Wondering if a smaller home could actually give you more of what you really want?

Discover why building less can be one of the most impactful sustainability decisions you make in your project.

Learn how to apply ‘enoughness’ to your design brief, and free up budget for quality where it really matters.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 405, and the first episode of Section Two of the 44 Ways to Create Your Sustainable Home series here on the podcast.

Section One, which we completed in our last episode, covered the foundational climate and site strategies: orientation, breezes, passive heating and cooling, and climate zones.

Section Two is called Sustainable Design Strategies. This section covers the bigger-picture design and process decisions that make a home more sustainable from a strategic planning and design level, before we get into the detail of specific systems and materials. Interestingly, these decisions can often be the most impactful for your home’s sustainability as well.

We are beginning Section Two with Way #5: Design a Smaller, Smarter Home.

Whether you’re building or renovating, a foundational choice in sustainability can be to simply create a home that has a smaller footprint. And to do this, your project can begin with asking the question: ‘what is enough home for us?’

It can be a challenging and confronting question to ask yourself. However, I also find many will enjoy this question as a total reframe in their project, a fantastic shift in their mindset and their approach to the home they’re creating. And from a sustainability point of view, the answer to this question can have profound and positive implications.

Bigger is not better, and quality over quantity will improve your everyday life, every time.

Australians build amongst the largest new homes in the world. In 2020, the data showed the average size was 235.8m2, with the USA tracking similarly at 233m2. More recent figures from 2025 have Australia dropping to 214m2. New Zealand follows closely behind at 202m2, with the USA at 201m2. 

By contrast, the average new home in the United Kingdom is approximately 76m2. In the Netherlands, around 117m2. In France, around 112m2. In Italy, 81m2. In Sweden, 83m2.

Australia’s average household size is 2.5 people per dwelling, which has dropped from 1911’s figure of 4.5 people per household. So we are building homes 2 to 3 times larger per person than many of our international counterparts, while a significant proportion of that space, on most days, is unused. You are heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning, and potentially paying a mortgage on rooms that no one is in.

Enoughness, in the context of home design, building and renovating, explores sufficiency.

What meets the need we have for our homes, and our lifestyle in them. It does not mean minimalist, or uncomfortable, or spartan.

It means appropriate. Proportionate. Designed for the way you actually live.

Every square metre you do not build is a square metre of building material you do not need. It is floor area that does not need to be heated, cooled, lit or cleaned. It is budget that can be redirected into better finishes, better appliances and better building envelope performance. It is time you save in construction. And it is potentially outdoor space you gain, with a more pleasant connection between the inside and outside of the home.

In this Episode, I cover:

• The data on Australian and international home sizes, and how household sizes have changed over the last century
• Why ‘enoughness’ is a more powerful frame for sustainable home design than efficiency alone
• Why an energy-efficient large home isn’t the same thing as a genuinely sustainable home
• A practical framework for interrogating your design brief, before any drawings are produced
• Specific questions to ask about living areas, bathrooms, garaging, study and guest spaces, and how to make rooms work harder
• How building less creates compounding benefits across embodied carbon, operational energy, budget, build time and outdoor connection
• The single question I’d love you to sit with before your next design conversation

Plus a whole lot more.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

RESOURCES

CommSec Home Size Report (Australian home size data) >>> https://www.commbank.com.au/content/dam/caas/newsroom/docs/CommSec%20Homes%20Size%20Trends%20Report_201106.pdf 

Your Home (Australian Government resource) >>> https://www.yourhome.gov.au/ 

Episode 237 ‘Designing Your Home Using ‘Enoughness’ with Jane Hilliard from Designful’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-designing-your-home-using-enoughness-jane-hilliard-designful/ 

Episode 243 ‘After Discussing Enoughness’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-after-discussing-enoughness-amelia-lee/ 

Earth Home Economics: Rebecca Adamson and “Enoughness” >>> https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/moral-landscapes/201610/earth-home-economics-rebecca-adamson-and-enoughness 

’44 Ways to Create a Sustainable Home’ e-guide >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/ways 

Access the support and guidance you need to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my signature online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/