Petite Mystique

18 Apr 2008 Ironically, one would have to be living under a rock in the middle of the forest to have missed the mainstream fascination with building and maintaining greener living spaces. Back in December 2007, actor Brad Pitt, teaming up with renowned eco architect William McDonough among others, announced a project to build 150 affordable, sustainable homes in New Orleans over the next two years. Online, businesses like Listed Green, a real estate MLS for eco-homes, are capitalizing on the interest as well. But with people’s love of living large, are some homeowners and builders missing the point when they employ sustainable technologies in behemoth, energy-sucking homes? The shift towards smaller houses isn’t perhaps a full-blown widespread wing of the green building movement just yet. But its early champions and adoptors appear to be paving the way towards a change of lifestyle and consciousness that could potentially be huge.

How huge exactly? The size parameters for what is considered a small home seem to vary from country to country, state to state, person to person. But, the two general markers seem to indicate under 1,500 square feet, and under 2,000 square feet respectively. Of course some of the trendier design-savvy custom and prefab cabin/studio structures seem more like large models than little houses. At 76 square feet the micro compact home by German designers m-ch Ltd., takes the small home fascination to artistic conceptual levels—the perfect aesthetic accompaniment to one’s miniscule Smart Car.

The story of small houses, particularly such compact design homes, does in fact begin overseas. “Living small [in Europe] was never a choice, but a necessity,” says Adam Eeuwens, author of False Flat: Why Dutch Design is So Good. He explains that the post World War II baby boom and a housing shortage caused Europeans to build smaller. But it wasn’t until the late ‘90s, says Eeuwens, that these “horrific brutal living complexes without any charm” would be replaced by more aesthetic designs by creatively zealous contemporary architects. Other popularity factors were the trend towards purchasing—over renting—houses, and an ongoing consciousness of energy conservation since the oil crisis of 1973.