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

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Overview

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.

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Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

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Bookseller Reviews

Think big, but plan small: That seems to be the message of Creating The Not So Big House, Susan Susanka's clarion call for coziness. This bold pictorial heeds the obvious: That activities should define the space, not vice versa. One doesn't have to be house-hunting to benefit from the book's interior designing advice. For example, mastering the concept of "bilateral symmetry" can help the most budget-strapped home owner learn how to clarify his or her space needs, and the discussion of opening up rooms applies to almost any living space. Ultimately, this well-constructed book is uplifting: For the first time, it frees us from being prisoners of our four walls.

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 types--Pueblo-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 pattern--unhappiness 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.--Russell T. Clement, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Evanston, IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\
More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews
Booknews
Focusing on key design strategies such as visual weight, layering, and framed openings, home architect Suskana takes a close look at 25 houses designed to emphasize quality over the size of the structure. The houses represent a wide variety of styles and emphasize comfort and beauty, a high level of detail, and a floor plan designed for today's informal way of life. Extensively illustrated with color photographs. Oversize: 10.25x10.25<">. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
From The Critics
The author's first book proposed a blueprint for a smaller American house design which promoted quality over quantity: Creating the Not So Big House continues in the same vein, revealing the blueprint in action with a focus on key design strategies which achieve objectives in line with her 'not so big' principles. Packed with design ideas and color photos of finished projects.
Cathleen McGuigan
[A] practical guide for home builders and remodelers—full fo ideas and plans—which also continues her attack on the wasted formal spaces and grandiosity of the new suburban McMansions.
—Newsweek

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781561583775
  • Publisher: Taunton Press, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 10/1/2000
  • Pages: 258
  • Sales rank: 970,500
  • Series: Sarah Susanka Series
  • Product dimensions: 10.24 (w) x 10.22 (h) x 0.91 (d)

Meet the Author

As an advocate of "less is more" in residential architecture and interior design, Fine Homebuilding contributing editor Sarah Susanka has emerged as one of America's favorite home architects. Her books Creating the Not So Big House and The Not So Big House offer a new vision for the American home: houses about a third smaller than what you thought you needed -- but better suited to your lifestyle. In short, quality over quantity.

Sarah has been featured by U.S. News and World Report as one of 18 innovators in American culture, and she had a featured article in USA Weekend's 5th Annual Home and Garden Issue for Spring 2001. She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Charlie Rose Show, and numerous radio shows around the country. She is a former principal and founding partner of the firm chosen by LIFE magazine to design its 1999 Dream Home.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

The Language of the Not So Big House

There's a tremendous power to naming ideas and concepts. If you have a word for something, you can ask for it, you can think about it, you can agree or disagree with it. But if no one has ever identified the concept, you can only stumble across it accidentally, and even then probably not fully appreciate it. A Pattern Language, a book by architect Christopher Alexander and colleagues published in 1977, began the process of naming the concepts that underlie our built environment. It opened my eyes to just how much of what we think of as design is based on hidden patterns that, when understood, can be used to create particular effects.

The home designed by architect Matthew Schoenherr (see "Doing More with Less" on p. 50) includes a wonderful example of one of these hitherto nameless patterns. Matthew took a tiny, one-story summer cottage and remodeled it into a three-story home. On the main level, which was only 500 sq. ft., he placed the entryway, kitchen, dining area, living area, and stairway--all without dividing walls. Surprisingly, the result isn't one big undifferentiated room. Far from it. Each area has its own personality and spatial definition. What separates one space from the next is small and insignificant on the plan--a single 3-ft.-square enclosure that hides the refrigerator from view, with narrow flanking columns on either side. But this one small design element does a tremendous amount of work in defining the "rooms" of the house and in making less do more.

What struck me about this particular feature was that I'd used the same spatial device in my own Not So Big House. By placing the fireplace in the center of the house as a self-contained vertical pod of space, I eliminated almost all of the interior walls while still giving each area its own defined place. Both Matthew and I had used the same highly effective and simple device, yet there is no name for it. Here is a perfect example of a spatial concept that architects use all the time, but that most people don't even know exists. Time for a new term, I thought: a pod of space...

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Language of the Not So Big House
A Timeless Classic: Rhode Island
A House for Today and Tomorrow: California
The Essence of Home: Pennsylvania
Doing More with Less: Connecticut
A Farmhouse for Our Time: Minnesota
A Jewel in the Suburbs: Illinois
Three Easy Pieces: Wisconsin
A Sense of Flow: Washington
A House in Harmony: Massachusetts
Affordable Comfort: Massachusetts
Comfort, Pueblo-Style: New Mexico
Thinking outside the Box: California
Playfully Sustainable: Vermont
One Phase at a Time: Maine
Updating a Not So Big House: Connecticut
Tight Quarters: New York
Southern Comfort: South Carolina
An Accessible House for One: Washington
A Place of Cool Remove: Texas
Elegant Simplicity: Rhode Island
Upstairs, Downstairs: California
A Not So Big Remodel: Connecticut
A Cottage Community: Washington
Creating the Dream House: Minnesota
The Whole Nine Yards: Minnesota
Afterword: The Plans for the Houses
Architects and Designers
Ordering Information

Introduction

When The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live was published in 1998, I don't think anyone anticipated the avalanche of interest it would generate. Homeowners are clearly more than ready for an alternative to the huge, impersonal "starter castles" that are filling our new suburbs and developments.

Many people wrote me to say that, until reading The Not So Big House, they had given up on building a new home because they were so discouraged by both the quality and size of what they were seeing. Over and over, I heard the same complaint: "Too much space, too little substance." The Not So Big House gave these readers hope that there were alternatives. Perhaps they could get a new home with the quality and character of an older one but designed for today's lifestyle.

All too often we are forced to select the most important investment of our lifetime based on a two-dimensional representation--a plan--while those things that really affect our experience of being in a place lie outside the scope of our floor plans and thus go unnamed, and so, unrealized. We long for a sense of shelter and comfort from our homes but tend instead to use words like "spacious" and "expansive" to describe what we think we want. It's no wonder our houses keep getting larger. If we want houses that nurture us, we need to develop a language that describes the qualities of home and not just the quantities. What has drawn so many people to The Not So Big House is exactly this: a desire to define these elusive qualities so that the houses they build for themselves will be more than just shelters--they'll be homes.

Creating the Not So Big House broadens the range to include architects from all over the country who are designing homes using Not So Big principles. From the hundreds of submissions I received, I've selected 25 beautifully designed houses and remodeling projects that best exemplify Not So Big concepts and provide inspiration for creating your own Not So Big House. The homes are from all over the United States in a rich variety of styles--from a southwestern adobe to a traditional Minnesota farmhouse, a New York apartment to a cottage community in the Pacific Northwest, a jewel in a Chicago suburb to a summer home in Rhode Island.

The plans for most of these homes are available for sale (see p. 258 for details). Unlike grocery-store home plans, each house is illustrated in depth, inside and out, and the ideas that give each house its character and quality are described in detail. The book focuses on ideas and on the qualities that make a home, rather than on size and layout alone. It can help those who want to work with an architect to design a custom home to find the language and ideas to describe their dreams. And those who want a beautifully designed home without taking a custom approach will find plans they can work with.

People are eager for an alternative to the bigger-is-better approach to home design. What we need are designs of quality, substance, and beauty. Creating the Not So Big House is a first step in introducing such designs into the marketplace. Within the coming decade I believe we'll see a whole new niche in the residential-construction market. It will focus on quality design and construction, using sustainable techniques and materials, and will appeal to buyers who want a home that really nurtures their spirit rather than simply impresses the neighbors with scale. To do this, we have to start with what's important to each of us as we rebalance the way we spend our time, our effort, and our money. It's my hope that this book will give you the tools to create your own Not So Big Home.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 14, 2000

    Sarah Susanka - The Martha Stewart of Home Design

    I ordered Creating the NSBH before it was released because her first book The Not So Big House, confirmed my thoughts as to how I would have my family's new home designed. In Creating the NSBH, Sarah tours through several new and redesigned homes that cover various architectural styles yet still follow the general principles of the NSBH. I found both the text and the pictorials were well-written and expertly photographed, and gave me additional ideas for our new home, set to start construction in January 2001. Yes, I think Sarah is becoming the Martha Stewart of Home Design. Quality of design and surroundings, not quantity of space is truly what Americans are yearning for. While you may not agree with Martha or her style, she undeniably the American expert in homemaking, just as Sarah has set forth the new paradigm in home design. I whole heartedly recommend Creating the NSBH to anyone seeking to build a new home, or remodel an existing one.

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