They don’t build ‘em like they used to!

Some would say that’s a good thing regarding houses.

But the truth lies somewhere in between, as there were many things those old homebuilders knew and took advantage of that we should consider even in our enlightened world today.

Because resources and time were often scarce, old houses usually represent an economy of space utilization.

Many had minimum footprints; that is, the space they occupied on the ground was relatively small and, in urban areas, they kept side lot width to a minimum.

We can take a lesson here because designing smaller footprints means we are able to increase housing density on a given piece of land, which is one segment of the housing shortage solution.

Those footprints were often square on the ground, which creates an e

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