Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home

by Julie Moir Messervy, Sarah Susanka, Grey Crawford (Photographer)

Overview

In this groundbreaking book, noted landscape designer and award-winning writer Julie Moir Messervy and bestselling author Sarah Susanka reveal how to bring house and garden into perfect harmony. After all, who doesn't yearn for a landscape that is as well designed as the interior of their home? In "Outside the Not So Big House," Julie and Sarah teach you everything you need to know about the design concepts essential to extending your home beyond its four walls.
Lushly photographed and illustrated with vivid drawings, "Outside the Not So Big House" explores how to build pathways and journeys in your gardens; how to make the most of your site; how to use details to bring it all together. Twenty homes from across the country aptly illustrate these easy-to-grasp design ideas. Fans of Sarah's previous Not So Big books will be pleased to discover not only Julie's clear, concise prose but also a new vision for creating home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781600850202
Publisher:	Taunton Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/08/2008
Series:	Sarah Susanka Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Julie Moir Messervy's vision for composing landscape of beauty and meaning is furthering the evolution of landscape design and changing the way people create and enjoy their outdoor surroundings. With over three decades of experience, eight books (incuding Home Outside and Outside the Not So Big House with Sarah Susanka), and numerous high-profile lectures, Messervy is an innovative leader in landscape and garden design theory and practice. Her landscape architecture and design firm, JMMDS, is located in Saxtons River, Vermont.

Sarah Susanka is one of the leading residential architects in the United States. Her first book, "The Not So Big House," topped best-seller charts in Home & Garden categories in its first year of publication. Susanka has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Charlie Rose Show, and NPR's Diane Rehm Show. She is a former principal and founding partner of Mulfinger, Susanka, Mahady & Partners, Inc., the firm chosen by LIFE magazine to design its 1999 Dream House.

Crawford is a photographer whose work has appeared in every major national and international architecture magazine as well as in several books on architecture and design.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Landscape of Home

Site: Embracing The Habitat of Home
Playing Up the Corners
Borrowing the Landscape
The Attraction of Opposites
A Stream of One's Own
Shelter and Embrace

Flow: Composing Journeys
Variations on a Theme
Japanese Journey
Parallel Paths
The Territory of Home
The World Behind the Walls

Frames: Linking the Inside With the Out
Living Lightly on the Land
Easy Living
A Landscape of Stone
Good Fences
Rooms Inside and Out

Details: Crafting the Elements of Nature
Garden of Earthly Delights
Three Cabins in a Forest
At Home on the Range
Terraces of Grass
A Cottage in the City

Architects & Landscape Designers

Editorial Reviews

There are gardening books that tell us what to plant and where. And there are architectural design books that tell us how our homes should look. But never the twain seem to meet. At least not until recently, when the two spaces — home and garden — wed harmoniously in the new book, "Outside the Not So Big House" by Sarah Susanka and Julie Moir Messervy.
— NINA A. KOZIOL, The Chicago Tribune

This beautiful book combines the best qualities of coffee-table attractiveness and excellent advice. It pairs Susanka - author of previous "Not So Big House" books, which emphasize the trend toward smaller homes - and noted landscape and garden designer Julie Moir Messervy. They label their landscaping concept "opening up the relationship of indoors and out," and encourage readers to make the most of each.
—JUDY LOWE, Christian Science Monitor

"Outside the Not So Big House" by Julie Moir Messervy and Sarah Susanka deals with landscaping, planting and hard-scaping everything from entrances to pathways, arbors, patios and streetscapes to make the most of tight spaces. Planting sketches, lush photographs and specific problem-solving advice make it a handy reference, complete with plant names and diagrams. It's a pretty coffee-table topper, too.
—JOY CRAFT, Cincinnati Enquirer

The premise of this book is that home landscaping should be special to bring out the residence's best features (or hide its drawbacks). On my scale of one to 10, this outstanding new book rates a solid 10.
—ROBERT J. BRUSS, Miami Herald

With its plentiful photos and plans, this beautiful book is a useful tool for learning to look at the familiar in new ways.
- JARRETT SMITH Minneapolis Star Tribune

In 'Outside the Not So Big House, ' the authors describe many ways, both large and small, of connecting a house intimately to its land.
—ANNE RAVER, The New York Times
"This perfect collaboration between the talented and articulate Julie Moir Messervy and Sarah Susanka proves what a huge pleasure the landscape of a 'not so big' house can be. A must read..."
—Tom Christopher, columnist, "House & Garden "magazine
"Sarah Susanka and Julie Moir Messervy's clearly written text offers practical advice for designing indoor-outdoor spaces that respond to modern lifestyles. They reveal secrets for achieving the ideal combination of architecture and nature in the home and in the garden."
—James A. van Sweden, Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects and author of Architecture in the Garden

From the Publisher