Size matters: dwelling size as a critical factor for sustainable urban development

A critical residential planning objective through much of world is how to create sustainable urban development. Within this context, the average Australian home has been rapidly increasing in size to be among the largest in the world. An innovative approach was used to form a conceptual framework from a critical review of academic literature. It illustrates that the increase in dwelling size is counterproductive to sustainable urban development challenges of urban consolidation, green urbanism and housing affordability. A review of selected government policy and industry guidelines at spatial scales of neighbourhood, region and nation is used to validate the framework. It reveals that issues associated with dwelling size are not represented in strategic approaches. The outcome of this research is a conceptual framework, which illustrates the relationship between increasing dwelling size and its effect on urban sustainability