 "The antidote to the McMansion" | 2008-02-16 |
| - Reviewed By vacanzeinitalia |
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. |
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| "Not So Big House-an Idea Whose Time Has Come" | 2007-11-09 |
| - Reviewed By siden |
| Hopefully all the people who are supposed to be interested in preserving the natural world will buy into Susanka's idea and build smaller, more useful houses rather than energy and environmental guzzlers. Be nice if some of the "talking heads" would do as they say. Great ideas for all of us interested in using less and preserving more. |
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 "The not so big house is more of a Not so inexpensive house" | 2007-06-20 |
| - Reviewed By villaridge |
| We have read both books and did find some things interesting, there was only one or two houses in either of the books about the Not So Big House that would have worked for us. One thing we did find that the cost of the "not so big house"; because of many of the materials used; it is really more than what a number of people might find too expensive for their budget. |
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| "A must when designing your home" | 2007-06-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A11HOJ6SXJQOOE |
| We are remodeling our house and my daughter and husband are about to build a new house. A friend of us got many great ideas from this book when they built their home, so they recommended it to me. I had purchased it as a gift for my daughter who, along with her husband, have been reading it since then word by word, and studying the pictures. They are so excited by the concept of a great home and the excellent ideas found in the book. It gave them the direction that they will definitely take when designing their new home. |
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| "What a Great Idea Book" | 2007-03-11 |
| - Reviewed By esto99 |
| Creative ideas for the practical person. No cute gismos and such, just solid ideas and ways to make them work. Highly recommended. |
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 "Good Idea, But . . ." | 2006-12-29 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2DRVBSJX6XI8E |
| Her premise that quality beats quantity is a good one. Unfortunately, her taste in architecture (or at least interior design) leaves a lot to be desired -- most of her examples are visually cluttered and will seem dated very quickly, as some indeed already do. |
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 "more of the same" | 2006-11-22 |
| - Reviewed By ncam |
The Author expands on her first book.
It is is good to see an American architect prepared to criticise some of the big names.
This book was a worthwhile purchase for me in that she said words to the effect, "that no matter how exquisite a house is, you can louse it up with uncomfortable furniture".I went home and junked some Le Corbusier chairs that I have always hated stitting in, I only had them because they looked nice.
I think that as a lecturer she would be a very good influence, but I still think that her homes are neo-victorian dust traps.
However, the author seems to design real homes as against cabins, which most of the books on small houses seem to be about.
This book was nice to have but could have been "not so big" itself. |
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| "Inspiring book with one big flaw" | 2006-08-17 |
| - Reviewed By cris_waller |
As I read this book, I found some ideas that will be very useful in designing my small handcrafted log home. The idea of ensuring long diagonal views, for example, was a good one. And the pictures and floorplans illustrated the concepts very well.
There's just one thing missing- cost estimates. One house, in particular, was called 'affordable," and "built on a budget." Another chapter compared two similar houses built for "Life" magazine- one on a budget, and one that cost twice as much. Yet in neither case were we given any idea of whether "affordable" and "budget" was $80.00 per square foot or $300. Considering that many of the houses in this book were truly luxurious, "budget" may have a different meaning to Sarah Susanka than to me! So, in looking through this book, I don't know how many concepts could be implemented with an average budget, and how many are just dreams. A cost per square foot for each of the houses would have been a very thoughtful addition.
One small caveat- "Not So Big" doesn't equal small! Many of the houses in this book are well over 2000 SF, some are even 3000 SF. |
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 "No where NEAR the quality of the first book." | 2005-01-05 |
| - Reviewed By caseycrookston |
I found nothing in this book that was not in the first. Also, every single house photographed in this book is done in contemporary style, and I am not a fan of contemporary. The first book had a much wider variety of looks and styles.
In a nut shell, don't waste your money. Go to your local book store, thumb through it, and put it back on the shelf.
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| "The Not-So-Special Book" | 2004-09-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1BZYKH9SX6F5X |
This popular sequel to the well known Not So Big House in no way commands a five star rating. Written in the style of a magazine article rather than that of a well conceived book, the same ideas surface in the same way each chapter. And with only a few ideas to kick around this is not unsursprising. Very light reading indeed.
On the redeeming side, the last two chapters of the book compare a relatively inexpensive house to a more complex and costly one which use very similar floor plans. Differences are instructively pointed out and explained.
If you already bought the first book though, idea-wise there isn't much more here. It's all about casual open floor plans, spiced up with modulating ceiling heights and built-ins. What is more, when one looks into the origins of the open floor plan, i.e., in the works of Gustav Stickley and others, it becomes clear how little more than a popularizer of their ideas Susanka really is.
In short, unless you are a big fan of the author, it's probably better to flip through it at the bookstore over a cup of coffee, enjoying the nice pictures, and leave it on the table for the next guy. |
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