Life on the Beaches is changing. More generations under one roof, more working from home, more life stages to accommodate in a single home – and floor plans are catching up. We spoke with MILEHAM Architects + Builders founder and director, James Pilcher, about how residential design is responding – not just for how families live now, but for how they’ll live in ten years’ time.

Multifunctional Spaces

Beaches homes are getting bigger and floorplans are evolving, for good reason: there are more people inside them and they need different things from the same house.

With the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and rising house prices, multigenerational living is proving less of a trend, and more the new standard. Young adults and families are staying home longer to preserve finances and share childcare, while older homeowners are choosing to renovate to "age-in-place", rather than move into retirement living. The result is a design brief that didn't exist a decade ago: homes that serve three generations simultaneously, with enough separation to function and enough connection to feel like one household.

One of the most effective design changes James is increasingly making is relocating the master ensuite to the ground floor. It's a practical decision for today, freeing up the upper level as a semi-independent living space for adult children or young families, and a strategic one for the future, ensuring the owners won't be locked out of key living areas if mobility changes as they age.

Upper levels then function as self-contained zones: bedrooms, bathrooms, and often a small living area, giving younger members of the household genuine privacy without a separate address.

Floor plans are also increasingly designed to accommodate future elevator installation. A well-placed linen cupboard or storage void can be sized and positioned to convert to a lift well later, no structural rework required.

Lifestyle Shifts

Working patterns have reshaped what people need from their homes and where they're choosing to live. The upper Northern Beaches, once considered too far from the CBD for young professionals, has seen a marked shift since COVID normalised remote and hybrid work.

"We now work from home more, which means more young families are living further north than before," James says. With the B-Line reducing the friction of the commute when it's needed, he's seeing younger migration across the full length of the Beaches rather than just the southern half.

That shift is showing up directly in floor plan briefs. Study nooks are giving way to proper home offices, rooms with a door, adequate for video calls, and sized to double as a spare bedroom when needed.

The other major change: a move away from the large open-plan kitchen-living-dining layout. "They're so noisy when everyone is home, cooking, washing up, watching TV, friends over for a glass of wine," James explains. "People are returning to separate living and kitchen-dining floor plans, which reduce noise competition and give the household more choice about where to be."

It's a practical response to houses with more occupants and more concurrent activity, design catching up with how people actually use space.

A Symbol of Change

Perhaps one of the most rapidly evolving zones on the Beaches is Brookvale. Currently characterised by its industrial presence with few actual residents, that's set to shift with the Brookvale Structure Plan, which aims to introduce 1,350 dwellings over the next 15 years.

James sees Brookvale as a natural next go-to spot for younger residents, and the development will influence home design in the surrounding area. "Dee Why is a great service centre, but it's very much a thoroughfare. Brookvale has large swathes of spaces ripe for development that are away from Pittwater Road, but still easily accessible for public transport," he explains.

On keeping the area's character through the transition, James points to South Melbourne as a model, industrial roots with a creative, mixed-use identity. "The creativity has to stay here. And it needs to be kept at low-to-medium height with a mix of commercial, retail, lifestyle, and dwellings."

Multiple microbreweries have established themselves, giving the area somewhere to gather and a reason to stay.

"I think the future of Brookvale is a really exciting opportunity that the Northern Beaches will flourish from. The south has had focus, the west has had focus. Now it's time for us. But getting the transport mix right will be key to success."

The way we live is changing, and so are the homes we live in. If yours is due for an update, MILEHAM makes it easy. •