Page 32 - Green Builder November-December 2018 Issue
P. 32
CHAPTER 02HOW MUCH SPACE DO WE NEED TO BE HAPPY?
Maslov’s hierarchy.
While people may not
require that every
need be met to feel
happy, needs on the
bottom of the
pyramid can’t be
ignored.
WHO DECIDES? recently criticized an emerging housing type that emerged in Mexico
When you search online for how much oorspace a person needs, called “mini-casas.” A million homes sized at about square feet
the one reference that seems to recur is a website called Engineering were built and quickly occupied. If those million families skewed the
ToolBox (www.engineeringtoolbox.com), which says to national mood toward unhappiness, it’s not apparent from studies
square feet. Other modern sources such as the London Plan of national contentment.
(https://bit.ly/Ryp e) have created an index of suggested minimal Other countries high on the “happiness” list also defy the stereotype
oorspace based on housing type and family size that is about the that compact living equates with misery and overcrowding. In
same range. Bangladesh, the eighth-happiest nation on the planet with about
Suffice it to say the “optimal” living space is all . residents per unit, much of the population lives in
over the map. Part of the reason for this is that the The Happy compact homes and apartments built with traditional
comfortable minimum is a
ected by a wide range of Planet Index materials.
variables (and not just the personalities of the other Somewhere lower on the happinesss spectrum
people living with you.) These variables include the in 2017 are dense urban parts of the “developed” world that
availability of outdoor patios, gardens and other identified the are faced with massive housing shortages. London
amenities, shared public spaces and—notably— following 10 has absorbed such an intense crush of population,
cultural norms and expectations. for instance, that heat maps of the city show people
countries as packed into apartments and ats like prisoners in
THE HAPPINESS CONNECTION the happiest: a slave ship—densities that make tiny house living
One way to get at optimal living size is to overlay relative seem palatial.
levels of happiness with shelter trends. Of course, Costa Rica Culturally, some places seem more able to take tight
shelter is just one factor in the overall satisfaction of living quarters in stride. If you look closely at living
a person. But if you refer back to Maslov’s Hierarchy Mexico patterns in Bangladesh, for example, small personal
of Human Needs (shown above), shelter is one of the living space is mitigated by the broader tapestry of
most basic physiological necessities. Until we feel Colombia shared communal spaces and close community ties.
well housed and well fed, we can’t move on to more- Vanuatu Humans can live comfortably in very small spaces.
complex psychological desires. But trying to generalize an exact gure for that “sweet
This is, incidentally, a question that only about Vietnam spot” is disingenuous. Every nation, and every person,
percent of the world has the resources and economic will have a di
erent answer.
freedom to ask. The other two-thirds, according to the Panama Incidentally, at Green Builder Media, we’ve
UN, live in less than square meters each (about Nicaragua launched a new VISION House exhibition called
®
square feet), and have little choice about the matter. The Align Project (https://bit.ly/QAJiWv). Going
Note that none of the most-auent industrialized Bangladesh on display in , the project explores whether
countries made the top . So people in these the typical U.S. citizen can live comfortably in
countries must live in big, elbow room mansions, right? Thailand square feet of space, given a balanced relationship
Of course not. Take Mexico, for example. A blistering Ecuador with the outdoors, the right design and an open-
article (https://lat.ms/AyVT ) in the LA Times minded attitude. GB
30 GREEN BUILDER November/December 2018 www.greenbuildermedia.com
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