Photo by David McBee: https://www.pexels.com/photo/high-angle-shot-of-suburban-neighborhood-1546168/Ireland needs to end its obsession with the detached house.
New research from the Irish Green Building Council has found a 28 per cent reduction in house sizes would help meet our climate targets.
When we think of a typical Irish home, we tend to think of a detached house nestled in the countryside.
But that won't help our climate targets going forward.
Town planning expert Brian Maher says we need to move on from our obsession with the detached house:
"We have got to get over ourselves. We have got to move to consolidated settlements. Because ultimately, what we should be building are communities, rather than units".
The research found terraced houses and apartments are the most carbon-efficient homes.
Council CEO Pat Barry explains how that works:
"Terraced homes because they have much less surface area and use a lot let heat than say a detached home. A detached home needs more materials to build it because you have to build four walls instead of two."
So the average home is nearly 250 square metres in size.
If we reduced that to around 90, it might just help save the planet.
