Learn to Live the Not-So-Big Lifestyle

Image Gallery Architect and author Sarah Susanka has written a series of books on the “not-so-big” philosophy. CHERYL MUHR

Sarah Susanka is an architect and author. Ten years ago, she wrote The Not So Big House, which has recently been updated. Mother Earth News spoke with Sarah about her philosophy of “not so big” and how it relates to architecture and lifestyle.

What inspired you to become an architect?

I grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1971, so I was a teenager at the time. In England, things are a little bit smaller in terms of house design. One of the things that I noticed right away was that a lot of the space in American houses seemed to go unused. In some of my friends’ houses, the living room and dining room furniture still had plastic covers on. Why did they have it if they weren’t going to sit on it? That precipitated an interest in architecture, and I ended up going to architecture school. I was always really interested in house design.

What prompted you to write The Not So Big House?

I moved to Minnesota shortly after I graduated from the University of Oregon, and started my own firm with a partner. We started serving middle-class America and discovered that there was a large part of the population that wanted a better house design but didn’t know that architects were the people to go to — mostly because architects were known, at the time, for building big, expensive houses. We wanted to help people build smaller, better-designed houses, and we found a huge market.

After 15 years of serving that clientele, I got completely sick of telling clients “what you need is not square footage, what you need is character and quality.” So, I decided to write a book to put that whole theory down on paper.

There was an avalanche of interest from people who knew they wanted a different type of house but didn’t know how to ask for it, and didn’t know what to say to get that different kind of house.

How has your philosophy changed over the last 10 years?

I don’t know that it’s changed. We immediately realized that we were on to something. And there were few architectural builders serving this niche. So, based on our ability to grow in the Minneapolis and St. Paul market, I realized there was a substantial audience for a book like this.

What I didn’t realize was how many people would get on board once they read The Not So Big House. Architects and builders would tell me, “All I have to do is give your book to a client before we start work and they instantly understand what they want is a smaller, better designed house. They don’t need 4,000 square feet; they need 2,500 square feet.” Just putting these concepts into simple, nonarchitect language, helped people understand how to make a house better.