A is for Affordabale

What Size should a house be? What is the sweet spot for square feet, under roof, per person? These are not academic questions. Buildings may be measured in square feet, but they perform in cubic feet. An increase of 50% in plan can nearly double of the volume of a structure. That translates into two times the construction waste, the mechanical systems, the energy footprint, etc. Clearly smaller is better but how small is too small? If you have an opinion, please share it.

Perry, Mark. Today's new homes are 1,000 square feet larger than in 1973, and average living space per person has doubled. American Enterprise Institute, 2015.
Available from www.aei.org .

Adler, Margot. Behind the Ever-Expanding American Dream House. NPR, 2006. Accessed. Available from www.npr.org

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