Recently the statistic came out that for the first time in 2008 the average new home being built in the United States is smaller by 200 square feet than two years previous. This trend shows a decline in desire for McMansions and square feet at any cost. Homebuyers are now considering whether they really need that extra 1,000 square feet. Further, smaller homes by virtue of size alone are more energy-efficient and are less expensive to maintain. There is no way of truly determining which trend came first, building green or smaller, but they work in tandem in my view as both offer similar benefits of energy-efficiency and decreased maintenance costs.

This week I had the opportunity to attend the McLean Chamber of Commerce private tour of the Charity Works Green House in Salona Village. The Green House was designed by Cunningham/Quill Architects PLLC who illustrated beautifully that great design can come in small packages. It was designed to exceed the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for houses. This carbon-neutral house was built in partnership by GreenSpur Inc. and West Group. It is expected to use 80 percent less energy per square foot than a comparable new house. The craftsman-style home boasts only 4,000 square feet of living space on almost ½ acre of land, which is small by new homes in McLean standards. Of greatest impact to me was the fact that the room sizes were intimate. This signifies a turning point in design, where bigger is no longer the default choice of architects and builders.
I was curious to know if this trend in smaller home design has come to McLean, so I did a market analysis of new detached homes built and sold the year they were constructed for both 2008 and 2009. The square footage numbers used came from the Fairfax County tax record for the property. In 2008, the average above-grade square footage for new homes was 5,268. In 2009, the average above-grade square footage for new homes was 4,861. In just one year that is a reduction in home square footage by 7.7 percent. It also signifies that the Charity Works Green House design is blazing a trail in more ways than one. In my view, both green and smaller are trends that architects and home builders should pay close attention to.  Karen Briscoe