Mark Ahlheim - Healing Homes.GURU

BUILDING FOR HEALTH NOT SO BIG

In 2001, architect Sarah Susanka wrote a bellwether book published by Taunton Press entitled The Not So Big House . It immediately resonated with me. I knew Taunton because they publish a monthly magazine called Fine Homebuilding which I was beginning to read and came to respect as the best of a handful of periodicals aimed at teaching builders how to build homes of higher quality and durability. I still read it today, and in fact they just published their 40 th anniversary issue. Not So Big also resonated with me because I grew up in Buffalo, NY and as a student of bungalow architecture and the Arts & Crafts Movement which was founded by a group of early 20 th century Western New York artisans known as the Roycrofters, I recognize many of the building techniques and construction materials used by the Roycrofters as the same Ms. Susanka advocates for and was using in her Not-So-Big designs. The book was prescient because less than six years later the Housing Bubble/ Great Recession of the late aughts was upon us, and by 2012 the average size of a new American home was actually going down. Not by much, but held steady long enough that the average sized “McMansion”—a name I gave to the newly-constructed homes in my neighborhood because they were becoming so completely cookie-cutter in their look and floor plan—began to level or even go down. So it was completely natural that as I began my own quest for building healthy that I would incorporate many ‘Not So Big’ design elements into my homes. With that said, of all the content on this website, this section has the least direct relevance to health, though that is not to say that the ideas I express here are unimportant or have nothing to do with health. Quite the contrary. I truly believe that when the four or five design principles I talk about are executed together, they lay the groundwork for a home’s occupants to be happy and content—a major prerequisite for living in a healthy home. Please follow along as I give you an abbreviated tour of the four elements that most define my healthy homes. Along the way I will also explain how those elements dovetail with an emphasis on building healthy, naturally, and sustainably.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

I think the most important take-away from Ms. Susanka’s work is what I call “Quality over Quantity.” I believe most homes are too large. As an example, I still think today’s Living Rooms are way too big and maybe post COVID completely unnecessary. Instead, homes ought to have an “Away Room”—a term coined by Ms. Susanka—and indeed a central concept that underpins both of my current floor plans.