Issue Date: March 19, 2006

Architecture

Little big homes

Forget McMansions. Many homeowners are looking to downsize their living space.

By Rosemarie Colombraro

HOME PRICES and sizes have soared in recent years, but not everyone needs -- or can afford -- to supersize. In fact, the demand for smaller homes seems inevitable when you consider that single people occupy nearly 27% of all households.

Tired of using more space than he really needed, California-based designer Jay Shafer started the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company (tumbleweedhouses.com) in 1999 after building his own 100-square-foot home.

Like Shafer, most people who are interested in his custom-built homes are concerned about the environmental effects of huge houses and want to save energy. Among Tumbleweed's most popular models: the 96-square-foot Front Gable (starting at $38,990) and the 500-square-foot B-52 Bungalow ($680 for plans only).

At Tryon Farm (tryon-farm.com) in Michigan City, Ind., about an hour outside of Chicago, the small home idea is married with land stewardship. Three-quarters of the housing plan's 170 acres of farmland is protected from development. Homes, which typically range from 465 to 800 square feet, share space with meadows and woodland, which is community owned and managed.

"It is an old idea whose time has come around again," says Sarah Susanka, who co-wrote "Inside the Not So Big House." "The average homeowner wants beauty and quality but can't afford one of these enormous houses."

Most of today's home sales are geared toward families that will grow in time, Susanka says. "We still think of three bedrooms and a two-car garage and a nuclear family, and we don't realize all these other family structures (like singles and empty-nesters) that desperately need a different model," she says.

Corazon del Pueblo, a development in Tucson that offers traditional structures as well as zero-energy homes (which produce as much energy as they consume), sells 616-square-foot models starting in the $130,000s. Builder Ted Bednar of Tucson-based TJ Bednar Homes (tjbednar.com) says, "It's going to allow people who aren't even dreaming of affording a home to enter the market."

The Greenwood Avenue Cottages development in Shoreline, Wash., created by Seattle-based Cottage Company (cottagecompany.com), won the American Institute of Architects' Housing Committee Award for single-family homes in 2005. The project was developed under a unique city code that limits single home size to less than 1,000 square feet. The cottages (above) sold out quickly, and they rarely come up for resale.

To find a small home builder, search the directory at notsobighouse.com.