I have been thinking the last couple of weeks about what to write this exploratory essay on, and I thought since I’m an architect major, what are some pros and cons on having a tiny home. I know that we went over this a little bit when I introduced myself in class but I didn’t really think too much about this at that time. In the 1950’s homes were about 983 square feet and as time has gone on homes have gotten bigger, in 2010 the average home had 2,400 square feet. What are the pros of having a small house similar to the size that people in the 50’s did? What are the negatives of cons of having a small house?
I will begin with the good features and then address the negatives. It is general knowledge that the floor plans among homes vary. In my research I realized that home size is once again decreasing. According to Kaid Benfield’s blog post in 2012 he reasoned that these downsizing trends are expected to continue even after the economy recovers. I wonder if people are now discovering that additional square footage isn't desirable or necessary. Another difference I found was many of the homes built in the 50's era contained one shared bathroom. The current trend we are seeing in modern homes two or more bathrooms in every home. I had never thought of designing smaller homes, I have always had the vision of dreaming big, but I know now that bigger homes are not always the best to design.
I also found an article from ABC News by Heather Levin on her look of tiny homes, she says in there that one of the positives of a tiny home is that, you save more money, I know that was one of the things in class we discussed today and if people decided to own smaller homes, then they would have more money to help them with other needs that they may have. For me right now I don’t have a job, so I live with my parents but I know it always is nice when you can save money, in any aspect of life. She also mentioned that many people have bedrooms or even closets that are larger than some of these tiny homes and the thought of squeezing all of your worldly possessions into such a small space can be daunting. I have a lot of worldly possessions and my room isn’t very large, so I know how hard it is to get things to fit in a small space. I guess that means I need to priorities my worldly things better.
Levin also mentioned in her article some drawbacks in owning a small home, she said “you can’t have it all” in other