Eco House Book [Hardcover]

Terence Conran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009

A complete guide to home improvement the environmentally friendly way: whether you want to redecorate or redesign your home, this essential book provides all the information you need to reduce your home's carbon footprint and improve the quality of your life.
For 40 years, Terence Conran has been a leader in intelligent design, changing the way we think about and furnish our homes. No, Conran shows us that it is possible to convert our existing homes into greener, healthier places without starting from scratch. Whether you want to redecorate or resign your home, Eco House Book explains how relatively small and economic changes can be made, including simple repairs to improve energy efficiency, water saving tips, and productive gardening, to more dramatic overhauls such as redesigning room use, converting basements and extending your home.
Environmental issues should be part of every decision you make on the home front--from selecting fabric for soft furnishings to designing and siting a home extension.
Special focus is given to reducing the vast amounts of energy and water that homes consume on a daily basis, with advice on low energy lighting strategies and decorative choices, improving insulation and reducing energy use, the latest green heating systems, alternative ways of generating power, and electricity reducing appliances. As we are urged to change our lifestyles to reduce our carbon footprint and consumption of water, there has never been a better time to green your home. (2009)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This large-format publication continues Conran's long-standing "House Book" series. His design influence in the UK is perhaps equivalent to Martha Stewart's here. Not as comprehensive as his Ultimate House Book, this new effort, devoted to green building touches on siting, orientation, building materials, finishes, gardens, recyling, energy saving, and home-scale energy generation. Conran also dicusses conversions and adding on. Quality color photographs show innovative design approaches and detailing, though carpets and curtains are rare. In the final section,"Case Studies," Conran profiles 17 green homes located in Europe, the United States, and Australia. Whether new builds or renovations, most featured reused materials. Each receives a floor plan or sectional drawing. Terminology is steadfastly British, and a resource list contains only a few American items. However, homeowners will find inspiration in these images of places attuned to nature. VERDICT: This worthy and sophisticated promotion of green building is recommended to those considering home additions or looking for design ideas. (Library Journal )

About the Author

Terence Conran is one of the world's leading designers, furniture-makers, restaurateurs, retailers and founder of the Habitat group of stores, which revolutionized home furnishings in the 1960s. He is Chairman of Conran Holdings, the parent company of his retail and restaurant businesses, and Chairman of Conran & Partners, his architecture and design practice.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Conran (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840915226
• ISBN-13: 978-1840915228
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Expert Advice > Terence Conran

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Going Green, Sensibly, March 4, 2010

By 

Pamela Robinson (Long Island) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eco House Book (Hardcover)

Too often, books on green building hector their readers, or at best, pay a little lip service to environmental issues while pushing products. Not so "Eco House Book," by Terence Conran, who has written yet another sensible work that should help homeowners to think carefully about their living spaces.

Conran identifies and explains what we're seeing, moving from a house built to survive the wind on a desert mesa in New Mexico, to a home in Chicago designed to capture natural light to an off-the-grid home in Oregon and to a home in Sweden that is entirely unpainted but still well-insulated and warm, and plenty of other structures along the way.

Each of the 17 homes illustrates a point in a given category: services (energy and heating, for example), basic fabric, meaning windows, floors, etc., design, outdoor spaces and maintenance. Photos and text flow together, taking readers on an architectural and design tour of the many possibilities, given the landscape and weather of where the home is located and the preferences of their owners.

Though many of the homes shown here are in the United States, this is very much a British book, but that shouldn't get in the way of Americans looking to build a green life. The terms may differ; the cause and value do not.

Intelligence, not preaching, reigns in this pages, and readers are left with a sense of empowerment, knowing that they too, with some thought, can live healthier lives and yet not sacrifice beauty or practicality in the process.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funky Cover worth price of admission!, January 21, 2010

By 

Peter Dandyk "pjdai" (Delta, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eco House Book (Hardcover)

You can judge a book by it's cover!!
Excellent effort and it look great on your coffee table to boot.