Designing Homes for How Families Actually Live: What a UCLA Study Reveals About Floor Plans, Kitchens, and the Most Valuable Rooms in a Home
A recent discussion on X (formerly Twitter) sparked a thoughtful debate about modern home design. The conversation began when energy journalist David Roberts shared a floor plan listing that included a feature rarely seen in many new homes: a mudroom.
His observation was simple. Many houses skip practical spaces like mudrooms while dedicating large portions of square footage to oversized bedrooms, formal dining rooms, or other spaces that families rarely use in daily life.
The discussion quickly evolved into a broader question: Which rooms in a home actually provide the most daily value?
The thread referenced research from the UCLA Center on Everyday Lives of Families examining how families truly use space inside their homes. The findings reveal something many homeowners already suspect. Many houses are designed around rooms that sit empty most of the time.
Director of Engineering, Mike Kirby, discussing modular construction.
Key Takeaways: Designing Homes Around Daily Life
Research on household activity patterns shows that most family life happens in just a few connected spaces. Key insights include:
Families spend the majority of their time in the kitchen and adjacent living areas.
Formal spaces like dining rooms and living rooms often see minimal daily use.
Practical transition areas such as mudrooms help manage clutter and daily routines.
Homes often feel larger when designed around high-use spaces rather than rarely used rooms.
Efficient floor plans prioritize function and flexibility rather than simply increasing square footage.
Modern floor plans work best when they are designed around the spaces where families actually spend their time, rather than rooms that are used only occasionally.
Most Families Use Less Than Half of Their Home’s Space
According to research conducted by the UCLA Center on Everyday Lives of Families, many families regularly use only a portion of the space available in their homes.
In a well-known example summarized by The Wall Street Journal, researchers mapped where family members spent time during typical weekday evenings. The results were striking. In a first floor totaling roughly 1,300 square feet, daily activity consistently occurred in about 500 square feet.
Nearly all activity clustered around the kitchen and the adjacent family or living room. Other areas such as formal living rooms, porches, and dining rooms showed little daily activity during normal routines.
Modular Duplexes with Drive Under Garage
The Kitchen: The Command Center of the Home
Researchers described the kitchen as the central hub of family life. While cooking is one of its functions, the kitchen also supports many other daily activities. Families regularly use the kitchen for:
Conversations
Homework
Scheduling and planning
Paying bills
Supervising children
Casual meals and snacks
Researchers found that only about one-fifth of the time spent in kitchens was devoted to cooking. The rest involved communication, coordination, and everyday family interaction. The kitchen effectively acts as the command center of the household. Because of this, modern home layouts increasingly connect kitchens with nearby living spaces so family members can interact while doing different activities.
Modular Duplexes with front facing on the gable side.
High ROI vs. Low ROI Spaces in Modern Homes
One way to think about floor plans is through the concept of "daily return on investment"—meaning how frequently a space is used in everyday life.
Occasional-use rooms can still provide value for holidays or gatherings, but they often consume a large portion of the home relative to how often they are utilized. This contrast explains why some homes appear large on paper but feel inefficient in everyday life.
Townhouses built over garages with break away walls for flooding.
Cost Predictability in a Volatile Construction Market
Traditional construction faces growing exposure to labor availability issues (construction labor aging out of job market), material price volatility, and schedule overruns. These risks can disrupt projects and strain budgets, particularly for small and mid-sized housing developments.
Modular manufacturing improves cost predictability by standardizing production, outsourcing labor to the factory, and reducing on site uncertainty. This allows developers to plan more confidently and helps projects move forward without late stage cost escalation.
Percentage of age 55+ employees doubled in construction industry since 2003.
Manufacturing Jobs and Economic Development in Pennsylvania
Modular construction supports skilled manufacturing jobs that remain in Pennsylvania. Carpenters, electricians, engineers, logistics teams, and project managers all contribute to factory built housing. These roles provide stable employment while supporting a broader regional supply chain.
Housing production and economic development are aligned outcomes. Modular manufacturing allows communities to add housing while strengthening local industry and workforce participation.
A Practical Tool for Addressing Affordability
Modular construction is not a single solution to Pennsylvania’s housing affordability challenge, but it is a proven and scalable tool. It allows communities to add housing faster, manage costs more effectively, while still support local jobs.
Projects like Studebaker Lofts show how factory built construction can deliver real housing in Pennsylvania communities, while respecting local context and site history. Expanding the use of modular construction will be an important part of closing the housing supply gap and improving affordability across the state.
We appreciate Senator Flynn taking the time to tour our facility, engage with our team, and see firsthand how modular manufacturing is supporting housing delivery and economic development in his district and throughout Pennsylvania.