Incredible shrinking houses

Itty-bitty abodes quietly come back into vogue as the era of McMansions shows signs of peaking.

from the April 20, 2007 edition

Downsizing: Doug Stowe, a woodworker and teacher in Eureka Springs, Ark., stands near the 200-square foot cottage he built just up the hill from his home.

Courtesy of Doug Stowe

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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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