With an ever increasing awareness of the impact of energy usage on the environment and ever increasing energy costs, home sizes seem to be shrinking.
The size of the average home grew more than 50% between 1970 and today while the number of occupants decreased.
This movement toward downsized homes is not only driven by the economy. Not just the energy to heat and cool the home, but the personal time and money needed to maintain a larger home will continue to be a factor in this trend.
As smaller homes become the standard, they become more efficient in the use of space. In a smaller (thus easier to maintain) home, we do away with excess, unnecessary items and space that is not useful.
This all starts with rethinking how we live, what we need, and what we want. This mimics the paradigm shift we are all undergoing in our daily lives.
So tomorrow’s homes will fit our lives much better than the buildings we’ve often called home, but missed the humanity of a real home. We need to be diligent in maintaining this movement. Our lives will be much less out of control when we don’t have homes that are out of control. So let’s continue this trend from McMansions to McSmall.
Of course, I have to step up here and remind you that a timber frame lives larger than any other home. The open floorplans bring families together and the volume will make a small home feel larger. The homes can easily lend themselves to design with smaller private spaces to allow everyone to have their away space. Design well, live well.
That said, I’ll sign off.
