Topics
of Interest
"The Not-So-Big House"
In
1998, a refreshing book by Sarah Susanka entitled The Not-So-Big House
was released by Taunton Press. The "Not-So-Big House", is
not any particular size. It could be 2000 square feet, it could be 4000
square feet or more. The "Not-So-Big House" is instead
a thought process of finding more value, in less square footage; a process
of analyzing what rooms and spaces you will really utilize, and what may still
be missing in that over-sized floor plan of bigger-is-better. The book
examines the sense of spaciousness that can be generated in spaces that are
really modest in scale, but by open sight lines connecting spaces, and changes
in scale (by ceiling height changes for example) within each space, the whole
becomes more than the sum of the parts.
The principles outlined are illustrated by many beautiful photographs of good
design in this book, grouped according to the chapter headings, "Bigger
Isn't Better", "Rethinking the House", "Making
Not-so-Big Work", "Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous",
"Dreams, Details, and Dollars", and "The House of
the Future."
In 1999, I received a call from the Asheville-Buncombe Library System,
asking if I would be willing to do a lecture for their lecture series on the
immensely popular subject of Sarah Susanka's best selling book, The Not-So-Big
House. During October of 1999, I delivered this lecture to the East
Asheville Library, and illustrated these principals with slides of my own
work. You may wish to read the article about my lecture in the Asheville-Citizen
Times. See "My Back Pages" below.
On September 19, 2002 we were honored by Sarah Susanka's presence for a standing-room-only
lecture she delivered to a broad Asheville audience at the Diana Wortham Theater.
The first event of an annual lecture series, sponsored by the Asheville
Section of the AIA, her wonderful talk with slides of good and bad home designs,
showed us the thought process by which poorly scaled spaces and poorly thought-out
floor plans bring us the wasted space and mediocrity we find today in so many
builder designed "spec homes" or "custom" builder-designed
homes. Emphasizing a more complete thought process with regard to planning
and designing the single family home, she gave many great examples of home
designs by herself and other professionally trained architects; designs which
provide more value with less floor area; designs which better support the
activities of home and family life.
Recommended
Reading:
1) The Not So Big House
Sarah Susanka, 1998
2) Creating the Not So
Big House
Sarah Susanka, 1998
My
Back Pages
In the following article
that Rob Nuefeld wrote for the Asheville-Citizen Times, he announces
my lecture at the East Asheville Library, and discusses how these principals
are manifested in my own residential design work.
