Small Projects - ADUs

Chances are you’ve heard the term ADU recently or seen it on a billboard. An accessory dwelling unit is just like it sounds—at a minimum, a devoted space, with its own entry, for cooking, bathing, and sleeping. Limited to 900 square feet, an ADU can be added to any single-family home as an interior unit, semi-attached unit, or completely detached unit. That wing of the house you don’t use anymore or that garage you never park in could be an ADU.

Like some others, the State of Massachusetts recently enacted regulatory changes to make ADUs legal and easier to permit.

The goal is to provide more housing, at more accessible cost. From a homeowner’s perspective, these units could be used as in-law apartments or as rentals to offset the cost of living.

Though considered small by today’s standards, 900 square feet was the average-size house for a North American family of four at the beginning of the 20th century. (We’re now averaging over 2,500 square feet.)

Many of the charming “cottages” that began to populate the New England landscape in the mid-1800s are ADU-sized houses. Many of them are taken right from the classic book New England Cottage Architecture by Andrew Jackson Downing, who enthusiastically encouraged a variety of picturesque forms and details. Small dwellings such as the original Cape Cod saltbox, Oak Bluffs cottage, Nantucket town house, northern “camp,” or carriage house give New England its character.

Designing a smaller space takes good planning and editing. It has to be exactly what you need and not much more. But an ADU’s smaller size offers the opportunity to create something special. It could have a distinctive form or architectural style that’s a little departure from your primary residence or regular way of living. Because it is limited to a smaller scale, there’s a chance to have some architectural fun. And if it’s a freestanding ADU, what’s your vision of picturesque?