Comments on: The Space Usage Experiment

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:58:35 +0000

I wonder if there is a way to add the sf component back into this discussion. Like mins/sf per day or something to that effect. In addition I think this little experiment is really only telling to each individual household, as everyone’s will be slightly different.

While I didn’t track my girlfriend’s and my time as I said I would, I did pay more attention to how we use our home. And I can definitely see that our house is bigger than we can fully use at this point. That being said I know as we settle in, and as our child (yet to be born) gets older we will more fully utilize our space. This isn’t very definitive, I know, but it does reassure me that when we purchased our home 3 months ago, we looked far enough into the future to know that we will not out grow our home anytime soon.

I guess the question remains, what other considerations justify space? Visiting relatives? Lot size? Future family size?

For my girlfriend and I, a 2000 sf home is a bit large, but it will continue to serve us through well into the future.

By: Nic Darling

Nic Darling — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:45:28 +0000

This experiment was definitely less about producing useful data (for all the reasons mentioned) than it was about asking people to evaluate their own space and how they use it. It obviously doesn’t need to be done in as detailed a manner as my wife and I did it, but I think everyone could put more thought in this direction.

Quality of time spent in a space is a great concept, as is a broader ranging experiment. Obviously our lifestyle is a very specific case and it would be great to get a feel for other ways of addressing space.

As Chad said, the 100k home definitely has a specific demographic (probably much like my wife and I), but there is a more broadly applicable lesson here I think. Rather than asking, how much space can I possibly afford, we should be wondering how much we actually need to live comfortably. We should also be asking how good design could possibly lessen the needed space. The answer is going to vary greatly based on lifestyle, but the question is the same.

By: Russell

Russell — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:54:01 +0000

Great experiment. There are so many veriables in this though.
Examples: Number of people, lifestyle, work at home, existing floor plan design, dissabillities, culture, religion, even regional diffrences.
Any ideas on how to do a more generalized experiment? I think Nic’s experiment might even yied diferent results if the plan of his home was more open, or like he said “if there was a TV in the living room.

By: darin

darin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:36:07 +0000

Nic,

Great experiment! It would be interesting to see how a family with kids would shake out. 2 years ago, it was only me, my wife and our two dogs…I would imagine our results would look fairly close to yours. Now we have 2 kids. Time on the town has decreased, TV time has decrease and time in the kitchen and bedrooms (changing diapers, etc.) has increased.

It would be hard to make my 10 week old sign in and sign out though…maybe we could judge his time spent in a space by diaper count.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:35:30 +0000

I would try this experiment in a heartbeat if I still lived in a house. We are currently living in an RV for 18 months while we travel the country, trying to figure out where we want to live. We just know Florida is NOT it. After that we want to build a house ourselves, and want to maximize our use of space, and we need to figure out how much we really need. Although, after living in a shoebox, I might need 4,000 sq. ft. to be happy…

By: chad

chad — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:02:33 +0000

Scoats brings up an important factor that we don’t always speak about here. We are designing for a specific demographic that lives in an urban environment and doesn’t spend a whole heck of a lot of time at home. We are designing more towards singles and couples rather than full families of 4 or more at this point.

Our demographic is pretty far removed from many average families that don’t live in an urban setting. We are not trying to push this specific home on everyone in the country. Far from it. I think what Nic is pointing out is simply the way that we look at how much space we really need wherever we are and whoever we are. This will be different for our demographic (Nic & Marie) than it will be for many of our readers, but the basic philosophy remains intact.

By: Scoats

Scoats — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:53:46 +0000

It’s an interesting and useful experiment, but you may have left an important aspect out.

You are only tracking quantity of time. I assert that you may want to work in some sort of weighting to capture quality of time spent in each room as well.

Another lesson may be that for many people the larger your house, the more likely you are to spend more time in it. And vice versa. I know I spend more time at home, now that I no longer live in a tiny house. I imagine that if I lived in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, I would never be home (living in NYC with so much to do 24/7 would justify living in a small space).

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:07:51 +0000

You’re obviously very disciplined to undertake an experiment like this. I wish I’d tried this myself before starting to design a new home. Maybe it’s not too late.

Thanks for the really interesting information.