ËëYou see these humongous bathrooms that just go on and on and on,'' she said in a recent telephone interview. What's needed, she suggests, is more efficient use of space, based on how we really live.
She argues that most Americans could - and should - scale back on their house plans by as much as one-third, and live just as well, if not better. ëëApparently, we save the living room for people we don't really want in our house.''Īfter two decades in the field, Susanka has developed a vision, voiced in her ëThe Not So Big House (1998) and its sequel Creating the Not So Big House (2000), both published by Taunton Press. ËëAs soon as they decided that I was someone they could trust, they'd say, ëLet's go in the kitchen for coffee,''' she said. Susanka chuckles as she remembers uneasy first meetings with clients for whom she was designing houses. The only time anyone sits down in the living room is when a clergyman or a fussy aunt comes to call. ëëThe vast majority of formal living rooms never get used,'' said Susanka. Many busy families, with both parents working and children on the go, grab a quick meal at the kitchen table instead. Otherwise, the big dinner table's normally bare - except, maybe, to hold unopened mail. Today, it might see service on Thanksgiving and the occasional family reunion. A century ago, large families gathered there for every meal, waited on by hot-and-cold running servants. Too many of those dreams, she added, are based on models of the 1800s that do not fit the way we live any more. ëëPeople tend to overdo it, based on dreams in our society,'' said the architect, who was voted one of the ëëtop global leaders'' of 2000 by Newsweek magazine and one of the nation's top innovators by U.S. Sarah Susanka thinks your house is probably too big.
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