It was his father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis that motivated Bo Sundius and his wife, Hisako Ichiki, to design the green pitched-roof cottage behind their house for Sundius’s parents. In the years since they left so his dad could get more specialized care, the couple have leased it out to a decidedly Los Angeles mix of characters.

“Everyone who wants to rent it today is a creative professional,” says Sundius. “We’ve had a commercial film director, a dancer, a composer. They all worked from this 750-square-foot cottage, almost 24 hours a day, without any hints of cabin fever.”

The accessory dwelling unit (ADU) that the couple designed in their backyard is a type of home expansion that has transformed communities across the country, thanks to liberalized state, city, and neighborhood codes. ADUs—defined as independent living spaces added to primary dwellings in single-family-zoned lots—can be rented out or used by owners in multiple ways.

The Sundiuses’ cottage has served as a rental investment, a workplace, and intergenerational housing. Now it’s a prototype for a product from Bunch Design, the architectural firm Sundius runs with Ichiki.

The need for such alternative housing solutions is critical. As of the last U.S. census, fewer than 19 percent of households met the nuclear family model—the lowest rate in census history. While it reflects an uptick in unrelated singles sharing the same home, the trend toward multigenerational living is clear: A 2016 survey by John Burns Real Estate Consulting found 44 percent of prospective home buyers would like a property that could accommodate their older parents, and 42 percent plan to house adult children in their next homes. Meanwhile, AARP’s 2018 Home and Community Preferences survey showed that one-third of homeowners would consider building an ADU on their property if it were an option.

“Uncertainty seems built into life these days. But ADUs give flexibility to the least flexible thing we have—this big, cumbersome investment of our home.”
—Bo Sundius, architect

In the throes of a pandemic, widespread economic anxiety, and a normalization of working from home, these trends are poised to accelerate. According to a Zillow report, more than 32 million adults lived with their parents or grandparents in April—the highest number on record.

“The nursing home model seems a bit antiquated now,” says Mike Koenig of Studio Shed in Colorado, which makes ADUs and customized backyard offices, gyms, and meditation rooms, as well as yoga, music, and art studios. “We see multigenerational housing as a growing market and get requests for these kinds of units daily.”

Studio Shed is one of several companies prefabricating ADUs that can be easily assembled on-site, a process that lends itself well to accessory structures. “The smaller the scale, the more it can resemble a product and benefit from factory production,” says Gordon Stott, cofounder of Connect Homes, a prefab home builder in L.A. His firm has built dozens of ADUs throughout California, and many clients have turned them into lucrative short-term rentals.

But with increased travel restrictions, Stott sees a different future on the horizon for ADUs. “Airbnbs are going to move into long-term rentals, and these things will move into being more affordable and less vacant,” he says. “It points to a future where low density and single-family zoning are less prevalent.”

The pandemic has also underscored the need for municipalities to break free of 20th-century planning. “The way people think of ADUs is a Rorschach test for how they feel about their families and finances, about their future and relationships,” says Melanie Turner, director of residential design for Perkins and Will’s Pfau Long Architecture. “The increased interest in ADUs dovetails with bigger issues that we are all eager to talk about now,” she says. “Here in San Francisco there’s this big move to turn garage spaces into living spaces. It works with the push to take cars off the streets and turn homes for cars into homes for people.”

Converting San Francisco garages and working toward increased density and more affordable housing is a job that Ian Dunn openly embraces at Open Scope Studio, which has collaborated with the city homeowners, and developers to make ADU projects possible. His firm produced San Francisco’s ADU handbook to help homeowners navigate the planning process before building their own units.

For Dunn, ADUs are one part of the larger picture of the cohousing, transitional housing, and home renovations needed to increase access and affordability. “ADUs are not the panacea, but we have to try everything,” he says. “As we’ve fallen into the role of housing activists in the city, it’s just part of what we do.”

Policymakers should consider easing up the regulations related to ADUs to create neighborhoods that are better equipped to meet our post-pandemic needs. The potential for ADUs to provide financial security and affordable housing, while accommodating new ways of working, less commuting, and multigenerational living, should not be overlooked.

In our conversation, Melanie Turner shared the story of a client with a particularly large vision of what ADUs could be with the right kind of stewardship: “Every time we talk, the client seems to have someone else moving into her home—her kids, her extended family,” she says. “Bringing your community into your home, owning land, and gathering all sorts of people and pieces of your life within it—that’s what it’s all about. I love the idea of people who have space and share it, at whatever capacity.”

Project Credits:

Architect of Record (Granny Pad): Best Practice Architecture / @best_practice

Architect of Record (Highland Park ADU): Bunch Design / @bunch_design

Architect of Record (Kleines Haus): Blue Truck Studio / @bluetruckstudio

Architect of Record (Menlo Park Connect2): Connect Homes / @connect_homes

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