Since 1950, there has been a steady decrease in the size of U.S. and Canadian families, and in the amount of time those families spend at home. So why have home sizes doubled? In her book Little House on a Small Planet (Lyons Press, September 2006), green building consultant, supervisor and teacher Shay Salomon posits that against this unsustainable trend stands a growing movement of small house people who live their values by putting their family, community and environmentalism above space, status and granite countertops.

Watch this trend. Those of us approaching our “best before” date have to consider how we are going to live when we no longer can be completely independent. Toronto architect Carol Kleinfeldt proposed this idea a few years ago