[GSBN] Square footage of straw-bale homes

[Derek Roff]

Fine Homebuilding magazine gives an interesting look into the, shall 
we say, "diversity" of trends and outlooks in the US.  Every issue 
contains several articles on building small and sustainably, while 
the majority of the issue supports expansion and excess.

Obviously, those terms are my judgment.  Many of the authors see 
themselves in "small is beautiful" camp.  I've been saddened by the 
number of articles which say things along the lines of "we were 
limited by a small budget (elsewhere revealed to be $250,000)" and 
"since this was the second home of a retired couple, we could make it 
quite small (2500 sq ft/232 sq m)".

I have wondered about the education of architects, and perhaps some 
of the architects on this list can comment.  How does the mainstream 
training approach  questions of building size and sustainability? 
And designing to a budget?

I guess the optimistic view is that Fine Homebuilding, and a few 
other, similar magazines, do have some articles pointing in the right 
direction, and that quantity of such articles seems to be increasing. 


Derek