(Enterprise, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas. Photo credit: Crawfordian/flickr)
I’ve written that the average American house is growing in size at the same time the average American household is shrinking. There’s lots of green talk these days (greener this greener that) but we’re running up against a wall: it’s hard to make a bigger house more efficient for fewer people.
Sterile suburban towns and developments were born all around the country for the sake of increasing profit margins.
All this (more! bigger!) stuff makes a bigger impact on our environment. In all of the developed world, buildings consume about 40% of the world’s energy. In the U.S., 70% of all electricity goes towards our buildings and account for almost 40% of all CO2 emissions.
Sooner or later, we’re going to have to learn to share. I’d rather it be sooner, for the sake of my great great grandchildren’s children.
At this unique time in our nation’s history, when we’re operating so far beyond sustainable levels in so many ways, we have the ability to crack down on our increasingly inefficient housing industry. Here are just a few suggestions for the powers that be. Let me know your thoughts.
1. Build smaller homes
Let’s get rid of minimum size standards and implement maximum size standards based on family size. Those who want jumbo size homes in gated communities can go through a little extra hassle and pay some extra cash.
2. Build sensible communities
Combat suburban sprawl and bring the true cost of creating a new development under consideration (road development/maintenance, utilities, etc.). How about high-density, walkable neighborhoods, shared green space and more public transportation?
3. Build more efficiently
Any new construction has to abide by strict energy efficiency standards, both in the building process and in the ongoing energy consumption of the lived-in home.
4. Build it green
How about a carbon neutral home, passive solar design, super insulation, less harmful materials? Let’s set some greener standards in all new housing.
5. Don’t build at all
Share what we already have. Change our zoning laws to retrofit homes for multiple families. Infill neighborhoods.
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Great content. Hope the ideas you gave will catch on. Bigger is not better for people and the environment.
Good points, all – but just a note of clarification. Enterprise is a township with Clark County, Nevada. If anyone was to visit, they would quickly discover two things: 1) no one that lives there calls it “Enterprise” – they refer to it as “Las Vegas” because everyone that lives there has a Las Vegas mailing address. 2) All things considered, the township of Enterprise actually features a decent balance of residential, commercial, and retail development. It’s generally not characterized by the mega-McMansion sprawl that other areas of the Las Vegas MSA is known for – e.g. Henderson, Summerlin, etc.
Thanks guys and thanks for the clarification on Enterprise, NV.
Great ideas. I think that #2 is really important and I think reflects the change in thought process needed to implement the other ones.
I’m in the process of preparing for an international move…where I’m going it is exceeding rare for a family to live in a house bigger then around 1000 sq ft. I’m moving into an ~540 sq ft, 3 bedroom flat.
The concept of 2 people “needing” 2500+ sq ft seems, well foreign…
Hi Jesse: Thanks for writing in and I’ll be checking out your blog too.
NBC’s Today Show did a segment this week on downsizing — saying that 2000 square feet is the minimum comfortable home for a family of four. I question this number as we’ve seen lots of comfortable well-designed spaces much smaller.
Good luck with your move!
We have just had our weekly Community dinner with the family of three who share their land (8 acres) and their home (we use one of their bathrooms and plug in an extension cord to their garage and pay between $30-44 dollars a month for utility share). We are at the age when many Americans in past lifetimes would be RETIRED. Instead we are REASSEMBLING. It’s a verb that more realistically describes what we have found a necessary and grace-enhancing version of the American Dream’s Retirement. The ideas you site are good. Add to that equation that reality that many folks throughout the planet do not OWN nor truly choose not to OWN and would rather be TRAVELLERS.
We have been led to the TRAVELLERS and Gypsy life by EI (Environmental Illness), living simply and sharing land and space are three practices we use every day. A family walked by our VardoForTwo this morning … the young woman smiled and commented on our home, her father looked at our vardo and then quickly at The Big House across the driveway from where we camp. Like a cartoon in New Yorker Magazine what would you say was the caption?
Small is what nearly every BEING on the Planet experience as enough. Perhaps America is being given a chance to get real.
Aloha, Mokihana
I have just purchased a genuine tinyhouse (444 sq ft!) and had no idea there was such a strong movement for it in this country already! I am so glad to have found all of these wonderful online resources to help me as I settle into my new smaller space. I am not downsizing dramatically, but from a 750 sq ft apartment, single with 2 dogs and look forward to all the challenges and joys of living small.
Welcome, good luck and please share your experiences with us here in the blogosphere!
I especially liked number 5, “don’t build at all.” In metro-Atlanta (which is way-way over-developed) no vacant lot is safe!! A friend was stationed with her husband in the U.K. and in the tiny hamlet where they lived, it was strictly forbidden to build any new structure unless there was no existing structure available for refurbishing. Can you imagine that here in the U.S.? The contractors would go crazy! But, just think … if we repurposed old buildings for new (re)uses, there’d be no derelict buildings anywhere! We can only imagine.
Rando – Wouldn’t that be awesome here in America!!! But you’re right, we can only imagine.
I also think that a retailer shouldn’t be able to build a store within so many miles of another one. I mean, do we really NEED five fast food joints on every corner, three grocery stores within a block, etc. It makes me sick when I watch older homes, that were unlucky enough to have a busy street build up around it, get plowed down so another strip mall can open up in my area. As if we need more of those.
I bought a 950 sq ft home last year, which is huge by comparison to the tiny homes – but tiny by most American’s standards today. Most everyone I know just thought it was ridiculous to think me, my 10 year daughter and 2 cats could live in such a ‘small’ space. Obviously we function just fine our small-ish home and is plenty spacious to us! I tell everyone that will listen…
“If 2 people can’t live in over 900 sq ft…it’s not that the home is too small….you just have too much stuff!”
Right on Erin, congrats on buying your “small” home!