special to the arizona daily star

To see the home of the future today, drop by the Rev. Will and Deborah Tilley's one-year-old home in Catalina.

With three of their four children grown and gone, the couple traded their 2,800-square-foot house for a cozy 1,364-square-foot KB Home last year.

They love everything about it, from the drop in their energy bills to an open floor plan that spills into the backyard.

"You live in every space. You live in and use every part of our house," Deb Tilley said.

The Tilleys are not alone. From multimillion-dollar custom dwellings to modest tract homes, many people buying the newest generation of Tucson houses are seeking, and finding, a different way of living in homes radically different from those produced even a few years ago.

Some of the elements of the home of the future, like the home office, already have firmly entrenched themselves in American style. Others, such as homes that generate their own power, are likely to trickle down to the mass housing market as they become more affordable.

Here are a few of the top trends in housing.

Formal rooms, RIP

A quick perusal of floor plans will reveal one big change — the demise of formal living and dining rooms.

Will Tilley recalls a Tucson home his family lived in 18 years ago. "It was one little room after another."

No more. Today, the open floor plan dominates the new-home market.

"There's a lot of activity around the kitchen areas and the eating area, the media room or the home theater. Those rooms are kind of grouped together now; they are not little cubicles that are set apart," said Steven Canatsey, president of Canatsey Building and Development and chairman of the upcoming 2008 Parade of Homes, the showcase event of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association that will display seven trendsetting houses.

Outdoor Living

Only a few years ago, the outdoor kitchen was big. Now it's outdoor everything — living and dining and cooking. Trendy home-design catalogs feature hose-washable outdoor rugs, drapes, and even outdoor sofas.

"We really think of the backyard as part of our house," Will Tilley said. "And we didn't do that before."

In the Mercado District of Menlo Park, near Downtown, all 50 new homes being built by Street Scene Development feature outdoor living spaces. They also include what the overall developer of the district, Rio Development managing partner Justin Dixon, calls "exterior rooms" — spaces linking the indoors and out that can best be described as the apotheosis of the Arizona room.

Similarly, at the Parade of Homes, entertaining has moved to the back of the house.

"You'll see outdoor kitchens, barbecue centers, entertainment centers outside," Canatsey said. "A number of the houses have outdoor living rooms."

But more outdoor living doesn't mean larger yards. Actually, the trend is for smaller yards and more common areas in neighborhoods.

At least two pricey developments in Pima County are currently boasting that they will be 80 percent open space. In the much more affordable Sierra Morado, nearly half of the 450-acre development is staying open.

The Tilleys say that their small backyard with mostly native plants allows them to do other things that are more important to them than yardwork.

Multiuse spaces

Being able to work at home is becoming a necessity, most commonly in the form of a home office that doubles as a guest room. The guest part can be a fold-out couch, an inflatable bed or, increasingly, a wall unit that hides a made-up bed.

Canatsey sees the home office as part of a broader trend toward multiple uses of various spaces in a home.

"With the cost of everything, you can't just let a guest bedroom sit there, 24-seven. It needs to be a multifunction room. It can be a sewing room, it can be a game room, it can be a whole bunch of things, and still be a guest room."

In the Mercado District, builders are taking the idea of a home office to the next logical step — building homes that are meant to have offices on the bottom floor and a home on top.

"Green" goes mainstream

You know that "green" building is more than a fad when the main arm of the housing industry here brags that its Parade of Homes will boast a federal Energy Star certification — the first custom-home subdivision in Southern Arizona to gain that distinction.

In addition to the newest energy-efficient appliances, air conditioners and solar water heaters, some of the Parade Homes dwellings will even generate their own solar electricity, while the 1,500-home Pulte subdivision includes an 80-gallon solar hot-water tank in every house.

Rebecca Boren is a local freelance writer.