Atlanta residential designer Stephen Fuller calls his take on this the "family studio." It might include a spot near the kitchen for dining, a space for a home office, a place for the kids to do homework or play, a music area and a media center. And the aesthetic doesn't suffer, says Fuller. "Because of improvements, inventive ideas, setting appliances into cabinetry, we can integrate all these activities into one continuing, flowing space that merges through to the kitchen." The disappearance of interior walls leaves you wondering just what's holding the house up (relax—new building materials have taken up the slack), but it's part of a bigger design trend to bring what is inevitably called a good "flow" to the house. It's all about how these satellite areas connect to one another and the rest of the floor plan.

And the flow doesn't stop at the back door. Patios and decks once performed like seasonal attractions that closed up shop when the leaves fell. But there is now a desire to connect with the outside that is expressing itself in more conscious design for indoor-outdoor living. The deck becomes another room, one without walls, without a roof. So naturally it too needs to be part of the flow. And it has to be outfitted with a killer barbecue and outdoor fireplace. Even the bathroom is being extended via enclosed outdoor showers.

As any teenager will tell you, all this family togetherness has its limits—like, 15 minutes, O.K.? But their parents have discovered their own not-so- secret antidote in the luxurious master suite. It's well beyond a bedroom, with sitting areas, breakfast bars, exercise rooms, computer rooms and his-and- hers walk-in closets so customized they can alphabetize their socks.

The bathroom really isn't just one room anymore. The walk-in steam shower with water-gulping multiple showerheads—"a human car wash," one builder calls it—has supplanted whirlpool baths for hydro hedonism, although oversize tubs are still part of the picture. The toilet is also in separate quarters, as are the dual sinks and vanities, which can lead into the closets, which can have separate exits to the hallway so early risers can avoid disturbing a sleeping spouse. Now add chandeliers, imported European fixtures and enough Italian marble to make a bishop covetous, and you've got an idea of what "master bath" really means.

Which leads to the slightest bit of introspection about the master suite: Aren't we being a little too selfish? After all, most of this added space is coming out of children's bedrooms, which are being reduced to 11-ft. by 11-ft. cubicles, the idea being to flush Junior out into the open.

The answer, thank goodness, is no. The seemingly paradoxical combination of large informal areas and walled off, elaborate master suites makes perfect sense, says Bernard Beck, a sociologist at Northwestern University. As children have become more powerful and vocal, and present, adults have a greater need to pull back. "I love my children, and I spend enormous amounts of time with them—there is no escaping them," chuckles Veronica Fowler, a mother of three, who added a new master bedroom suite next to the expanded living room. "But there is (the idea of) creating a buffer zone. I desperately want a calm, clean, quiet place where I can go—maybe just for 15 minutes if I'm lucky—and read a book."

It's not as if the average couple is going to spend languorous hours in their suites—not so long as the home office has anything to say about it. Architects now take it for granted that they will have to include some sort of work space in home plans. Says Atlanta builder David Chatham: "It's really almost a must. It may have started out with people telecommuting, but at least in the Atlanta area, with all the traffic, a lot of people are aiming to miss the peak-traffic times." The newest trend, for people who can afford it, is for each adult to have his or her own home office. Ahron and Sheera Solomont of Brookline, Mass., are sales reps for the same company, yet they have separate home offices. Their computers are networked so they can share files. Ah, modern romance!

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