Product Description

Since Adobe Houses for Today first appeared, interest in energy efficiency has exploded. Showing the pathway to smaller, solar tempered, easy-to-heat homes using adobe, one of the world's most energy efficient building materials, makes this book about adobe houses not only for today, but also for tomorrow. Adobe Houses for Today features 12 plans for compact, beautifully proportioned adobe homes in modern and traditional styles. The richly illustrated text shows how the basic houses, designed for today's smaller families, can be expanded and adapted to fit readers' own budgets, family sizes, style preferences, and building sites. After a brief look at adobe's rich history, Adobe Houses for Today surveys adobe's advantages as a building material, illustrates adobe construction, and gives an eye-opening tour through the facts and fantasies of energy conservation. The heart of the book details the plans, using them as examples of design techniques that increase livability and control costs in any house. The book and its minimal-cost construction drawings are valuable, enjoyable tools for those buying, building, or remodeling a house. With this new edition, which includes an additional chapter with stories from people who have built the houses, construction drawings are now available for some of the expanded versions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94506 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 230 pages

From Library Journal
Most library users are interested in homes using traditional construction methods, but comprehensive collections should offer information about alternative technologies. These three titles offer good options. Pearson offers instructions to build yurts, tipis, and benders all dwellings that consist of a collapsible, lightweight frame covered with cloth. Examples range from simple, temporary designs to much sturdier structures appropriate for year-round use. The examples are from all over the world, but brief instructions allow anyone to build a rather exotic structure inexpensively. The Sanchezes provide a wealth of information about the history and techniques associated with the use of adobe, an ancient material common in the Southwest. Twelve plans for both traditional and modern homes are included some of which look surprisingly conventional to the casual observer. This title will be of particular interest to readers in the more arid regions of North America. Mackie, a well-known author and educator of log home-building techniques, shows how to construct a log home in a low-impact, environmentally friendly manner. The homes shown are beautiful, with a great deal of exposed joinery; Mackie's step-by-step instructions and excellent illustrations show how everything is done (the author, who is in his mid-seventies, is still building homes a feat that many half his age would find taxing). These titles are recommended for comprehensive collections or for those with a regional interest in the particular technology covered.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
'...a fascinating wealth of information and lore.' --The Bookwatch

'...a wealth of information about the history and techniques associated with the use of adobe.' --Library Journal

'Helpful for anyone buying, building, or remodeling an adobe house as well as for contractors, drafters, and real estate brokers.' --Book News

From the Author
We are gratified by the following early comments that have come in from readers:

"Wow! Adobe Houses for Today has been set loose on the Market. . . .The book is everything we have been looking for the past thirty years. It starts with about 100 pages of general information with lots of great photographs, about everything anyone would need to know about adobe. . . . Subtitled ‘Flexible Plans for Your Adobe Home,’ they are not kidding. Each house can be built in several iterations, usually in several different styles." --Head of Northern New Mexico Community College’s adobe construction program

"Hey, I stayed up all night last night reading your book." -- Bernalillo, NM, adobe builder

"I met the Sanchez’s this week end and reviewed the book. It is a winner and has a lot of thought and care to it . . . a good buy full of information." -- Santa Fe Solaradobe architect

"The book is a gem. The plans are everything that I was looking for . . . They are carefully thought out and indeed flexible. Kudos to Alex and Laura Sanchez for a remarkable book." -- Adobe bulletin board poster

"I received the book five days ago and have read it two times. Meets all my expectations, anxieties, and I totally agree with your philosophy. Thanks for a great book." -- Reader in Santa Cruz, CA

". . . some of the best floor plans we’ve seen. This book is long overdue and is a boon to the owner-builder or small contractor." -- Adobe instructor and publisher

Customer Reviews

A Great Start!
This is a terrific book to get started thinking about the adobe home you want to build, especially if you're planning on building "green." The floor plans and accompanying CAD generated images are practical and straightforward. The text covers the basics of adobe home building, including the advantages and disadvantages the owner may want to consider first. If you're considering building a modest adobe home, this book is an excellent place to begin. Working blueprints of the floor plans are available for a minimal cost as well should the owner decide to adopt one as is.

A fascinating wealth of information and lore
Adobe Houses For Today: Flexible Plans For Your Adobe Home by Laura and Alex Sanchez showcases twelve plans for constructing compact, aesthetic adobe homes in modern and traditional styles. Chapters cover the history, advantages and drawbacks, and finances of owning an adobe home, as well as how to build one from the ground up. Black-and-white photographs, computer models, and diagrams clearly illustrate a variety of points. A highly recommended addition to academic and professional architectural studies collections, Adobe Houses For Today is more than a modern guide to an ancient architectural art; it is also a fascinating wealth of information and lore.

A good start for adobe house plans
This was one of the few books that I have been able to find that has working house plans for adobe building. Although there are only twelve basic plans, they all have multiple configurations that actually make a wide variety of ideas.