Product Description

Small houses are no longer synonymous with cheap houses and lack of privilege. Instead, they symbolize a range of culturally coded values: compactness, efficiency, discrimination, discreteness, minimalism. Opening with a detailed exploration of the social and historical background behind compact housing in the twentieth century, this book goes on to feature thirty-seven illustrated case studies that represent some of the best examples of small houses built worldwide within the past decade.

Plan areas range from 75 to 1600 square feet and each project embodies a particular design approach. The case studies are organized into three chapters-Rural Retreats; Urban and Suburban Bases; and Small Clusters and Multiples-and include work by such architects as Toyo Ito, Herzog and de Meuron, Simon Ungers, Enric Miralles, LOT/EK, and Kazuyo Sejima. The book includes over 300 full-color photographs illustrating the houses' interiors and exteriors as well as detailed plans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144796 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-13
• Released on: 2003-09-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Nicolas Pople is a Senior Lecturer at South Bank University, London, and the author of Experimental Houses.

Customer Reviews

Extreme examples
The introductory chapter, a brief history of architect-designed small houses (large expensive houses usually get this treatment), was the best part for me, as the author is very knowledgeable. Here he describes the groundskeepers' homes on large estates, and the later workers' cottages built by large companies, that started this category. The rest, however, is the standard thou-shalt-covet-thy-neighbor's-house pictures of very recent, attention-grabbing, expensive, glass-crazy fashion statements.

Expensive, expensive, expensive
These are houses for very rich people who never have to worry about the resale value of their house. The first chapter was very interesting, a brief review of housing history. I enjoyed seeing the workman's cottage with the unheard-of luxury of a plumbed bath - set flush to the kitchen floor and kept covered when not in use. I wonder how many people forgot and fell into it the middle of the night?

This book will be of no help at all if your interest in building a small house is motivated by economy or a desire to minimize the adverse environment impact of the construction. That said, there are a few really good ideas and some astonishingly lovely houses. The Irish "boat house" would be a great place to watch a storm come in, with its glass wall. But I'm not sure why it needs a kitchen and a bath. And the chalet/cabin with a whole-wall "shutter" to cover its large glass picture window is clever. I liked the straw mats hanging as a sunshade off the broad eaves of the clay house in West Africa - it made the house look as if it belonged there, and made the space between the wall and the shade into more useful space.

But the tiny tiny cube house on top of the elevator shaft was just plain weird.

Kind of fun, not very practical.

Good reference addition to home library
A good book with some nice case studies. Not a bad addition to my reference library. I'm giving it 3 stars only because a good 1/4 of the featured homes are not that great and seemed out of place in this book.