New homes have been trending smaller for some time now, because compact footprints are more affordable and manageable, both priorities for today’s buyers. There is a practical reason too: new-home lots have become considerably smaller over the past 15 years and remain near historic lows, putting greater pressure on builders and designers to make efficient use of available space.
Smaller lots mean greater attention to design to maximize functionality. And although one-story homes are gaining in popularity in many regions in the United States, vertical design, building up instead of out, offers another way to maximize living space when smaller lots limit the available footprint.
Taller homes are particularly useful for urban infill, or in new-home communities where land is tight, and lots are narrow, or where higher density is the goal.
But vertical design is more than simply stacking floors on top of each other. Specific design elements must combine to create a light-filled, functional, and connected home that maximizes the potential of the vertical plane.
Making Way for Natural Light
Natural light represents both the greatest opportunity and challenge in a smaller, but taller, home.
By design, it’s hard to direct light into the core of a narrow and tall home. Meanwhile, small homes rely heavily on natural light to increase the perception of space.
“Getting natural light into the center part of that main level can be a challenge. Especially if you're building infill lots. Side yards can be narrow, and you have a house right there next to you," potentially blocking light, explains Greg Dodge with Design Basics.
The solution is to draw light from the front or back of the home through strategic window placement, or even from above with skylights.
“Floor-to-ceiling windows are good in some areas, but in other areas, like living rooms, where you might have limitations as far as floor space for furniture, we would put transom windows in the plans to allow natural light in the room,” says Steve Vatter of Legacy Home Plans.
High windows can also bring daylight above beds or bathroom vanities while maintaining usable wall space/privacy.
Once conduits for the light are in place, the secret is creating pathways for the light to travel. Lighter color palettes and materials help with this, as do reflective finishes and open sightlines.
Staircases with open-riser treads and open, glass or cable railings allow light to travel between floors.
Making Height Work Harder
When space is stacked rather than spread out, careful planning is critical, particularly when deciding which features take priority and how available space is used.
“The narrower we get, the more complicated and more challenging it is to get everybody’s favorite items into a floor plan,” says Dodge, which doesn’t necessarily mean leaving design features out, but finding ways to make vertical space work harder, and looking for opportunities to increase functionality in this type of layout.
For example, vaulted ceilings are often sacrificed in narrow, tall homes because the open volume comes at the expense of usable floor space above.
Hallways are often removed from the floor plan, as they represent dead space, and are replaced with open circulation paths incorporated into living areas. As a bonus, these help diffuse natural light.
What’s distinct in vertical design is that the roof becomes an intentional part of usable space. Vatter notes that pitched roofs aren’t typical in taller, narrower homes, because they sacrifice space that could be useful for staircases or roof decks, making flat roofs a better choice.
Using vertical space for storage allows for more usable floor space. For example, floor-to-ceiling cabinetry, stacked kitchen cabinets, tall pantry systems, and built-in shelving take advantage of wall height without increasing the room’s footprint.
Make use of often overlooked spaces, like underneath staircases. Under-stair nooks are good for storage, a small pocket office, or a built-in pet den.
Flexibility with space is important, beyond the typical flex room. Look at door type and placement on closed spaces. Sliding or pocket doors don’t need clearance as swing doors do, and can make tighter rooms more functional.
Zones That Go Up, Not Across
The use of zones is common in new-home design to delineate space and communicate purpose without walls. In a taller home, those zones can be spread between floors, separating gathering, sleeping, and recreational functions.
Common spaces, like the kitchen and living room, might occupy the main floor, bedrooms the second, and recreational, flex, or office space the third, sometimes with access to a rooftop deck. “The zones are really by level rather than by sections on each level,” says Vatter.
Good vertical planning isn't only about deciding what goes on each floor; it's also about creating logical pathways between those zones. With functions separated vertically, stair placement becomes important to circulation.
“We try to stack the staircase so that if you’re not going to stop at the sleeping area, you can continue from one staircase to the next without having to walk through a bedroom,” says Vatter.
Taking Outdoor Space to New Heights
Another challenge with smaller lots is the lack of yard space. That can be addressed with integrating functional outdoor space into the home’s design, which might include a ground floor deck or patio, smaller balconies or terraces off of bedrooms on the second level, and/or a larger rooftop terrace.
Giving height to outdoor space provides a unique experience. “For entertaining and enjoying the skyline, you get a viewpoint and perspective that you don’t get,” at ground level, in a backyard surrounded by trees or other homes, says Vatter.
Rooftop spaces can also extend everyday outdoor living, with room for entertaining, games, and covered gathering areas, especially important when yards aren’t an option because of space constraints, he says.
Future Proofing for an Elevator
As homes add more levels, an elevator might enter the design conversation. Dodge isn’t seeing lots of homeowners incorporating elevators in their current designs, but it is something that might want to be considered to preserve a taller home’s functionality in the future.
It’s best to address future needs for elevators during the construction phase. “It can be expensive to retrofit those if you don’t start with that consideration to begin with,” says Dodge.
Even if you don’t want an elevator today, designing the floor plan with stackable spaces that could accommodate an elevator shaft in the future is a good idea, such as with closet space.
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