Susanka was born March 21, 1957 in Kent, England and now resides in North Carolina.After Graduating from the University of Oregon, she settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She pursued a masters degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota while working for several architecture firms. Her thesis was the basis of her "Not So Big" books. She was a founding partner, along with her thesis advisor, of the Minneapolis-based residential architecture firm Mulfinger, Susanka, Mahady & Partners (now known as SALA Architects) before leaving to pursue her writing and speaking career full-time. Her company is Susanka Studios.

Susanka has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Charlie Rose Show, and NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, and her philosophies have appeared in various publications such as USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.

She was named “one of 18 innovators in American culture” by U.S. News and World Report in 1998 and received recognition in 2004 of Builder Magazine as the 14th of 50 “Power Brokers-the most influential people in the building industry” and also appeared on the “Environmental Power List” in Organic Style magazine that same year. In 2007, she received the Anne Morrow Lindbergh Award, and award given periodically to recognize "outstanding individual achievement, a spirit of initiative, and work that exemplifies great dedication toward making positive contributions to our world."

She is a registered architect and certified interior designer as well as a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.

Susanka is a breast cancer survivor.

The basic philosophy of quality over quantity is described in great detail in her first book, "The Not So Big House," which discloses her conceptual principles, and in her book "Creating the Not So Big House," which actually dissects 25 homes and remodels by examining floor plans and the construction of different types of homes and areas within those homes. She expands on her philosophy into how we live our lives in her seventh book, The Not So Big Life, focusing on "quality, not quantity".

The Not So Big House

In The Not So Big House, Susanka urges people to create homes that are designed for themselves and the way they live by carefully considering comfort, detail, and the importance of space and the spatial use to the residents. She encourages homebuilders to discover what ceiling heights and overall room shapes bring them into a peaceful state of mind. She stresses the importance of ceiling heights being in proportion to the rest of the room and giving every adult occupant a private place of which they can take ownership. Certain architectural details are central to her philosophy, such as stair railings, moldings surrounding windows and doors, and built-ins. In The Not So Big House, Susanka explains, “a house without detail is not going to be satisfactory.” Basically, she hopes people building homes will discover what they like and what makes them feel at home--not just naming certain square footage or a number of bedrooms and bathrooms, or picking a generic plan provided in a builder’s set of fixed options. The physical proportion of the people to the space they inhabit is vital to her ideas as well as the philosophy of fitting one’s home to one’s lifestyle. Considering such questions as how often one entertains, the number and ages of the people to live in a home, etc. remain helpful in her pursuit of this concept.

The finishes and types of building materials are also important in her construction. Susanka stresses the use of renewable materials, building with energy efficiency in mind, and constructing homes to last for future generations to enjoy. Knowing and understanding what rooms and spaces one likes, the use for the space, and how often that space will be used are some of the building blocks Susanka utilizes for planning a home. Some examples include determining which rooms are public and private or which need to contain spaces for both, such as a window seat in an otherwise public room in which two persons may sit and converse away from others. Again, addressing the issue of the use of space, Susanka also discusses the duplication of functional spaces throughout the house, such as multiple dining areas. Other topics she mentions include how to translate these ideas and concepts into reality by determining one’s wishes and the feasibility of ideas, as well as considering what she calls the “three variables” of “quality, quantity, and cost”. These factors form the basis upon which she makes decisions finding that one of them will often dictate another. For example, the size or number of rooms and the quality of interior finishes will decide the cost of space and materials. As one works with an architect and builder, Susanka believes persons building their home must determine which of these “three variables” is most important to them and their lifestyle.

Creating the Not So Big House

Creating the Not So Big House builds upon the principles revealed in The Not So Big House. Some concepts addressed in Creating the Not So Big House include the visual weight of materials, the layout of a house, and the inhabitant’s perspective of space, such as considering interior views rather than exterior views only, and “spatial layering”. Entrances, interior windows, alcoves, and creating spaces that “shelter” activities and make the most of the least amount of space are some other concepts which hold vital importance in Susanka’s examination. Yet other topics include the spatial flow of a house and her concept of an “away room” which provides a place for acoustic privacy and activity. Covering a wide spectrum of dwellings, Susanka applies her philosophies to a farm house, a Pueblo-style house, a Southern style house in South Carolina, and an apartment in New York, just to name a few.