Incredible shrinking houses

Some see Cusato's success as a sign of broadening acceptance of small homes.

"Jay Shafer [of Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.] may be the famous one for being at an extreme – under 80 square feet – so he gets on Oprah," says David Harned, a tiny-house devotee who runs the genre-celebrating website tinyhouses.net from his 1,200-square foot home in Kalamazoo, Mich. "[But] I think Ms. Cusato is the first to reach a broad audience with a genuinely small design that won't create a generation of claustrophobes."

Mr. Harned sees the pull of tiny houses as being as strong as that of tiny, efficient cars – an attraction that's intellectually appealing but that can represent a major life change. Full-time use often calls for support systems – communities with shared common spaces. The current "green building" trend and architects like Ross Chapin – who favors a dozen or so small homes arrayed around garden space – have boosted the number of small alternatives

Small-house building represents an art, Harned maintains. "It has to be true to [its chosen] style, and the proportions have to be just right or it kind of looks silly, and like an outbuilding more than a tempting place to go and investigate."

Here in Eureka Springs, woodworker and teacher Doug Stowe ripped old boards lengthwise to achieve proper scale with the siding on the 200-square foot getaway he built on a limestone ledge just up the hill from his unassuming main house.

Mr. Stowe's initial plan – inspired by a treehouse – was for a 7 foot or 8 foot by 10 foot cabin. Then his wife and young daughter asked where the sofa was going to go. "It morphed," Stowe says, into a slightly more elaborate retreat. Last fall he replaced the 100-foot extension cord from the main house with a small solar panel by the cabin, now used for overnights, though no bathroom – not even a composting toilet – is yet on the agenda.

"I'm so fascinated by space," Stowe says, adding that he doesn't understand gratuitous expansion. "I don't know what happened to people's scale of things."

Part of what happened, say Ms. Susanka and others: Too much emphasis has been placed on what is "needed" for home resale as opposed to what's needed for sustainable life.

"My experience is that there is a segment of the population who really love smaller spaces because they don't require nearly as much upkeep, they're much less expensive to run – all sorts of things," says Susanka, who lived briefly in a 96-square foot space in Oregon in the 1970s that required her to hang her Christmas tree upside-down from a rafter.

"They want something that's got quality and character, that's energy-efficient," she says. "It's sustainable design, but it's also something that makes them feel like it's a wonderful place to live."

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