Forget patios. The outdoor room is it. It is poised to be the next luxury item that becomes a necessity. Gopal Ahluwalia, the NAHB’s staff vice president for research, cited results of a recent NAHB consumer survey that shows that a majority of upscale buyers want their new home to include an outdoor room—precisely, a fully equipped outdoor kitchen. Ahluwalia predicts that these will be standard features in future upscale homes.
That finding echoes the results of an informal survey conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects. It asked winners of ASLA’s prestigious awards programs what new features their clients were asking for in their landscaping projects. The outdoor room was near the top of the list. Designed and equipped for cooking, dining, and gathering, these outdoor spaces integrate the backyard into the owners’ lives and add a new dimension to their home.
Given the desire for an outdoor room, another top item on the landscape architects’ request list—an outdoor fireplace or fire pit—makes perfect sense. They are the feature that can almost magically transform an outdoor space into a room and create a bit of that “gather ’round the campfire” feeling that satisfies something deep within even the most sophisticated of us.
