"Web-Nesting" - Adaptive Dwellings for Flexible Homing Solutions
- lauraweber106
- Apr 7
- 9 min read
"Web-Nesting" is a morphing concept inspired by the Birds! It's a Nature-based Solution (NbS) for families hosting both aging parents and/or young adult children not quite financially/emotionally ready to leave the nest. It's also sustainable and great for the biosphere. This "morphing home" concept is offered compliments of VI(W)P's - Very Important (Wood)Peckers!
Woodpeckers excavate nest holes in trees for habitat across North America. This isn't the only reason they peck, of course. Faint, barely audible pecking is often in the interest of food/insect foraging. Their loudest, most impactful drumming is reserved for mating and area staking - especially drumming on metal and other highly resonant surfaces. It's their hole-excavating that is most interesting for the versatility and opportunity the cavities provide for more than just their woodpecker-kin. Holes in trees excavated by VI(W)P's provide outstanding re-homing options for a wide variety of species because they are off the ground, protected from predators, and provide dry havens to roost and raise their young. (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/hole-story-how-woodpeckers-make-homes-forest/)
Northern flicker woodpeckers, famously deferential in yielding their nesting holes, provide flexible nesting options for many other species of songbirds, raptors, and rodents. Mountain bluebirds, kestrels, saw-whet owls, buffleheads and hooded mergansers (ducks), along with mice, weasels, and squirrels, find re-homing opportunities by inhabiting abandoned woodpecker holes, or outright eviction. Based on the concept of the "Food Web," where whole eco-systems thrive on common food sources, "Nest Webs" link many species sharing the same habitat resources. One home, many options for diverse inhabitants. It's what I like to call "Web-Nesting," and we can imitate it for our homing needs.
What can we learn? Times are urgent. Let's slow down.
Sustainable homing - once a staple of material investment stability - has become a risky prospect in 2025. As geopolitical uncertainty roils choices influencing homing, including market stability, home affordability, and interest rates for first-time homebuyers and empty nesters hoping to downsize, soaring home insurance coverage in the context of more frequent, more severe storms, dwindling retirement resources, increasing costs of medical care, and shaky income security, "Web-Nesting" might provide a Nature-inspired solution for sustainable, adaptable, family-oriented homing for the future.
Living Trusts for children and "Upstream Gifting" for elders are ways to lay financial groundwork for sharing intergenerational homing resources. Transferring generational wealth has been an economic strategy for family solvency since home ownership became embedded in the American "dream." But living well - and sustainably - has mostly eluded us. Our homes "fit" our changing families only for a while, and then we tend to move on to a new nest. We need to adopt the crucial adaptability that Nature can teach us for sustainable dwellings that morph to fit life's changes.
Designing a morphable home for elders to "age in place," as well as providing flexible space for young adults trying to spread their wings is both attractive from a financial standpoint, and feasible from a design standpoint - without sacrificing the two oft-cited reasons for resistance to co-homing: "Space" and "Privacy." (Objections 1 & 2 below) The "Web-Nest" needs to be designed for diverse homing styles, requiring resourceful imagination and creative planning. And the possibilities to make the Nest a home for everyone as we change and grow are endless!
We could try finding a needle-in-a-haystack home that has a perfectly-suited duplex or three-story dwelling in the perfect neighborhood, or a sprawling ranch with two-three primary/en-suites. It might take a while to find it, and be frustrating for all the stakeholders if it still doesn't quite fit. Some families choose to do this, and still need to remodel once they find their unicorn.
"Web-Nesting" is often the next consideration. It might seem intimidating to remodel the family's current home. However, it is completely feasible if the footprint allows, and the neighborhood location is desirable already. Creative design with accessibility is key.
Think of it this way, financially speaking: Who is primarily bearing the financial burden of default moving? What is the transfer expense (i.e., down payment, closing costs, financing, renovation, repairs, and maintenance) of two-three-four homes bought and sold over the course of a family's evolutionary growth trajectory? Calculate the expense for several generations, each move occurring for events like birth, marriage, divorce, graduation, retirement, death or other life circumstance. Who is paying for all these moves? Up-scaling, down-sizing, furnishing, re-furnishing, even window treatments, minor cosmetic changes, major repairs to HVAC, plumbing or electrical, structural breaches, and everything in between. Do they all require moving to a different home?
Now, what is the cost of several generations remaining in one beloved home if the bones are good and if the neighborhood is a good fit, by renovating, by designing for life as it morphs, and passing it on over the course of a lifetime to future generations?
Don't get stuck for a lack of design ideas! If we follow the concept of "Web-Nesting," we can repurpose any existing home as the family morphs. We could begin with any design, even the most unique, like a Hobbit House! See what you love most about it, and what isn't working. Then find a designer you trust, and co-create a flex home:
Here's a way to take a simple ranch and retro-fit it for aging parents who need safe, well-lit, relaxing space near the kids, and a gorgeous screened-in porch for proximity to Nature for patch-birding and gardening.
Here's a beautiful flex home for three generations designed around a beloved tree, with sliding doors that offer access to extra beds and baths in each section that can shift with change, as well as common kitchen and living areas that can accommodate every generation's needs.
Building "UP" by adding a second floor, or burrowing down by finishing basement space, or sprucing up a shed or garage on a small lot footprint might make the most sense for a family that is morphing. And don't forget the versatility of a FROG room (front room over garage) or a bonus room that is just waiting for a creative upgrade.
OR, here's a prefab home design idea for those with a bit of land who can imagine common space in the middle, flanked by "pods" of private bed/bath space, or "accessory dwelling units" (ADUs) that are connected to a main living space. This is a really cool option if you have land where you can imagine your dream home for intergenerational living. Versatility + Design!
We might ask ourselves, do we have the disposition or "Soul" for intergenerational living? Will it benefit our family? Two mindset-roadblocks to "Web-Nesting" reflect a craving for "Space" and "Privacy." World War II (WWII) represented a shift in our thinking about Privacy from our extended family, not just outside influences. Families were simply tired of "living on top of one another." They craved "personal space."
Prior to WWII, in the Depression Era, when intergenerational living was at its zenith, design models were not only imaginable, but standard. "Web-Nesting" provided financial stability and transferability, aging-in-place, and ample adult-coaching for the young who were struggling for autonomy and social maturity. The downsides of limited privacy and "personal space" - e.g., shared groceries, telephone lines, laundry lines, even shared bathroom lines, propelled many to seek homing further away from extended family members and proximity to work settings, since daily travel also shifted from public to private transport.
Post-WWII, the rise of the baby boomers and the suburbs coincided with mass production of automobiles, highway and housing construction boon, shifting race and class dynamics, and the rise of "nursing (elder) homes" to house the "non-productive" members of society, our elders. Living the "American Dream" of home-ownership involved mass separation of intergenerational family units, with a clear preference for open space, excessive storage in large garages, built-in cabinets for more storage, and closet spaces for storing mass-produced disposables, rather than housing members of the extended family.
Urban sprawl wasn't great for the biosphere either. Expansive turf lawns requiring excessive water and maintenance replaced low-maintenance wildflower/pollinator fields, communal green spaces, parks and gardens. Developments often used chemical pesticides and herbicides, leaching into watersheds, toxifying waterways. New construction often required clear-cutting trees for access and machinery, polluting air, and destroying fertile soil content and biodiverse wetlands in the process. Ironically, urban sprawl meant cutting down oaks, pines, and hickories and renaming suburban streets after the removed tree species: e.g., "Pineview Court" and "Pin Oak Drive." Massive loss and extinction followed in our wake. Pollinator wildflowers and native wild animals were decimated for bland-scape sub-divisions of cheap, mass-produced homes. We had open spaces, yes, big boxes of open space, but few life forms could live there healthfully, not even the humans. Mature trees that were lost provided not only habitat for all the creature-kin, but healthy soil stabilization, potable water filtration, and breathable air. For all our open space, we couldn't breathe from severe allergies and asthma. With barely an ornamental tree in the front yard of new builds from the remaining or non-existent "landscaping budget," we neglected the very Earth-Home that provides sustenance for environmental health and wholeness.
What's left in the wake of suburban sprawl is what's unraveling in our current geopolitical crisis. Geopolitical instability is adversely affecting the housing market, along with this insatiable desire we have for "Space" and "Privacy." But concerns about "Space" and "Privacy" need not be a roadblock to "Web-Nesting."
Objection #1 - Space:
We crave, "More space, more space, more space," but what we really need is to open our mind, focus our creative attention, and slow down, spend time. This is demonstrated through consciousness research.
Our concept of "Space" is created by a conscious awareness of our environment, and spending more focused time in a place means our perception becomes more expansive as we focus our attention. "The findings, published in Nature Neuroscience on December 29, 2022, show that neurons in the hippocampus essential for spatial navigation, memory, and planning represent space in a manner that conforms to a nonlinear hyperbolic geometry—a three-dimensional expanse that grows outward exponentially. (In other words, it’s shaped like the interior of an expanding hourglass.) The researchers also found that the size of that space grows with time spent in a place. And the size is increasing in a logarithmic fashion that matches the maximal possible increase in information being processed by the brain." (https://www.salk.edu/news-release/the-brains-ability-to-perceive-space-expands-like-the-universe/)
Our desire for "Space" is a matter of how long, and HOW WELL we spend time there. We may have a "small" backyard, bedroom, living room, or reading nook, but if we spend a great deal of focused time there, it becomes more expansive with our direct and nuanced experience of the space. That is why, as adults, when we return to childhood homes or play spaces, we are amazed at how small they seem to us as adults, when as children, they felt quite expansive. Our experience of space is directly proportionate to the amount of focused time we spend in a place, and the fertile content of our imagination. Slow down and focus on the space. See potential. Our bodies grow, but our imagination and focused attention seem to shrink.
Objection #2 - Privacy:
"Privacy" is also an interesting concept. "Privacy" in a home setting is a genuine (posthuman) concern that holds autonomy as a high value. With respect to privacy from outside the core family, it may include "protection" from cyber-monitoring if the home is perceived as a "sanctuary" from online activity, or as a respite from techno-stimulus overload from "ALWAYS ON" hyper-activity. Our over-stimulated neural networks require occasional unplugging to safeguard from addiction, or the less extreme effects - burnout, depression, anxiety, and/or social isolation. Sadly, the "Privacy" we crave at home - and the ensuing isolation for those suffering from social anxiety disorders - means added "surveillance" if we immerse ourselves more fully in online activity at home.
It is the constant surveillance from cyber-intrusion that has us psychologically jumpy, our reptile brains always on alert. Smart homes and smart phones may be exacerbating the issue. If we are running to Home as a refuge FROM outside-the-family intrusion, do we really want to keep the extended family out as well? If not, "Home" might simply reinforce the paradigm of extreme social disengagement. Instead of mostly inter-human interaction and communication, "Home" can be mostly closed-door, divided silo experiences of t.v. and social media addiction, where purposeful separation from others living in the domicile, masquerading as "privacy," rules. Inter-personal communication and intimacy are not always valued in this model. If not at home, where are these of value?
Lack of "Privacy" within family units is not a primary threat to our well-being in most cases. We can always close a bedroom door for a time, or practice Shinrin Yoku to ground and center ourselves. Unless neglect and abuse are at issue (in which case, seek help!), "privacy" from family members can be managed by creating intentional retreat spaces - "Soulscapes" - through great home design. These spaces can be adapted - and offer an opportunity for fresh ideas and creativity as life circumstances shift over the years!
"Web-Nesting" is a creative way to invite something newly imagined, something cool and retro without nightmares of unwanted intrusion on privacy. Design can help with sound-proofing, for example, or bathroom access in case of an emergency. Web-Nesting can offer design solutions that are good financially, psychologically, and emotionally healing for the whole - sustainably resilient and gentle for the biosphere. And healthy homes for us humans means healthy life outside the walls - refreshing green spaces that are also hospitable to our more-than-human kin, domestic and wild. Web-Nesting is for the wider "We;" we all benefit from healthy homing.
Ready to give it a try? If you'd like further information on "Web-Nesting," or designing spaces at home for the needs of your changing family, please reach out. I'd be delighted to help you consider some possibilities!
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