What is the perfect size for a house?

“I think our house is a reasonable size.”

(Some recent words of wisdom at dinner time from our eight year old.)

“What do you mean by “reasonable” mate?”

“Well, it’s not toooo big, but it’s still big enough.”

Good on you kiddo. This feeling of being big enough is what architects mean when we talk about designing “efficiently” or rabbit on about “smart design”. Being efficient can have an ungenerous tone to it, but it’s really the most generous thing we can do for ourselves because of the options and freedoms it opens up. And the values it embodies. The value of having enough.

What do I mean?

If you are building a new home or extension, every square metre you don’t have to build:

>> saves you between $2,000 and $6,000+ on your build cost. That’s money you don’t have to spend, don’t have to borrow, or can choose to spend on higher end fixtures and fittings.

>> saves the planet about a tonne of embodied carbon dioxide. (CO2 emitted to make the physical building)

>> saves the planet 1.5 tonnes of operational carbon dioxide over the life of the building. (CO2 emitted to run heating, cooling, etc)

For example, saving just 10sqm through efficient design might be achieved by removing unnecessary corridors and circulation space, having a shared study/guest space, or designing an ensuite with dual access rather than having two separate ensuites. These powerful decisions about having enough could take $20,000 – $60,000 off your build cost, plus reduce the embodied carbon of the building by 10 tonnes and the operational carbon by 15 tonnes! Oh, and give you a gorgeous home.

This is how architects really earn their value.

Our family of four lives in a 135sqm home in inner Melbourne. The average new Australian home is a bit over 230sqm (ABS). (I blogged about an NGV exhibition that explores this very topic here). If there was ever proof that it is enough for us, I got it from from my eight year old son who has made me promise to “never sell this house.”

If you have a floorplan that you would like to get into shape, save your money, save a bit of the planet and create something gorgeous, have a look at our Floor Plan Review Service. Our Architect GPs work wonders!