One and two persons’ households are said to be the two fastest growing lifestyle groups in the next 20 years. According to 2012 NZ Statistics, one person NZ households are projected to increase from 240,000 to 363,000 and couples without children are expected to increase by 253,000 households to 721,000.
In order to generate more diversity in the Hobsonville subdivision, Katja Lietz of the Hobsonville Land Company researched price points and associated dwelling areas for small scale affordable housing, based on median incomes for a series of different scenarios for example, single working male with two children. The Isthmus Group assisted in developing the brief and site/landscape master planning.
Architecture Workshop designed a series of small house typologies to test minimum size layouts on very small sections. Three of the typologies were constructed by Classic Builders as demonstration small homes. They had a surprising number of visitors to the open homes (over 5000). Feedback was very positive, including:
Clever use of a small footprint space, light, sloping ceilings, loved the sliding shutters for air flow, light colours to add to sense of space.
Seventy percent of the visitors could see themselves living in a small home.
The market research undertaken by HLC also found that:
There is a market for small, well designed homes. And not just Axis Series, mid-priced too.
People want small - it’s not a compromise.
Kitchen and layout are much more important than section size and garage.
Publications
Foster, C. (2016). Small house living. Auckland: Penguin books.
Axis series small homes test lab. (2014). Architecture nz. (5). pp. 36-42.
Niall, T. (2014, March 30). Auckland housing crisis. Insight. National Radio. Retrieved from here.
Dastgheib, S. (2014, March 16). Small homes make impression. Sunday Star Times. Retrieved from here.