Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home
by Sarah Susanka, Grey Crawford
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Book Summary Information
Author: Grey Crawford, Sarah SusankaEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Format: Illustrated
Published: 2000-10-01
ISBN: 1561583774
Number of pages: 264
Publisher: Taunton
Book Reviews of Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home
Book Review: The antidote to the McMansion
Summary: 5 Stars
Sarah Susanka, an architect orginally based in Minnesota, has written an extremely valuable book about creating comfortable living space in a small house. Until the recent housing crisis (and yes, even despite it among the super-rich) residential housing in this country was guided by the principal that "bigger is better". From an average house size of about 1,300 square feet during the housing boom that followed the Second World War, houses have been getting larger and larger. The effect of this on the environment went virtually unnoticed until it became fashionable to talk about global warming. No retired couple needs a weekend home of 8,000 square feet, yet one would be shocked by the number of such houses that were built in the 90s and were all the vogue up until about a year ago. Now that Hollywood movie stars, earning $20 million a film are driving hybrid cars and installing windmills in their backyards to power their 50-inch flat screens, the small house is somewhat in vogue.
Ms. Susanka has many interesting ideas on how to maximize the use of space, including the notion of creating "living" space, e.g., seating, a fireplace, and even a tub, on the other side of the walls of a house.
If you are thinking about building a house, read this book first. Perhaps you will scale down your plans and that would be a benefit to both you and to the world outside.
Books of this type have proliferated in the past few years but this volume, one of the first on the subject, remains as vital as it was when first published.
Summary of Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home
In this sequel to The Not So Big House, Sarah Susanka shows readers how to create extraordinary "Not So Big" homes. She leads a personal tour through 25 of the most beautiful, well-designed homes in North America. More than 200 color photos, floor plans and design details illustrate this innovative philosophy.Sarah Susanka has a not-so-insignificant idea in Creating the Not So Big House. She contrasts the glamorous, glossy-photo house plans of vaulted ceilings and palatial living rooms with the livable, day-to-day pleasure of cozy window seats and comfortable breakfast nooks, and her conclusion is resonating with families across the country: bigger but shoddier isn't better than smaller and well made. Descriptors like "spacious" and "expansive" fill the real-estate promos, but Susanka seeks the elusive yet affordable qualities that turn a house into a home. And she provides more than mere ideals around which to rally. She selected 25 house designs, from a southwestern adobe to a Minnesota farmhouse to a New York apartment to a Rhode Island summer cottage, and she profiles each home in great and well-illustrated detail.
Her ideas for interior as well as exterior views, airy stairways, diagonal views, and framed openings translate well in an array of different houses appropriate to childless couples and large families, as well as hot climes in Texas and cooler regions in Vermont. There are traditional designs to fit in with Massachusetts styling and contemporary designs to adapt to California cliffs, and they range from country spaces to suburban homes to city apartments.
Susanka selected house plans that are available for sale, because her purpose is to make affordable quality housing accessible to the general public, but they're also presented as catalysts for your own designs, because the house that worked for one person might inspire the plan that would work best for you. Whether you're in the market for a new house, want pragmatic renovation ideas, or are interested in the concept of space-saving abodes from a city-planning, philosophical perspective, Susanka's book is an eye-opener and a mind-expander, providing conceptual and practical tools to assist you in planning your own livable home. --Stephanie Gold
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