may not share restrooms in the same household.

Ethnicity

Living in multigenerational households is common in almost every country in the world except the United States. 

Because it is less common here, and because there are so many varied cultures in the US, knowledge of multigenerational lifestyles is lacking. Thoughtful research by the designer will be required for a housing project that is expected to have a diverse multi-cultural population.

This research is best provided by a skilled ethnographer studying the design problem. Common techniques involve surveys on family dynamics. 

Advanced techniques involve videography to record how they actually use a multigenerational space. The results from ethnic lifestyle analysis can then be a framework or set of trends that will help designers better focus what is a successful space for a project.

Economic Status

Economic status does not necessarily change any particular desire to live in a specific way, but it may change the layout of a particular project to meet more difficult household budgets. 

There are many ways that a designer could approach this constraint. I will discuss two: Ways to design for a tight construction budget and ways to design for a household’s tight budget.

In terms of minimizing cost of construction for a project, serious consideration should be made to consolidate kitchens and dining to be shared by two adult generations.

Removing a kitchenette from every unit is a huge cost savings. If possible, having a central shared living space can also help drive down the gross area of a project. 

On a project-wide basis, having building-wide-shared laundry also dramatically reduces costs.

In terms of maximizing multigenerational household value, there are a number of innovative design solutions that can really help families excel.

Here are some ways families with lower income levels might benefit by living in a larger scale multigen building:

• Reasonably priced and consistent childcare. In a multigenerational building, there is a great opportunity to design a grandparent childcare cooperative, which shares these services to make for a fairly low stress obligation.
• Reasonably priced and consistent transportation. Families also occasionally need emergency transportation. That’s why car sharing integrated into a building’s cost could be an essential tool to stabilizing families’ income streams.
• Access to a healthy lifestyle. In all of the larger scale affordable projects I’ve worked on, we’ve been able to include a gym in that project, which has always been adjacent to the laundry services. We’ve also been able to include community gardens in many projects, which give the older generations a strong sense of purpose and give the younger generations an area of pride that produces a consistent variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

With so many different variations for how you might design a multigenerational household, the simple combination of forces between generations is the real key to economic stability.

The design aspects I discussed mostly help with the social stability of a multigenerational household.

And although economic necessity can dictate the choice of adult generations living together, it does not necessarily have to dictate their sense of individuality and purpose given thoughtful design.

Brandon Baunach is an architect at BAR Architects in San Francisco, CA. He lives in Berkeley, CA, with his wife, mother and two sons.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren of Brevard County, Florida

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week, we’ll feature intergenerational program ideas that were tried and successful. This series is a tool to highlight various age-optimized programs and practices. The program descriptions are provided by representatives of the programs. Inclusion in this series does not imply Generations United’s endorsement or recommendation, but rather encourages ideas to inspire other programs.

In part 19 of our series, we feature Grandparents Raising Grandchildren of Brevard County, Florida, which was established in 1994.

(Check our archives for parts 1-18.)

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren of Brevard County, FL was founded by a grandmother with a vision to improve conditions for relative care families and the community who care for them.

The mission of GRG of Brevard is to provide advocacy, support, and referral to relative care families throughout Brevard County. Our vision is that one day all children will live in a safe loving home with relatives that will help them to develop into their full potential. Living in a place you can call home and knowing that someone will always be there for you is something everyone needs, especially children.

There are over 8,500 children living in relative care families in Brevard County. Everyday GRG of Brevard receives a call for help from a family in crisis.

The Child First Program creates a menu of services based on the needs of each family that include advocacy, counseling, training, legal and financial assistance, recreational activities, and holiday assistance.

The goal is to ensure permanent placement with relatives in lieu of foster care; address special needs of children being raised by relative caregivers; advocate for relative caregivers and raise awareness of their needs as well as their contribution.

Got something cool you tried that was successful? Why not tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas? You can also post them to our Intergenerational Connections Facebook Group or just text us through the Facebook Messenger app (friend me to join our Cool Intergenerational Ideas group discussion). We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter! Share the inspiration.

Grands As Parents Inc.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Grands As Parents Inc.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Each week, we’ll feature intergenerational program ideas that were tried and successful. This series is a tool to highlight various age-optimized programs and practices. The program descriptions are provided by representatives of the programs. Inclusion in this series does not imply Generations United’s endorsement or recommendation, but rather encourages ideas to inspire other programs.

In part 13 of our series, we feature Grands As Parents Inc., a Philadelphia-based collaborative effort addressing the needs of relative caregivers.

(Read parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12)

Grands As Parents Inc. was founded in 1996 and is comprised of grandparent caregivers and relatives who have found themselves in parenting roles for their grandchildren (in some cases great children). These grandparents have been forced from the realm of retirement to become sole caretakers for these energetic and needy children.

Grands As Parents provides support services and advocates for the rights of the heads of such families and is committed to providing assistance to these caregivers and their entire household for which rhey are responsible.

GAP is designed to address the special needs and concerns of the grandparents who have specific issues (whatever the reason) and who are temporary or permanent caretakers of their grandchildren, however this is not a requirement for participation.

This a non-profit organization is administrated by volunteers and has a board of directors. This organization willingly collaborates with other nonprofit community organizations in the concept that it takes a village to raise a child.

GAP provides the following services/ referrals - Crisis/Stress Management, Legal Services, Housing, Food, Clothing, Human Resources.

Got something cool you tried that was successful? Why not tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas? You can also post them to our Intergenerational Connections Facebook Group. Youth Jumpstart Grantees can share ideas here. Or just text us through the Facebook Messenger app (friend me to join our Cool Intergenerational Ideas group discussion). We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter!  Share the inspiration.

Requesting Families

We are seeking families to profile for two sidebars for our signature report, 2014 Families in Society, that celebrates strong families. We'll release our report in partnership with the Alliance for Children and Families in time to mark the 20th anniversary of the International Year of the Family (2014) at an event on May 13 at the National Press Club.

The first family we're hoping to identify is a Hispanic/Latino family with strong intergenerational connections. We're interested in what motivates their connections, what helps and what woulc help them have even stronger connections.

The second family we're hoping to identify is a middle-income family with strong intergenerational connections. We're interested in how they exchange money and/or time across generations, what motivates that and what would help them be able to invest even more money and/or time in each other. We're also interested in how that family uses technology and if it enhances their exchange of time and/or money.

If you know of any such family and could pass along their names and contact information to Generations United's Communication Specialist Alan King, we would be very grateful.