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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the tiny-homes dept.

Downsizing the McMansion: Study gauges a sustainable size for future homes:

What might homes of the future look like if countries were really committed to meeting global calls for sustainability, such as the recommendations advanced by the Paris Agreement and the U.N.'s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Much wider adoption of smart design features and renewable energy for low- to zero-carbon homes is one place to start -- the U.N. estimates households consume 29% of global energy and consequently contribute to 21% of resultant CO2 emissions, which will only rise as global population increases.

However, a new scholarly paper authored at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) assesses another big factor in the needed transformation of our living spaces toward sustainability -- the size of our homes.

The paper published in the journal Housing, Theory & Society makes the case for transitioning away from the large, single-family homes that typify suburban sprawl, offering new conceptions for what constitutes a more sustainable and sufficient average home size in high-income countries going forward.

The article surveys more than 75 years of housing history and provides estimates for the optimal spatial dimensions that would align with an "environmentally tenable and globally equitable amount of per-person living area" today. It also spotlights five emerging cases of housing innovation around the world that could serve as models for effectively adopting more space-efficient homes of the future.

"There is no question that if we are serious about embracing our expressed commitments to sustainability, we will in the future need to live more densely and wisely," said Maurie Cohen, the paper's author and professor at NJIT's Department of Humanities. "This will require a complete reversal in our understanding of what it means to enjoy a 'good life' and we will need to start with the centerpiece of the 'American Dream,' namely the location and scale of our homes.

"The notion of 'bigger is better' will need to be supplanted by the question of 'how much is enough?' Fortunately, we are beginning to see examples of this process unfolding in some countries around the world, including the United States."

Maurie J. Cohen. New Conceptions of Sufficient Home Size in High-Income Countries: Are We Approaching a Sustainable Consumption Transition? Housing, Theory and Society, 2020; 1 DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2020.1722218


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:29PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:29PM (#969148)

    I have some nitpicks but I mostly agree with you.

    I really think McMansions are sold to the public as a hidden trade off. "In a small property you need to take time to de-clutter and organize. In a huge property, you don't. Since you're so busy working because we spent the last fifty years stripping away the progress of the labor movement, you don't have time any more. As a solution, I give you the McMansion. And the best part is, since it costs more to buy and to heat and cool, you'll be working even longer hours! But it's okay, because you have all that space."

  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:44PM (3 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:44PM (#969281)

    I don't even think it's that, it's just the equivalent of a 1970s gas-guzzler. I've visited friends who live in McMansions and, at least in some cases, seen rooms completely empty of anything because they were superfluous. Even when they were furnished, it was very sparsely, and from the condition of the carpet it looked like they had little to no use. They don't need, or have a use for, a house that big, but the property came with a McMansion preinstalled so that's what they live in.

    Which also means that an economic analysis of this is pointless, do you want to be the only person on your street who doesn't live in a McMansion? Or, if all the places available to buy are McMansions, are you going to bulldoze it and build a tiny home in its place? It's a social issue, not an economic one.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by toddestan on Wednesday March 11 2020, @02:55AM (2 children)

      by toddestan (4982) on Wednesday March 11 2020, @02:55AM (#969450)

      A big part of it seems to be that's all they build as single family homes go. You either get a McMansion, or something like a townhome with a shared wall. Nothing in between. If you want a small single family home, go buy something built in the 50's. If you want something a bit larger, go find a neighborhood built in the 70's or 80's.

      Even if you find a place where you can buy the land and then build your own house, you'll find a bunch of rules and restrictions on what you can build (minimum square feet, so many garage stalls, restrictions on building materials and style, etc.) that all the houses end up pretty much the same anyway.

      If you want to build a smaller home, you basically have to go way out of the city and build it in a rural area.

      • (Score: 2) by dry on Wednesday March 11 2020, @04:38AM (1 child)

        by dry (223) on Wednesday March 11 2020, @04:38AM (#969486) Journal

        It's more profitable for the builders to build a McMansion.

        • (Score: 2) by toddestan on Thursday March 12 2020, @12:50AM

          by toddestan (4982) on Thursday March 12 2020, @12:50AM (#969958)

          Yeap, that's a big part of it. Builders found out that in many ways, the cost of things like pouring the foundation, doing the plumbing, installing the flooring, etc. isn't that much cheaper in a small home than a big home. Yet they can sell the big home for a lot more money. Hence one of the reasons homes got bigger.

          Same thing with autos. Jacking up the suspension, throwing bigger tires on, and adding some plastic cladding is cheap, but now it's a SUV that you can sell for way more money.