The average house size is somewhere around 2500
square feet (1900 or so in the early 90's) and the average household size is 2.9
persons. This would seem to provide about 860 sq. ft. or so per household
member. I don't have the figures but imagine that this number per
household member exceeds the total average house size in the world - I
imagine that would probably be in the 600 -800 sq. ft. range. European household
size is smaller around 2.2 I think, Russia is about the same, china is given as
3.2, asia in general at about 4 and africa at about 6.
I don't know how accurate the above numbers are but
you can see the picture. One household member in the US occupies an area greater
than most households in the world with most of the world having a larger average
household size. When you consider the larger footprint of all the space we
use the personal real estate footprint would probably grow exponentially in
terms of the world at large. I would hate to consider that number.
Basically an old beratement - we occupy too much
space and consume too much.
Seth's comment that we think differently maintains
a positive sense of 'difference'. Perhaps we need to look at that. The word
that jumps to my mind is 'thoughlessness' which seems a contradiction when we
consider the number of decisions made in the design of a typical house (5000 or
so). When we look closely at that decision making process how many of them are
based on values of scale or economy? I'm working on a design where I'm
creating load scenarios for every joist to get a working sense of what the real
life minimum material usage would be that would work efficiently but durably.
I'm resenting the task and can't really be compensated for the time but can't
bring myself to not do it and am wondering why that task has less value than say
the choice of a countertop material. It has far more environmental value but
considerably less design appeal and design/cost rationale.
This raises another interesting design point. In
designing a floor loading for a specific usage am I limiting future usage of the
space - Is this a good or bad thing? Perhaps we have too much flexibility in
terms of space usage and can afford to set some limitations that begin to modify
how we use space.
John Salmen
TERRAIN E.D.S.
