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

The take away from this books, for me, was that we can make much better use of space, and enjoy and feel more comfortable in our space if we consciously attend to not only the with and length of our rooms (floor plan) but also the vertical dimension. By planning the height of our interior spaces, and varying that height to complement and enhance the activities that will take place there, the spaces can be made to be more intimate, or expansive, or cozy, or generous. Susanka makes the point that architecture has taken a turn for the worse by focusing only on the floor plan, and that this trend has been one of the factors leading to needlessly bigger and bigger houses. In fact (I had not know this) larger houses, in addition to being inefficient, uncomfortable and wasteful, tend also to be darker at the center than smaller houses.Throughout the book she shows us examples in which the space is artfully designed to enhance comfort and function. Sometimes it is about increased vertical height in a part of the house, but in one house she actually inserted a ceiling/floor and created a room on top of a formerly two-story high room. This struck me as especially brilliant. The new ceiling-floor has a crescent shaped cut-out to allow the existing two story windows to provide light and views for both the existing and new second-level rooms. I am certain that the more I read and re-read this book, the more my eyes will be opened to the ways that inventive architecture can enhance the form and feeling of the spaces. Truly an eye-opening book! The only thing that bothered me a little was to see that many of these "not so big" houses were well north of 2000 square feet. (There were truly many lovely little houses and bungalows included).

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.

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.

This book is pretty good as long as you combine it with other ones I use this when remodeling a bungalow from the 1920s many of these books that are helpful you can get at the library anyways so you don't really need to purchase them as the ideas are not complex and I will remain in your mind so library books work very well this doesn't cover many things like how to create an open floor plan in a more detailed fashion so you do need to supplement this if you are very good at remodeling houses you will probably find this not to be adequate in and of itself

I used this book for ideas when I designed and then built our own house. I loved this book. The pictures alone make it worth the price. And I agree with her thesis . . . increasingly, people aren't looking for cavernous space, just for the sake of bragging about owning a home with a lot of square footage. They want a functional, beautiful home that economizes on space. I used some of her ideas to give us a bigger bang for the buck. We could use better and more expensive materials because we were using less of them. Better than just nailing together a great big pile of two by fours and having big but boring square footage. Great book.

Living in a smallish house, with kids, you have to make the most of the space. Before embarking on a big remodel, we poured this book and found many superb ideas for making the most of the space AND keeping the budget inline. We found we could accommodate all of our needs; home office, places for books, toys, a mountain of kitchen equipment, all comfortably in a 1500sq ft house by simply rethinking the space. The best of all, no one can make the excuse of not having a place to put their things and that helps considerably from keeping the house looking like a cluttered mess. I didn't want a bigger house, it's more house to clean, but wanted better use of the space and this book was immensely helpful in figuring out how to do exactly that.

I give it 5 stars because there are many great design and floor layout idea's that will help anyone building a 400-1000 sq ft (or bigger) small home or off grid cabin. I am building a 526 sq ft mountain cabin and have found a couple of idea's that I will incorporate into my build plans. This book is especially good for interior design in my opinion. This book may not be good for tiny house nation or someone building a really small house less than 250 sq ft. Quality book added to my library.

Really read her words .. they are invaluable for clever use of space. The furniture may be dated but the book is brilliant

I read Fine Housebuilding a lot, and this book is by one of the architects who contribute to that mag. The book has lots of architectural 'tricks' to make your home feel more welcomming, many of which are neither costly nor difficult to implement when remodelling. OK, it is easier in a woodframe house (as in Canada or the States) but many things can still be applied in the UK.

This book second hand cost a fraction of the price of new. My son, to whom I've now passed this on, is very happy with this purchase

Very nice book, and very good ideas.Very fast delivery.

Good deal