Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home
264
Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home
264Paperback
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Overview
Creating the Not So Big House is the blueprint in action. Focusing on key design strategies such as visual weight, layering, and framed openings, Sarah Susanka takes an up-close look at 25 houses designed according to Not So Big principles. The houses are from all over North America in a rich variety of styles — from a tiny New York apartment to a southwestern adobe, a traditional Minnesota farmhouse, and a cottage community in the Pacific Northwest. Whether new or remodeled, these one-of-a-kind homes provide all the inspiration you need to create your own Not So Big House.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781561586059 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Taunton Press, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 02/01/2002 |
| Series: | Sarah Susanka Series |
| Pages: | 264 |
| Product dimensions: | 10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.72(d) |
About the Author
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.
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
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- 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
What People are Saying About This
…if you're ever going to build or renovate, buy this book.
—(Stephen Gordon, CEO, Restoration Hardware)
Introduction
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.