Inspired by tiny house stuff (see r/tinyhouses) I was curious about how house sizes (and expectations about personal space) changes throughout history.
From google:
According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average home size in the United States was 2,700 square feet in 2009, up from 1,400 square feet in 1970.
What about in 1790? What about in 1000 in Europe? Or the year 1 in Rome? Is this consistent between cultures? Is it a steady increase over time? Or did it fluctuate? What can we attribute this to?
Homes in Colonial America varied in size, and architectural style depending on the communities that were building the homes. Germans, French, Scots-Irish, Spanish, Dutch, and English settlers all had their own architectural styles. Also, social class would have a significant impact on the size of a home as we also see today. An elegant estate like Jefferson's Monticello or Adams' Peacefield is certainly different from the log cabins found throughout our colonial history, whether we look to New Sweden, the Pennsylvania Deutsch, or the Scots-Irish in the Carolina backcountry. You can even look at a typical New England Saltbox home and see the difference between that typical middle class home and a massive estate.
If you really want to see a good contrast of colonial homes in size and architecture, take a tour of colonial Philadelphia and then Charleston, SC. You can see the difference and the unique blend of French culture with English culture in the case of Charleston.