Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home

基本信息·出版社：Taunton

·页码：264 页

·出版日期：2002年

·ISBN：1561586056

·条形码：9781561586059

·装帧：平装

·正文语种：英语

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内容简介在线阅读本书

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.

编辑推荐Amazon.com

Sarah Susanka has a not-so-insignificant idea inCreating 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--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.

专业书评From Library Journal

Susanka's very successful The Not-So-Big House (LJ 9/15/98) nimbly capitalized on the 1990s small-is-beautiful wave that touted voluntary simplicity, downsizing, and contentment with one's lot in life (especially if that lot includes an average, middle-class house in the suburbs). This follow-up features 25 new and redesigned homes thought to embody "not-so-big" principles such as shelter around activity, double-duty rooms, interior and diagonal views, variety of ceiling heights, importance of personal space, and so on. The book's design allows readers to flip through looking for ideas about trendy house typesDPueblo-style, the old farmhouse, Shaker cottage, shingle-style, Fifties retro. Simple house plans and carefully constructed photos of well-appointed space abound. The writing is unchallenging, nontechnical, sunny, even cozy. Couples and architects are referred to by given names (Barry and Susan, Sally and Gary), and each episode follows a rather numbing, prosaic patternDunhappiness with present quarters, lifestyle examination, and problem-solving (unfortunately without expenses listed), concluding with "not-so-big" bliss. While the first book is not required prior reading, this is best recommended for libraries where the first book proved popular.DRussell T. Clement, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Evanston, IL

Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.

FromBooklist

Architect Susanka has big ideas about small home design. Her 1998 bestseller,The Not So Big House, showcased examples of excellent designs in small houses. Her new book continues to promote well-designed, efficient, interesting modest-size homes. Reacting to the American trend to build "starter castles" on small lots, Susanka proposes that these same homeowners would actually be happier in fully functioning small homes. Her basic philosophy seems to be: 1) recognize that the kitchen is the heart of the modern American home, so don't isolate it behind a wall; 2) do away with the unused formal spaces so often seen in homes; 3) use the money instead for especially useful or beautiful details: built-in furniture, interior columns used to define spaces, interesting lighting, materials, and decorating. To illustrate these principles, Susanka includes 25 delightful examples of houses designed by architects from around the country. Each example features gorgeous photographs and Susanka's simple, readable prose. For small families, confirmed singles, and retirees, this book offers expert ideas on finding or creating the right-size home sweet home.James Klise

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.