The Most Important New Trend in American Homes -- "Not So Big"
- Tom Black

The American Dream Home is getting smaller... and smarter.

That was the idea behind The Not So Big Showhouse, designed by architect Sarah Susanka, at the January 2005 International Builder's Show in Orlando, Florida.

Susanka's best-selling book "The Not So Big House" introduced a "build better, not bigger" approach to home design. Her homes feature environmentally-friendly construction, energy efficient features, natural light, lots of wood, and dual-use rooms (for example, a home office that can also be used as a guest room).

Englert, a member of the Metal Roofing Alliance and The U.S. Green Building Council, volunteered to supply a standing seam, vertical panel metal roof for the 2,900-square-foot, 3 bedroom, 2½ bath Showhouse.

Besides its metal roofing, the Not So Big Showhouse also features a solar electric system and a solar hot water system. Even the walls -- built with structural insulated panels (SIPS) that use less lumber and have far fewer air leaks -- are designed to be as energy and resource-efficient as possible.

According to social psychologists Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, close to one-quarter of Americans prefer the efficient "not so big" house to a huge "McMansion." In their book Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing The World, Ray and Anderson write: "These homeowners are trading gross space for the "home" space -- homes appropriate to human scale that are kind to the environment; create privacy; and are built with the smartest energy efficient building technologies."

"We build a bigger house because that's what you do when you make more money," says Susanka. But, she argues, "By designing our homes to be good custodians of our natural resources and by engineering them to allow for ease of maintenance and future modification, we will be serving both ourselves and our planet well."

"Not so big" may be the most important new building trend in years. "As buildable land gets scarcer and pricier," reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,"and as cities encourage environmentally sensitive construction techniques, "Not So Big" could become the next big thing."

To learn more about the ideas behind the "Not So Big Showhouse" go to: http://www.notsobigshowhouse.com/