Over the last few decades, our lifestyles have changed, but the types of homes in which we live have not. That’s the driving thought behind Making Room: Housing for a Changing America, a new exhibition that examines possibilities for better housing, which opens at the National Building Museum (NBM) in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. Through analysis of residential and zoning codes, case studies, and a centerpiece 1,000-square-foot demonstration home constructed within the NBM galleries, museum visitors will gain insight into flexible living arrangements that suit a variety of scenarios now more common than the nuclear family.

The exhibition begins with an analysis of current housing conditions by the Citizens Housing & Planning Council (CHPIC), conveyed through infographic charts and introductory text. Despite a marked decline in nuclear families—or married couples with children—much of the housing stock is still geared toward this family type. However, lifestyle changes have reduced nuclear families (now only twenty percent of current national households), and increased other modes of living. Single people make up a much larger demographic proportion; yet only 11.63 percent of housing stock is one-bedroom, with studios making up just 0.87 percent. The other 87.5 percent of housing stock comprises two-, three-, four-, and five-bedroom houses.