Product Details
Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid

Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid
By Marianne Cusato, Ben Pentreath, Richard Sammons, Leon Krier

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Product Description

Even as oversized McMansions continue to elbow their way into tiny lots nationwide, a much different trend has taken shape. This return to traditional architectural principles venerates qualities that once were taken for granted in home design: structural common sense, aesthetics of form, appropriateness to a neighborhood, and even sustainability. Marianne Cusato, creator of the award-winning Katrina Cottages, has authored and illustrated this definitive guide to what makes houses look and feel right—to the eye and to the soul. She teaches us the language and grammar of classical architecture, revealing how balance, harmony, and detail all contribute to creating a home that will be loved rather than tolerated. And she takes us through the do’s and don’ts of every element of home design, from dormers to doorways to columns. Integral to the book are its hundreds of elegant line drawings—clearly rendering the varieties of lintels and cornices, arches and eaves, and displaying “avoid” and “use” versions of the same elements side by side.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #15582 in Books
  • Published on: 2008-01-01
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 272 pages

Customer Reviews

Fun, exactly as billed, with a spark of genius5
I bought this book about a month or so ago. I have read through it once. While I will skim it again, from time to time, I'll be keeping it as an irreplaceable reference manual for home design or purchase.

The illustrations are gorgeous and pure genius. Most of them are NOT CAD drawings, but honest-to-goodness pencil illustrations, which all have a definite artistic flair to them.

The premise is simple: the Greeks and Romans got it right, and modern home designers try to ape their aesthetic without doing the requisite homework make awful looking houses. Once you read this book, you'll never be able to go into a rich new suburban development without easily being able to point out the painfully obvious design gaffes that abound. That's the downside--you're an instant architectural snob after one read. But the upside is that when it is time to YOU to buy or build, you'll know precisely what to look for and what to avoid.

Marianne Cusato has proven her genius with the "Katrina Cottage" design, which will probably set her for life financially. I hope it does, so she can focus all of her energies toward the classicist movement. I'd sure love to hire her to design my next home (if I could ever afford her now).

The modern architectural ethic of the last century, emphasizing a lack of details, machinelike designs, and a material driven ethos (steel, glass, and concrete) is absolutely put to shame by the Greek and Roman orders of proportion, balance, and detail. Hopefully, Ms. Cusato and her classicist colleagues can put the last few nails in that coffin. I could live the rest of my life quite well without having to view another gawd-awful building that looks like it was designed by Fisher Price.

This book is a masterpiece.

Awesome Reference Manual and Information...5
I would have to say this is by far THE best book I have found for designing authentic traditional style homes. Say goodbye to cookie cutter - every designer should have a copy of this book beside them when they design, or else memorize it!
I am not a HUGE reader, but I was so enthralled with this book, that I read about 125 pages in my first and second sitting. Ok, it has a lot of pictures, but still that is pretty good for me. I usually lose interest quickly. :)
Don't hesitate to buy this book. It is a deal at any price. It WILL help you "Get Your House Right", save money and increase the value of your home tremendously in the process.
This should be standard issue at all technical schools, colleges and anywhere that teaches how to design good quality authentic buildings that are pleasing to the general public.

This book provides a great tutorial for the layman and architect alike5
This book is a refreshing antidote to the sea of mediocrity being built all around us. It fuses classical design principles, so long lost by architects and the building industry, with practical applications to everyday home design and construction. It's easy to understand by layman and architects alike and is a fundamental primer to building your new home.

I've purchased additional copies and sent them to friends about to build their new homes to share with their architects. It has become one of my book shelf treasures.