Sustainability: The Space Debate

In the architectural conversations taking place today, sustainability is a key topic of interest. Architecture firms embrace the term as a key part of their design ethos, and architecture schools globally have integrated designing “green” architecture as a core component of their curriculums. This sustainability conversation has also filtered down into more individual actions one can take within their immediate context.

Online, for instance, guides abound on how you can make your home more eco-friendly and energy-efficient.

Sustainable living, however, has a pressing issue from the domestic scale all the way to the urban scale – that of space. The housing crises that plague cities worldwide are a reflection of this issue. In the UK, practitioners have debated on if the London capital is an “overbuilt” city or if there is simply wasted space that is not taken advantage of. In the country’s existing building stock, domestic space is limited. Out of any European country, the UK has the smallest homes by floor space, with the average UK home floor area being 76 square metres. For comparison, Denmark’s average home floor space area comes in at about 137 square metres.

In Hong Kong, the space issue is even more widely documented. Only 7% of land is zoned for housing, with a majority of it going to wealthier residents. That has meant people across age groups are forced to contend with living in so-called “micro-flats”. These residents pay hundreds of US Dollars per month in rent – for living spaces that on average, total out to less than 9 square metres.

In London, micro-flats, albeit of a larger size than the apartments in Hong Kong, are also seen by some as a solution to London’s housing shortage, where flats of less than 37 square metres are becoming increasingly more common. Developers have cited cheaper costs, and some have outlined that larger space standards are not the answer as cities become more dense.

But space is a multi-faceted issue. Appropriate housing solutions, unfortunately, are still very much dictated by market forces. However, the dogmatic viewpoint championed by many in the construction industry that building larger homes equals a more costly project is not necessarily always true. A case in point is found in the work of 2021 Pritzker Award winners Lacaton & Vassal. Their advocacy for “generosity” meant that their 2005 project “Cité Manifeste” was an exercise in making the most out of available space. Instead of the usual three-bedroom dwelling area of 70 square metres, they increased the floor area to a spacious 150 square metres.

The contractor gave the person running the project a costlier estimate due to the increased area – but this was only because large building firms base their quotes on the price per square metre for a standard residence. Keen to maintain the 150 square metre floor area, they instead requested quotes from suppliers for various components?- such as concrete columns and glazing units. The end result was a 150m2 dwelling that cost the same amount as the 70m2 dwelling. More space for exactly the same amount of money.

In a smaller context, Lacaton & Vassal designed Maison Latapie – a low budget project that nevertheless, was able to have an abundance of space. A house for a young couple with two children necessitates the need for a larger floor area, and the project offers 120m2 of accommodation, with a double-height rear garden of 65m2. The compromise between space and materials was made by using an inexpensive palette of materials - corrugated galvanised steel, corrugated polycarbonate, and plywood making up an unconventional, yet still spacious home.

Maison Latapie’s relatively larger floor area means that spaces can be divided by the clients as they see fit, with usable spaces expanding and contracting according to seasonal changes. The tiny house movement has exploded in popularity over recent years, but Lacaton & Vassal’s perspective is an interesting one in an age where both public and private sectors seek to make do with the smallest floor areas possible. Their philosophy is that one is able to do more when they have more space – partitions can be put up to sub-divide rooms if one prefers less space, while those who need more space can open the space up to their satisfaction.

Maison Latapie, is, however, a suburban home. Affordable high-density dwellings with larger floor areas such as Cité Manifeste in larger cities are unfortunately still few and far between, and micro-flat solutions are still being put forward. Architects in Hong Kong have designed micro-apartments to be embedded into concrete pipes, in a bid to solve Hong Kong’s low-cost housing crisis. But this is a limited solution. Disabled people, for instance, are largely left out of the conversation, and even in apartments that meet disabled-access guidelines, living room size is sacrificed in order to make kitchens and bathrooms larger.

A dwelling with a smaller footprint will produce less carbon emissions than that with a larger footprint, Smaller homes are, on the whole, more sustainable. But this smaller footprint still has to be accessible. As adaptive reuse projects convert various buildings into housing – generous floor areas still have to be prioritised.?

Micro-flats might be heralded as low-carbon, affordable solutions to the housing crisis but when luxury apartments in cities such as London continue to be built and are left unsold, it's clear to see that architectural solutions can do so much amidst wider land inequity.