Researchers found while studying where adults and children spent their time in the downstairs floor, their subjects spent 68% of their time in 2 places: either in the kitchen, or in the family room near the TV and the computer.

Rating System on This Page

The following are colour rated according to the home's size's impact on the average person's mental health:

• Problematic for mental health: Isolation, depression, panic attacks.

• May cause feelings of isolation, stress, and mental health decline. 

• Meets basic mental health needs.

This page is organized from the smallest home size to the largest available home size. You will notice that the smallest and largest homes carry risks of mental health costs (as well as other types of cost), while the home sizes in the middle offer the best support for good mental health.

Pod Homes or Capsules

 12-15 square feet/1.4square meters

Pro: Suitable for the human body to lay down, and acceptable for those without claustrophobia during travel or in emergencies.

Con: Not recommended for those who can't handle small spaces, and not recommended for long-term living as they can contribute to mental health decline.

Solution: These could be useful after disasters, or for saving money while traveling. 

Single Room or Tiny Home

100 square feet/9 square meters

Pro: This is a comfortable size for many people, affordable to keep at a comfortable temperature, and relatively cheep to keep in good condition. Very little cleaning needed.

Con: May be less convenient for having visitors over, especially without a porch, balcony, or garden for additional room. May not have enough room for regular furniture. The difficulty of space for entertainment may not be healthy for mental health if the surrounding area doesn't have reasonable amenities like theaters and parks to help the inhabitants get out.

Solution: Many tiny homes have custom made or strategically build furniture. Features may be combined so that a bed can turn into a couch or folded up against a wall. Tables can be pulled out from the wall. The underside of staircases might double as storage space.

Micro Apartment

300-500 square feet/46 square meters

Pro: These are big enough room divisions, but this is most likely a studio with a bathroom with a kitchen. These can be built in a factory offsite, put on a truck, and lifted with a crane which saves on construction costs as well as time. They are still tight but can fit normal furniture including a sofa or chairs. This size is around the threshold needed to address basic psychological needs of dwelling that go beyond merely the functional daily requirements as these are large enough to bring others into our home. One advocate says his micro apartment can host up to 12 guests.

Con: This is still below average size for apartments anywhere in the world, and may difficult to host larger groups of people as the amount of furniture these spaces can accommodate is limited.

Solution: Including multi-purpose furniture such as beds that convert into sofas or storage, and using tables that can be folded out of the way to create flood space can add to the functionality of the space.

Average Apartment Size

1,000 square feet/93 square meters 

This is the average apartment size in a number of countries including Italy, Sweden, France, Germany, Japan, and Spain. 

This size seems to be a sweet spot for urban environments and would suit the majority of the population.

Pro: This is adequate for a couple plus up to a couple of room mates, children, or guests as the layout often has 1 to 2 bedrooms. This is also the size of a model post-war Suburban home in the US from Levittown called the Jubilee which was designed to target veterans with growing families around 1956 when the homes held an average of 3.37 people. It was smaller than the average home at the time. 

Con: This isn't large enough to accommodate all needs, but is big enough that adjustments can often be made.

Average US House

2200 square feet/206 square meters

This is an average home size in the US despite family sizes dropping to an average of only 2.6 per household.

Pro: These have enough room to host visitors more comfortably, or to bring in a lodger for added income. Extra rooms can be used for recreational purposes, hosting guests, or for a home-based business. Some people buy these larger homes with the hope that extra space will yield greater investment value.

Con: These use up far more materials, need more energy to heat and cool, and are often spread out due to zoning laws which can create a sense of isolation from the rest of the community. The added distance between homes and community amenities increases car usage which increases air pollution. These have much greater upkeep cost than the smaller homes, also requiring a lot more cleaning and maintenance work throughout the year. The added sprawl created by these types of homes also increases impervious pavement cover which increases flooding risk while reducing the amount of water able to recharge aquifers.

Solution: Some people keep up with the building's maintenance needs by hiring a maid and/or a gardener.

Mansions / McMansions

5,000-10,000 square feet/930 square meters

Pro: These have enough room to tailor spaces for very specific uses that might be impossible in normal sized homes, such as a foyer which can become the home's focal point.

Con: These are clearly larger than functionally necessary unless filled with extended family or other functional necessities. These are so big that they struggle to look like a normal house, as features end up being wildly out of proportion. The designers often jam incoherent designs together without apparent reason. Furnishing a home this size can easily cost thousands, plus a full staff may be needed to keep the place and surrounding land in order.

Solutions: This type of home is only practical if you have a particularly huge, extended family, perhaps people with special needs who need specialized rooms for therapeutic purposes, and space for large celebrations. Other wise these homes would be more efficiently used if remodeled into apartments, or a joint living facility for elderly residents, residents with special needs, or as temporary housing for people escaping conflict zones, extreme weather, or transitioning from institutional living back to regular society.

Costs: Higher than average repair and maintenance costs, higher taxes (depending on where you live), and higher personnel costs as homes of these sizes generally need maids and gardeners at a minimum.

Manor / Mega Mansion

50,000 - 100,000 square feet

The foyer alone may be as big as an average house. Rooms become dedicated to extremely specific activities like gift wrapping rooms or hair cutting rooms, or holding specific items like collections of dolls, shoes, or cars. The mass of the building dominates the surrounding community, often becoming a landmark, or even a tourist destination.

Pro: These can function as hotels, museums, meeting places, malls, or schools.

Con: They require a staff of a couple dozen and can be very expensive to keep clean with more expensive repairs being needed over time.

Solutions: These could be converted into group living, hotels, community centers and other pro-social uses.

Costs: Higher than average repair and maintenance costs, higher taxes (depending on where you live), and higher personnel costs as homes of these sizes generally need maids and gardeners at a minimum.

Antilia 

A 27 story building over the skyline of Mumbai.

400,000 square feet/37,000 square meters

Pro: This has over 168 parking spots, a 50 person movie theater, and is a multi-use sky scraper of 27 stories which essentially functions like a small vertical town.

Con: Requires a 600 person staff, and is out of reach to all but a few of the mega-rich.

Solution: Buildings like this could help lessen the current housing crisis in Mumbai and elsewhere around the world. Multi use buildings with living spaces could help boost housing, employment, while supporting stronger a sense of community and support for those with limited mobility, such as communities for the elderly. Such communities are also safer for those with memory issues such as dementia, who may get lost if they leave their building to get on a bus.

Costs: $2,000,000, 6 years to build

Resources & Communities

Online Communities

• r/Sustainable_Homes "This subreddit is for everything to do with building or upgrading your home in a sustainable manner. Alternative building materials like strawbale and cob, solar energy, techniques and designs that contribute to energy efficiency posts are all welcome. This is to focus specifically on the home itself, since we have several gardening and permaculture subreddits already."

• r/TinyHouses "A place for people interested in small or tiny houses."

Further Reading