The Case for the Small House

Kiln House is a hundred and sixty-five square metres on a tight urban plot, and it is the property our own staff argue about most. Three bedrooms, a courtyard you can cross in four paces, and no room that is not used every day.

Small is a decision, not a compromise

Below a certain size a house stops being able to carry dead space, and every plan decision has to earn itself. That constraint produces better buildings. Circulation gets absorbed into rooms rather than given corridors of its own. Storage becomes joinery rather than a spare bedroom nobody enters. Light has to be brought in deliberately, usually from above, because there are not enough external walls to be casual about it.

What you actually give up

Guests. A small house is poor at hosting people overnight and there is no arguing around it. It is also unforgiving if your life changes shape — a small house cannot absorb a home office and a new child in the same year.

What you gain is running cost, maintenance surface, and the specific pleasure of a building in which nothing is wasted. On a cold-morning heating bill, the difference between 165 and 275 square metres is not marginal.

The test

Walk the plan and name the purpose of each room out loud. If you can do it without hesitating, and without inventing a use, the house is the right size. Most people find they can do this in considerably fewer square metres than they arrived looking for.