Latest 6 Reviews Here is what people are saying about the Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home
"Not So Big"
2009-06-25
- Reviewed By User: A2RP5AX5GLSNW2
Creating the Not So Big House by Sara Susanka speaks to my quality over quantity motto. There is something to say about a well designed house. Well done anything for that matter. I have to admit a well designed house is not always about the largest amount of square footage. It is about the quality of the craftsmanship inside and how well the space is designed to fit life.
It amazes me time in again whether listing a house or being a buyer's agent the need to communicate the space of the home. Space is not a two dimensional object that a picture captures. There is that third element (you know, 3D) that you can only get by being there. Ever here those TV Cooking hosts say: "I wish smell-o-vision was invented"? I wish there was a space-o-vision or space-translator to give a person a sense of the living or working in the property. Reality only translates the sensation of the space and usage. 3D is nice but there is that human intuition that "sixth" sense that sets the person's imagination a light on how the space will be used.
Nothing, absolutely, nothing compares to a well thought out, designed space. Nothing.
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.
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.
"The not so big house is more of a Not so inexpensive house"
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.
"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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"Not So Big"
"The not so big house is more of a Not so inexpensive house"