The Big Book of Small House Designs is a collection of more than 500 drawings illustrating all aspects of 75 small homes of various styles, from a New England farmhouse to a sophisticated steel frame to a Santa Fe ranch. Each design includes detailed floor plans, section drawings, elevations, and perspectives, as well as a description of the materials used and landscaping around the home. Keeping in mind that a chief priority for a small home is often energy efficiency, most of the plans incorporate some energy-efficient element. There are dozens of plans suitable for every environment and climate in the country. The designs are all a direct result of several international competitions that solicited from architects the best homes of 1,250 square feet or less. Contact information for the architects is provided in the back of the book.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Editor and professional architect Don Metz is a partner in the architectural firm of Metz and Thornton. He started his career in the energy-efficient house design business in 1972 with his award-winning Winston House. He was the consultant for the book The Underground House Book by fellow Storey author Stu Campbell. Don also wrote Superhouse and edited Storey's New Compact House Designs, and edited The Compact House Book. Metz has also written two novels, Catamount Bridge and King of the Mountain. He lives with his wife in Lyme, New Hampshire.
Owner of the architectural firm BarnOwl Designs, Catherine Tredway is an award-winning designer who has been helping clients create their dream cottages and leisure-time homes for 15 years. She teaches courses in landscape design and architectural preservation.
Kenneth R. Tremblay, Jr. is a professor at Colorado State University. He has also written the book, Social Aspects of Housing and Beyond the American Housing Dream. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Lawrence Von Bamford is a professor at Colorado State University. A resident of Loveland, Colorado, he is also the author of Design Resources and A History of Contemporary Architecture and Design.
Owner of the architectural firm BarnOwl Designs, Catherine Tredway is an award-winning designer who has been helping clients create their dream cottages and leisure-time homes for 15 years. She teaches courses in landscape design and architectural preservation.
Kenneth R. Tremblay, Jr. is a professor at Colorado State University. He has also written the book, Social Aspects of Housing and Beyond the American Housing Dream. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Lawrence Von Bamford is a professor at Colorado State University. A resident of Loveland, Colorado, he is also the author of Design Resources and A History of Contemporary Architecture and Design.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
128 of 131 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
While containing a number of intersting plans for small homes, this book falls short on several accounds. First, there is almost no text save what is on the inside of the jacket. That's right: no introduction, no methodology. There is no explanation of which competitions the plans were taken from or what awards they won. (Amusingly, I went to show my neighbor one of the plans that I liked. He said he liked it too but that it was an old plan from a competition in the early 90's. And would you believe that he happened to have a copy of the competition from which the plan was taken!)
Secondly, as to the plans themselves, dimensions are rarely marked and often unclearly. In the case of two or three of the plans this makes them nearly unintelligable.
The lack of wall sections or descriptions of materials used for the majority of the plans makes it impossible to understand the particulars of what makes the houses energy effecient.
In short, the book far from lives up to its description and isn't worth spending the money for a handful of plans since a person can look at plans all day long for free online.
Secondly, as to the plans themselves, dimensions are rarely marked and often unclearly. In the case of two or three of the plans this makes them nearly unintelligable.
The lack of wall sections or descriptions of materials used for the majority of the plans makes it impossible to understand the particulars of what makes the houses energy effecient.
In short, the book far from lives up to its description and isn't worth spending the money for a handful of plans since a person can look at plans all day long for free online.
74 of 79 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The layout looks as if the home plans themselves were photocopied from elsewhere, often too small and without accompanying information about materials, why and how certain layouts work in the context, labels, etc; thus even as a catalogue of disparate houses that happen to win an architectural contest, this is not very useful. Further, despite being plans of 1250 sq ft or less, there was little in the way of explanation of how this space is designed to accomodate living. Because of the topic, I expected to see a variety of houses designed to fit various contexts (urban, rural, etc) and living situations within the 1250 sq ft. I'm sure there are better books out there on this topic; not being an architect I don't know if this book would be useful to help brainstorming ideas or whatnot.
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As one of the putative "Authors" of this book, I'm dismayed at Black Dog and Leventhal's sloppy work and failure to involve -- or even notify me -- that they were publishing this thing back in 2004. They essentially scrambled houses from two books I'd previously done with Storey Publishing and presumably -- I've never met or spoken with the other four "authors" -- used their ideas as well. I recieved one modest check after the book was in production and haven't seen a cent since. Nasty business and a pretty useless book, I'd say. I'm ashamed to have my name on the cover.
Don Metz
Don Metz
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beware - This book is not what it says it is...
There are no 'plans' included - this is merely a compendium of cool house ideas and sketches, that's all. If you want a cute coffee table book, sure - this will do. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Dreux Donelan
Bait and Switch
From the Misleading cover - I surmised I would be looking at many recent designs. Instead the book is full of recycled house designs that appear to be right out of the Grocery... Read more
Published on June 22, 2009 by Thomas A. Myers
Small houses
I just love this-Tons of photos-great information written for real people and not just the design community-We can all take something from this book and apply it to our lives to... Read more
Published on June 15, 2009 by Quinn Parulis
read the cover first.
there are no pictures! yes, there is some pretty sketches and plans, but no pictures of the finished product..
Published on June 4, 2009 by Kane Robinson
Loved it!
This book what just what I was looking for. My husband and I do not need a large home since we are "empty nesters" but did not want to build the usual small house or go the condo... Read more
Published on January 20, 2009 by R. Harrison
GLASSES PLEASE
The type and drawings in this book are so small you need a magnifying glass to read it. This book might be more suited to the classroom.
Published on July 22, 2008 by Russ
Colors please
When I buy a book I either want to learn or relax. In this case I wanted to learn and had to really concentrate because of the lack of pictures in it. Read more
Published on April 29, 2008 by Alfred
Waste of Time
I knew the book wouldn't be a great resource but I thought it might have some reason for having been published other than the author and publisher just trying to cash in on the... Read more
Published on April 20, 2008 by YuppiePunk
The cover fools you
Be warned. This book contains only 2D home plans. Their are no photos besides the one on the cover.
Published on February 28, 2008 by R. Clark
Drawings - not pictures
The book have a lot of good ideaas for how to draw / design houses. There is a lack of pictures of the actual solutions, in order to give a good idea of how the the solutions... Read more
Published on December 17, 2007 by Jan T. Gangsøy
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The objective of this design is to create a strong house that incorporates both modern and traditional elements, and that introduces novelties where possible to maximize aesthetics and utility. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Site Plan, Wall Section, South Elevation, East Elevation, North Elevation, Fiberglass Insulation, Building Paper, Plywood Subfloor, Floor Joists, Gravel Fill, Prairie One, Side Elevation, New York, Crushed Stone, Insulating Sheathing, Modified Colonial Saltbox, New Mexico, Insect Screen, Lake Michigan, North Carolina, Ply Sheathing, Plywood Deck New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The objective of this design is to create a strong house that incorporates both modern and traditional elements, and that introduces novelties where possible to maximize aesthetics and utility. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Site Plan, Wall Section, South Elevation, East Elevation, North Elevation, Fiberglass Insulation, Building Paper, Plywood Subfloor, Floor Joists, Gravel Fill, Prairie One, Side Elevation, New York, Crushed Stone, Insulating Sheathing, Modified Colonial Saltbox, New Mexico, Insect Screen, Lake Michigan, North Carolina, Ply Sheathing, Plywood Deck New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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