Q: When you talk about delight, can you give me some examples?
A: For me, I love the way the light hits in my apartment. I love waking up and having the light just streaming in. I was talking to someone who had been living in the suburbs and moved to the city and was really worried about giving up the yard. She found a place with a little terrace and she loves her terrace.
It might be your proximity to a park. It could be inside your house; it could be outside. In some cases, delight might be that you got a great deal on it. Some people choose to spend less than they can afford and then have more money left over for other things.
Q: You’ve designed small houses for people who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina, and you’ve also designed houses in a walkable neighborhood. Do you think there’s more of an interest in these kinds of walkable neighborhoods and maybe even smaller spaces?
A: Because of the size of some of the houses I have designed, people sometimes mistake what I say as “everyone should live in 300 square feet.” That’s not the message. The message is: Live in the space that works for you.
All square feet are not made equal. When you have the ceiling height that’s 9 or 10 feet and windows on multiple walls and connections to the outdoors, and when you can actually use the space in your yard because you have private outdoor living space, then the space that you have feels so much larger. It’s not a matter of square footage, it’s more about how that square footage is utilized.
