Customer Reviews

Bungalow The Ultimate Arts & Crafts Home

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my first contact with Powell/Svendsen's books, and while it is indeed coffee table size (it needs to be large to accommodate the beautiful photography)it is so charming and readable that, without so intending, I READ it (in one sitting, yet). We have several other books of gorgeous bungalows, many with the same houses as subjects, with accomanying commentary equivalent to dry stale cornflakes; this one is crumpets and cream. Like others documenting bungalow style architecture, this book is not intended as a construction or instruction manual, but as inspiration. For admirers of bungalow style and for those seeking a picture to replace the thousand words BUNGALOW is an easy choice.

The quality of book materials is of the highest. The binding, hard cover and the glossy pages are of the highest quality. The content is a different story; many (many!) of the exterior house photographs are difficult to read due to the excessive dark contrasts associated with shadows. As a result much of the detail remains hidden. Some of the photographs due to their size (being large) are blurry. The exterior photographs depict for the most part exotic or unbalanced bungalow houses with the exceptions of an occasional Greene & Greene masterpiece. The first half of the book is filled with these exotic exterior photographs with descriptions peppered with the author's humor that I found extremely annoying and I adore Zen Buddhism. The second half of the book was much better mainly because there were photographs and descriptions were of bungalow interiors. In fact the interior content was quite beautiful and very informative. However, even some of those photographs suffered from shadow problems. Then a chapter was devoted to historic preservation which I can respect but the author left out the most important factor in determining what is required to be successful at historic preservation; hazardous materials such as lead paint and asbestos impregnated plaster are extremely expensive to abate. If not abated, serious health hazards could affect one's health. In addition to hazardous material concerns is the author's liberal view of more divine government intervention to be thrown at bungalows in the way of more tax dollars that appear to be gone or non-existent since this book was written. Sometimes historic structures are just too far gone and need to be demoed; not because a strip mall needs to be built there but because due to lack of funds, interest, exoticness or materials the building is too far gone to save. This is not ignorance but a reality that needs to be faced both locally and nationally. With what this book is, I did the best I could to salvage what I would consider "knowledge" worth keeping but if you purchase this book, it may take due diligence to find it. I recommend "choose another" bungalow book.

This book is lovely to look at with marvelous pictures. A great 'coffeetable book. My only complaint is that it is light on 'how to' information.

I'm sort of obsessed with bungalows and the arts and craft style. I have checked out many books from libraries over and over again and finally decided that I needed to buy some for myself. This was one of the three that I chose to buy. Just really great interior photos of some gorgeous homes.

Never got book. Seller claimed Post Office lost it. At least my money was refunded.