Part 1 - Enougness in the building industry // A movement towards what matters.

Late last year I delivered a keynote at the Building Designers Association of Australia's (BDAA) National Design festival. I am sharing it with you here, in a few parts.

I presented this to a room full of Building Designers, Architects, Builders and industry representatives. I delivered some new ideas and concepts that challenged the dominant industry culture. But, as I started to talk, I felt that people were ready to listen and that's all I needed. 

My aim was to plant a seed of ‘enoughness’ in an industry that has good intentions to reduce its impact on this planet but still thrives on more, bigger and better. An industry that is yet to understand that to change means, it has to change.

I hope this seed grows in the direction of empowering people to embrace ‘enoughness’ to let go of the unnecessary to make space for the meaningful, and reduce the impact on this one wonderful planet.

Let's start at the beginning…

I'd like you to imagine, getting some feedback from a client that sounds something like this: 

“Thank you so much for designing us a home that is perfectly enough. It's warm and sunny, I can see the veggie garden from the kitchen sink, there's enough storage for the things we need and treasure, the bills are low and we're not financially maxed out, meaning our mortgage is not overly stressful. You've not only designed a home but a whole lifestyle for us … that is low impact and fulfilling. You helped us with questions we didn't even consider asking and feel so good about the decisions we made for our home and life … to just include what we need, the things that align with our values … knowing that this is one small step in reducing the impact on the planet. We are happy, we have time, we're outdoors more, we rest more, we welcome friends and family in for meals, we have found more meaning in our lives. We thought we wanted our dream home, but you delivered our dream lifestyle. 

We can't thank you enough.”

How would that feedback make you feel? Knowing that you not only delivered a building, but also supported a lifestyle and it didn't cost the earth.

“It feels great.”

In wealthy countries (and Australia is one of them) we are using on average 28 tons of raw material and resources per person per year. Now that doesn't mean much on its own.

But, this 28 tons of material we are using means a lot when we consider that ecologists have estimated that 8 tons per person per year is the amount that we can use and stay within safe planetary boundaries. And we are at a point in time where many of this planet's boundaries have been crossed. We are at a tipping point of crossing more that will have serious knock-on effects.

This statistic is from Jason Hickles book - Less is More, how degrowth will save the world.  

It was an alarming read but also gave me fuel and a lot of hope. 

These numbers mean that in Australia, on average, we are using 3.5 times the amount of stuff the planet can safely support each year.

I think, as designers, we have the opportunity to change this. Through how we think, work and what we create.  Through our service we can shift mindsets and pave the way to a new normal. 

High-income, privileged countries are consuming the most raw materials from this earth, building the biggest homes and emitting the most carbon emissions per capita of all the countries on earth. There is a direct correlation. My big question is - do we need to be using this much stuff?     

That's pretty grim,  but sometimes we need to know what we are dealing with in order to take action. And I feel hopeful about the actions we can take for our future. 

What I hope to share with you are the realities … plus ideas and inspiration so we can all start taking action and making a change. So, we can start asking the question of what is enough with more confidence and permission.

For me 

“Enoughness is about working out what you need to be happy and healthy without taking more than your fair share.”

Thinking about ‘enoughness’ requires us to reconsider what we are striving for and what we ideally want. And pondering this may give us permission to live and work in a more achievable, fulfilling and sustainable way.  Antoine de Saint-Exupery put this beautifully when he said that:

“perfection is not achieved when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”.

If I can reframe this, to say: 

“Enough is not achieved when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”

So, what I'd like to discuss with you today is: what do we need to take away or let go of and what will be left? 

I'm the Director and founder of Designful and Homeful. We are known for designing humble homes that support the lives our clients wish to lead and being bold enough to design less. 

I'm a building designer but my real work is to create change and I work with people who want to make a change too. 

I initially believed that ‘enoughness’ was good for individuals because it meant that you weren't living beyond your means and that meant you could live a life aligned with your values, a good life! However the real benefit of practicing enoughness is more broad reaching. 

With enoughness we can help others and the planet, all living things in fact!

And right now all other living things need our help. The earth has given us everything we need and we have taken everything we want. It's time to give back. 

Before I started my own practice I worked in architecture firms. I learnt a lot. I saw people moving though the process of renovating or building, getting more and more stressed, clients, architects and designers getting more stressed and it was usually about money and the tension between what people wanted and what they wanted to pay. Everyone had good intentions of being sustainable, creating something beautiful, fulfilling the brief and achieving the dream. 

The buildings were big to achieve the brief, but then the cost was too high to achieve the dream. People were stressed, but hey, we the place had solar panels! I observed, in amongst these varying considerations, that the pursuit of the ‘dream home’ wasn’t making anyone happy. No one seemed to be winning, especially not the earth. 

One of the things I learnt was that the cost of anything is the amount of life you are willing to exchange for it. 

I knew there had to be a different way.  And I was willing to give it a crack.

I’ll share the next part with you soon - how does next week sound?

Also a special mention:

You would have received my mate Nat Mendham’s latest dispatch - “Champion of Enoughness” via Temporarily Not Compost. I owe a lot of my thoughts on enoughness to my time spent with Nat, often wandering, making or just in deep conversation. Many thanks to Nat!