Australia is dealing with a big housing crisis and the issue of “space creep” makes an increasingly bad housing crisis even worse. Experts, including Dr. Nicola Willand, emphasize that to achieve a sustainable housing future, homes cannot serve as the sole venues for all life’s activities. Household size in Australia has all but collapsed over the last twenty years. Yet this shift has largely produced a mismatch between the style of living spaces available and international style residents want or need.
The average floor area of newly constructed detached houses in Australia has recently peaked at 232 square meters. That’s a huge change from previous generations’ trends. Dr. Julie Collins highlights the necessity of considering “sufficiency” in housing to meet both environmental and housing targets in the country. Conversations continue around the country on how to address these issues. Innovative solutions such as the production of smaller homes and greater housing density are coming to the forefront.
Understanding ‘Space Creep’
Though Dr. Willand coined the term space creep to describe the slow, steady growth of home sizes. This trend is a result of cultural stigmas and consumer demand. This trend has led to increasingly larger homes on average despite a declining size of households. The typical new home in Australia is now about twice the size of those constructed in the 1950s.
According to Dr. Willand, sustainable housing needs to adopt a new way of thinking. “We need a certain amount of space, and if you’ve ever lived in a tiny apartment, and you were locked in there during COVID with children and you had to work from home, you will probably know what I mean,” she explained. This statement underscores the dual nature of space needs: while some may require more room for daily activities, others have discovered that less can indeed be more.
Third, Dr. Willand further contends that most studies do not establish clear thresholds for how much space is actually needed. “But at the other end, at the maximum, where we say, ‘oh my God it’s enough now, everything beyond this would be excessive,’ that is where we don’t really have thresholds,” she remarked. This lack of clarity plays into a self-perpetuating cycle where ever-larger homes are constantly sought after, even as demographics shift.
The Case for Smaller Homes
Adam Haddow, a Sydney architect who designed a 69 square meter house that recently won the 2023 Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture, provides an alternative perspective on living spaces. He illustrates that less homes are not only possible, but we can and should upend traditional conceptions of homeownership. “You could have the luxury of a large dwelling but with a really small footprint,” Haddow stated, emphasizing the importance of thoughtful design that maximizes utility without unnecessary excess.
The judges of the 2023 Robin Boyd Award praised Haddow’s design as a “spectacular example of a new approach to urban infill.” They told us it’s about time Australia got serious about shifting away from our longstanding dependence on the four-bedroom detached house. They argued that it was high time to abandon the Australian habit. The four-bedroom, single-family home on a quarter-acre lot shouldn’t be our only residential option.
Experts like Cameron Kusher have suggested that building smaller homes could help alleviate pressure on housing prices and reduce construction times. By encouraging designs through the planning process that favour resource efficiency and environmental care, Australia stands to make greater inroads into its increasing need for affordable housing.
Embracing Sufficiency for a Sustainable Future
With conversations around housing sufficiency starting to pick up steam, Dr. Collins makes the case for accepting and even celebrating more modest living quarters. If Australia is ever to meet its housing and environmental goals, she clarifies, sufficiency [housing] will have to come into play. Collins argues that the trends of the 20th century — particularly following American styles towards larger bungalows — must be reevaluated.
This reevaluation extends beyond just individual homes. It encompasses broader strategies for increasing housing density through what is termed “the missing middle.” This idea embodies the expansion of more purpose built units, multiplexes and semi-detached homes as an environmentally-friendly answer to the prevailing housing crisis. By increasing density in urban areas, not only can more people be accommodated, but environmental impacts can be mitigated through better land use.
The call for more density strikes a deep chord with voters who are squeezed by sky-high housing prices. More and more are coming to the realization that their housing needs do not require large, single-family homes with extra space to spare. As Elizabeth Farrelly points out, “We’re all taught to want as much as we can possibly get.” This shortsighted mentality has driven many of the challenges we face today to meet housing needs.
