Architectural notes on the not-so-big house

There is a new movement in home design these days that emphasizes the quality of the house over the size. The argument for quality over quantity is made in two excellent books by Sarah Susanka, The Not So Big House and Creating the Not So Big House. The main idea is that people would prefer to have a house with less square footage if they can get one with more meaningful features. The main "Not So Big" concepts are:

* Have various ceiling heights and room sizes in the house.

* Frame openings with beams or archways.

* Use a series of openings and different surfaces to visually layer space to define smaller areas within the larger space.

Applying these concepts allows a person to perceive the areas in a home as different three-dimensional spaces with their own moods and feelings.

The "Not So Big" idea of home design runs counter to the prevailing notion that homes must have more of everything to be attractive -- more bedrooms, more bathrooms, more garage bays, and dens and media rooms and studies. But if you reflect on it for a moment I think you will agree that many of the new homes today are just big for big's sake -- their sizes are all out of proportion to what is really needed to be functional and comfortable.

It's hard to find cozy spots in these big houses, and people feel like they are rattling around inside their unnecessarily large rooms. These typical new large houses are made large in an attempt by the builder to give buyers more square footage for the money, but quality often suffers in the bargain.

The alternative to these "mini-mansions" is a home where the spaces have been carefully crafted to serve the way people really live -- spaces that are created to be comfortable and visually enriching. Many conventional new homes have rooms that are hardly ever used like the formal living room and formal dining room. Instead of spending money on these useless rooms, it's better to spend it on the rooms where people usually eat and congregate in order to make them more rewarding.

The typical larger homes often offer luxury touches, but they have little individuality. A home designed using the "Not So Big" concepts of varying ceiling heights, framing openings and spatial layering better suits its owners' way of life. Different ceiling heights make spaces relate to human proportions differently, giving each space its own "feel." Framed openings make a smaller space more interesting by breaking it up visually. And spatial layering, using a series of openings and changing surfaces, defines individual areas within a larger space -- for instance the kitchen, dining room and family room can all have their separate identities while still being contained in a continuous, open space. And "pods" of space can be connected to larger rooms to create separate areas for reading, watching television, listening to music and the like.

Don't think the "Not So Big" home has to be small. It can be as big as the owners want it, but the spaces are better utilized than in a conventional home design. Therefore the home is not as big as it would be otherwise. And the "Not So Big" concepts don't have to apply to just high-end homes; even modest houses with a little more than a thousand square feet can become very special places to live. It's an attitude about what kind of house you want, the kind that's tailored to be uniquely yours, where you get more out of every square foot instead of just more square feet.

Samuel Moore is an architect with a private practice in Oklahoma City. He may be reached at 706-8245

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