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Design Perspectives

Please! Not So Big!
Look for opportunities to help your clients see the satisfaction and rewards of living a sensibly scaled life.

by Karla Nielson, Allied Member, ASID; WCAA

There is a clever saying that goes like this, “When Americans get money, they feather their nests.” In America today, we see examples of the exorbitant feathering of nests, which has resulted in a sort of wake-up call—the rethinking of the design program, the design process and the result: is it livable? Finally, we are beginning to look realistically and pragmatically at how we live and how much space we really need.

There is a home not far from mine that is 40,000 square feet. When it was first built a few years ago, I toured it privately with an interior design friend who is a cousin to the owner. The style is contemporary French Baroque.

Let me give you the quick tour: The seven-car garage connects to the home with a 12-foot wide interior corridor. The family computer room is the size of a high school classroom. There are two main-floor family rooms (one very high-tech), a music room, dining room, gigantic kitchen with two dining spaces, a grand staircase and impressive entrance hall, a formal parlor and a fully paneled office.

There is a master suite on the main floor and four bedroom suites each with full baths upstairs, plus another family room. There are laundry facilities on two levels, even an elevator.

The lower level features bedrooms, a dance floor and large media room, a video game room, a racquetball court, two areas that can function as restaurants and indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

The furnishings are custom and lavish (hundreds of yards of fabulous imported silk drapery fabric, for example). The grounds are extensive and expertly landscaped and, naturally, the home and property require a number of staff to manage the upkeep.

I was exhausted from just walking through it, which took three hours! The owner inherited a huge sum of money and was counseled to build a big house rather than to give up the same sum in taxes, so this is not a case of overzealous over-extension of personal resources and grandiose pride. The house is paid for and the owner is a genuinely nice and charitable person.

In other ways, the mansion is archetypical of a major trend in America: building a house that is so large that ostentation becomes obsession. All over America the feathering of nests for those with means has reached a level of the ridiculous. For example, the October 14, 2002, issue of Time magazine ran the feature article “Inside the New American Home,” which spotlighted extra-spacious and feature-filled, appliance- and tech-savvy homes as a trend not to be ignored. Perhaps you have helped decorate a few of these mansions. And perhaps you know of their benefits and limitations:

Impressive? Showy? Exorbitantly pricey? Yes.
Livable? Not necessarily.
Cozy, human, intimate? No.
Cost efficient and environmentally responsible? Are you kidding?

BACK TO COMMON SENSE

There now is a counter-trend away from extra big. Even in some upscale residential areas, restrictive covenants are being passed to limit the amount of square footage of new home construction. In one of the traditionally ritzier Chicago suburbs, for example, an ordinance was recently passed limiting the size of new homes being built. The new huge mansions were overwhelming the surrounding smaller existing homes. They were so out of character that they were dramatically changing the feel of the neighborhood.

It appears that many Americans have finally reached square footage saturation and want to help others to see that big is not necessarily better.

Another name for this counter-trend might be the back-to-common-sense trend. In many cultures around the world, a 1,000-square-foot apartment, flat or home might house four to 10 people. Many studies have been conducted on the psychological and physical spatial needs of humans. The results show that less than 200 square feet of living space per person results in pathologies (more murders take place per capita in densely populated areas of major world cities, for example). Yet the opposite results are strikingly similar: too much square footage, say over 800 square feet, also results in insecurities, phobias and negative behavior.

The most comfortable range for living appears to be 400 to 500 square feet per person. Now let’s translate this into some real figures. At 500 square feet per person, a 40,000-square- foot house theoretically could accommodate 80 people. The average American family with two adults and 1.5 children would need only 1,250 square feet. That’s quite a contrast, and excellent food for thought.

One assignment I give to my introduction to interior design classes at Brigham Young University is to create a reasonably sized floor plan. They seem to find this difficult because most floor plans begin at 3,000 square feet (main floor and upstairs). We spend time looking at the costs required for building, furnishing and maintaining such a large structure and what the realistic needs of a family the size each student projects to have someday. It’s an eye-opening experience.

One semester I had a student from Sweden who asked her mother to mail her a floor plan book from home. She could not find any plans in America that were modest and to her liking, something simple and well designed.

NOT SO BIG MIGHT BE BETTER

The combined influence of modern Scandinavia, the Greene brothers’ Craftsman style and the Frank Lloyd Wright Midwest Prairie style home is seen on every page of the best-selling book, “The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live” (Newtown, CT: The Taunton Press, 1998; e-mail: tp@taunton.com).

Authored by architect Sarah Susanka, who drew on her own experience and that of dozens of professionals who have worked in her architectural firm, this book is a refreshing and logical approach to building and remodeling. The theory is that when some square feet are sacrificed, there is more budget for great architectural detail, and there is creative opportunity to use space more efficiently, effectively and wisely. The result is space for gracious family living with enough space for comfortable group entertaining.

Open floor planning is a foundation concept, with an essential great room where all can congregate to interact, be entertained, dine and participate with the cook by assisting or visiting. However, if all space were open, some human needs would be unmet. And so, the open areas are countered with a modestly human-scaled “away room” for the private times in life—times when being alone to read, ponder, listen to music, have quiet personal conversation, study or do computer work, for example, can be accommodated. Intimate bedroom areas are still respected, but often do double-duty as offices, for example. Hence, both group and personal space become more usable.

THE BENEFITS OF NOT SO BIG

The upside to this Not So Big approach is that the human scale once again can become the measure for architectural space, for furnishings and for art. As an illustration, there is a good reason why eight-foot ceilings were used for most of the 20th century as the standard. Very tall or very short ceilings produce negative feelings. Even where the client or customer wants the impressive quality of high or vaulted ceilings, a dropped soffit or beam will help to give feelings of security and comfort.

Likewise, small scale is the key to success in small spaces. Today’s furniture styles have become obsessively large and, as a result, are not comfortable to the human scale. They are meant to impress and intimidate. Keeping human/modest scale at the focal point of all selections requires effort, searching and determination because smaller scale is not necessarily in vogue right now. Window treatment companies are doing better than most furniture companies in presenting scale that is livable while still meeting the needs of the larger mansions with a few large-scale selections.

Susanka suggests that we really can get by with a lot less square footage if our homes are planned and designed well. She makes several good points: smaller rooms/houses require better design than larger spaces, multi-functional rooms and furnishings help to effectively utilize modest spaces. There is an emphasis on sight lines—by being able to see into other rooms and outside from anywhere you stand spaces will feel much larger than they really are. Bringing nature visually into the interiors also makes the spaces feel larger and more connected with the site.

CLEAN, CLUTTER-FREE

One approach to making small spaces feel comfortable is the less-is-more concept. Where there is less pattern, less texture, less visual clutter, the space feels larger. Hence, less visual stimuli equals more space.

The way to make this type of interior not appear sterile is to use a variety of textures in different hues and add small touches of bright accent colors. Many interiors focus on natural materials that are self-finishing and need no further decorating. These include stainless steel, ceramic tile, cement and brick. These are, of course, cold and hard materials, so softness that can be found only in fabric becomes a key to emotional survival.

One style that accomplishes less is more is Mid-century Modern, which has become a major, apparently long-term trend in which simplicity of design, purity of form and honesty of materials are the hallmark of excellence. Spaces designed to be sleek always feel larger because of the lack of decorating. Keep walls plain, window treatments functional and accessories sculptural and interesting.

SIMPLIFIED TRADITIONAL

Traditional design also can be intimate, even when the interior is lofty or spacious. Take a corner and fill it with smaller scale furnishings, artfully arranged, and the result is an away space even if it is part of a larger room. The key to success is grouping elements that are alike, but with each piece respectful of the other’s space, form, color and texture. This is known as “massing” and is a highly successful tool interior designers use to make a focal point, a finished grouping or a selection of furnishings that is skillfully connected to others. It is art in the most tactile sense of the word.

Evaluating the scale or overall size of each piece will be a beginning point. Even better, group the furnishings as an anchor under a window so that the view and the window treatments become the focal point where work or dreaming can become a personal and uplifting experience.

Not So Big will inspire and fulfill human needs because its concepts remove the burden of trying to impress others. This can provide a wonderful sense of freedom and contentment. Look for opportunities to help your clients see the satisfaction and rewards of living a sensibly scaled life. They may live so well they may thank you for years to come.