Housing sufficiency trough tradeoffs between individual and shared spaces? Correlations between individual living space and spatial behaviour

Abstract

In the past decades, dwelling sizes and per-capita living spaces increased in most countries of the world significantly (Ellsworth-Krebs 2020). With dwelling size being the main determinant of private households’ residential energy demand (Huebner and Shipworth 2017), the increase of per-capita living space is a major driver of residential energy consumption (Lorek and Spangenberg 2019). Larger living spaces negate energy savings gained through more energy-efficient construction methods and legal regulations (Viggers et al. 2017). In order to achieve climate change mitigation goals, researchers are therefore calling for per-capita living space of high-income countries to stabilise at current levels or to decline (Lorek and Spangenberg 2019). Thus, strategies of housing sufficiency represent one element towards a more sustainable spatial development.

While much research has been done on the residential mobility of older households, who often remain in too large family homes after the children moved out, I like to focus on another aspect related to the consumption of living space: Is there a correlation between residents’ spatial behaviour and the individual living space they consume? Do residents with a low level of individual living space perform more activities out-of-home?

In order to answer these research questions, I analysed data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) applying descriptive statistics and econometric modelling. Thereby, I focused on the activities of eating out and going out, because these activities also have interesting socio-spatial implications.

The results show: Low levels of individual living space are correlated with an increased frequency of eating out and going out even if residents’ socio-demographics, socio-economics, and neighbourhood characteristics are controlled for. The question if and how this tradeoff between individual and shared space can help reducing per-capita living spaces and achieving further sustainable development goals needs to be discussed.

References

Ellsworth-Krebs K (2020) Implications of declining household sizes and expectations of home comfort for domestic energy demand. Nat Energy 5:20–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0512-1

Huebner GM, Shipworth D (2017) All about size? – The potential of downsizing in reducing energy demand. Applied Energy 186:226–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.02.066

Lorek S, Spangenberg JH (2019) Energy sufficiency through social innovation in housing. Energy Policy 126:287–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.11.026

Viggers H, Keall M, Wickens K, Howden-Chapman P (2017) Increased house size can cancel out the effect of improved insulation on overall heating energy requirements. Energy Policy 107:248–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.04.045