Micro Homes

[Guest Alphonsox]

Interesting piece in today’s Guardian regarding plans to scrap the minimum size guidance for new homes. Apparently the current 37m2 is too big and this week's housing white paper is likely to remove this restriction.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/11/welcome-rabbit-hutch-britain-land-ever-shrinking-home

[ProDave]

Mixed feelings on this one.

 

Our static caravan is 28 square metres and into that fits a living room / kichen / dining room, 2 bedrooms, a WC and a shower room.  That layout would not pass building regs for a "house" because it would not meet any of the "accessability" rules that force a certain amount of space in front of showers, toilets, kitchen "circulation" space, corridor widths, even space needed next to a bed.

 

I found all these accessability rules very restricting on what you can do when designing our new house. Wider stairs and provision to fit a stair lift in the future, leaving space and provision to fit a downstairs shower etc.

 

So to get a more compact house it's building regs that have to change, not planning law.

 

I guess most people who would like to make smaller homes are builders wanting to make smaller apartments so they can get more into a block?  If a self builder wanted to make a particularly small detached house, then he can do so already by building a "portable building" and be exempt from building regs (as it's classed as a "caravan" in law so exempt from BR)

 

 

[Onoff]

There was a very good piece in The Times last year, I actually saved the page. Too big to scan and I'd probably fall foul of some copyright thing:

 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tiny-homes-become-the-next-big-thing-smnj8ns9t

 

It's on about "Twodios" being built in London at 29sq.m. Two beds each with en suite and kitchen area but hardly any living area.

 

There's a lovely little plan in the article for a 5 x 6m flat with wet room, double bedroom etc.

 

Garden room? 

[PeterW]

I use AirBnB a lot and it's surprising the places you end up staying and how they have made a small space very useable. Some have managed to get the whole studio flat concept into a small room and it works - not saying I would want to spend a whole month in one but they can serve a purpose. 

 

If you want to see micro homes on a large scale just look at student accommodation - most new builds are ensuite and some are now even having their own kitchens. 

[Ferdinand]

Interesting Headline:

 

"

Welcome to rabbit-hutch Britain, land of the ever-shrinking home

"

 

Paragraph 7:

Quote

In 2014, researchers from Cambridge University found that, at an average of 76 sq m, the UK’s newly built homes were the smallest by floor area in Europe. 

 

Paragraph 19:

 

Quote

A report entitled Goodness Spacious Me published by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) in December found that the average size of a new-build home increased by nearly 15% between 2008-09 and 2015-16 – from 801 sq ft (74 sq m) to 918 sq ft (85 sq m).

 

The data table prominently displayed is from the first - older - one of those two studies. They do not link to the report that seems to render the screeching headline untrue.

 

I am not saying don't read it, but reinforcing my previous point about our media and accurate reporting.

 

I have added a comment,  but last time (the "acoustic guitars were designed in the shape of women's bodies" myth they simply deleted the request for factual information 4 times).

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited February 11, 2017 by Ferdinand
The ever-expanding forum post

[Jeremy Harris]

I'm with Dave on this - it's the building regulations that determine a lot of the spaces in, and around, new homes.  Those regulations are designed to ensure that ALL new homes are able to be lived in by anyone, whether able-bodied or disabled.

 

For years we've been making homes more accessible, for people with limited mobility, impaired vision etc, so do we now decide that we are going to have two categories of new houses, those for able bodied people only and those that can be lived in by anyone?

 

Much as I dislike having to have sockets half way up walls and light switches too low, as well as ramps to external doors, low door thresholds etc, I can fully understand why we have those regulations.  My father was disabled and a wheelchair user for most of the time I knew him.  Our 1930's built house had to be extensively modified to allow him access; all the ground floor doors had to be replaced with wider ones, a shower room had to be added as an extension, a sixth bedroom had to be built as an extension on the ground floor and even then there were areas he struggled to be able to access.

 

I have a good friend who's paraplegic, and usually uses a slim and lightweight wheelchair, but can use leg braces and crutches to get about (slowly) using just his upper body strength.  He cannot get into our current house in his wheelchair, just because of the combination of steps at both doors and the sharp angle between the door opening and the hallway.  Those here who've visited our new build will have seen that I've fitted wide doorways everywhere, and that we have flat thresholds for all the internal doors,  There's also a gentle ramp, with a wheelchair turning area outside the back door and I arranged the size and position of the downstairs WC to accommodate a wheelchair alongside the WC, to make transfers easier.  I went a lot further than Part M requires, purely because I know that my friend wants to come and visit.  I even had him visit during the build, before I fitted the downstairs WC, to get his opinion on things, and his feedback led to me fitting that WC on a 30mm plinth, just to make it easier for him (or other wheelchair users) to use.

 

As this is to be our last home, I also thought about things like being able to get upstairs when we're older, and put in bracing and mounting points behind the wall alongside the stairs to make fitting a stair lift easier.  I also left space at the bottom for it to be "parked", out of the way.  Finally I designed my study, on the ground floor, so that it could easily be converted to a bedroom with a shower and access to the downstairs WC if it was ever needed.

 

So, micro homes are a neat idea, but inherently discriminatory against people with limited mobility.  Are we OK with that as a concept?

Edited February 11, 2017 by JSHarris
typos, extra"," and a missed out "there's"

[SteamyTea]

I live in a small place, about 50m².

It is laid out badly, which makes the living room into a corridor really.

It is dreadful to live in, even on my own.  Was worse when I had a lodger.

 

It is possible to survive in a small place (friend of mine lived in a 12 foot touring caravan for about 6 years), but is it a good idea?

I don't think it is, because as soon as you have a space, it gets filled.  With housing this generally means putting in more people.

It cannot be right to have a family of 4 adults in a 50m² house.  How my neighbours lived for nearly 7 years.

 

But what amazes me is that we are building the right number of houses, we just about build 1 house for every new person in the country. 

This is a bit I posted up about the trains.

 

"I decided to go to the Office of National Statistics and look at house completions and UK population figures.

Since 2004/2005, we have build and competed 1,882,200 homes.

The population has increased by 1,999,26.

Pretty good match really as they are not all one bedroom places.

 

Looking at the figures from 1969/70 to last year, we have completed 10,186,740 homes, population has increased by 9,104,409, again a good match.

 

We are really just whipping ourselves up into a frenzy about the lack of new homes being built.

Seems to me that the housing market is working pretty well at the national level.

Local level is a totally different issue as we all want to live in the country side or a coastal location but earn London wages.  Maybe the real problem is not housing, or 'lack of building' but really regional wage variation."

 

There is really no need to build smaller places, that will just lead to more mental health issues.

Edited February 11, 2017 by SteamyTea
Taking pride in my typing errors, just as Ian said I should

[Jeremy Harris]

The problem has never been not having enough homes, it's always been about not having enough home in the places where people want, or need, to live.  There are still streets full of cheap or empty homes in areas where there's no longer any work.

[Onoff]

I was looking round some of the uni rooms with my son recently. Those with en suite, I was quite impressed by the size. Some had fridges in but all had a large shared kitchen & communal lounge. The one thing they all had in common was a campus pub close by!

[MikeSharp01]

@SteamyTea you have gathered some great insight from ONS but if as @JSHarris says it's about where the housing is then good old capitalism should have sorted it by cresting jobs where housing is cheap because labour should be cheap as well. Given this has not happened there must be some other factor driving the gap between the population growth and housing demand. Thinking about it I suspect it's to do with household size & shape. The trend away from extended families, the divorce rate, double income households, every child having their own bedroom and the national obsession with owning your own home all contribute. 

 

[SteamyTea]

I am not sure why we have a mismatch between empty, or under occupied, housing and low employment rates. Not sure, without looking, if it is true or not.

I think that what people want, and what they can afford is a problem. But that is social science (wild guesses).

[Crofter]

I've now feel delighted that my 43m2 new build will be positively palatial compared to some of these concepts. Maybe I should split it into three bijou apartments?