Customer Reviews

House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book provides a good deal of practical wisdom on how
to decide upon your dream home. It covers environmental psychology
consisting of wall colors and lighting placement. It discusses
the wisdom of having a great room as a refuge. Some homes have
a cozy cavelike refuge to enhance privacy and intimacy.
The author asks that we balance privacy and sociability with the
design. After all, the house layout supports the way we live
far into the future. Optimum lighting contributes to an overall
feeling of well-being. Clutter management is important to enhance
orderliness and accessibility of items used on a daily basis.
As a rule of thumb, discard, sell or trade things not used
within the current year or so.

The book will assist you in organizing a model home for living
now and into the future. This is a valuable acquisition because
the author presents many aspects of the home which people
do not consider when making a purchase decision. A home can be
a place where you will spend much of your time. This book will
assist in ascertaining whether or not the site provides the
comfort and atmosphere most people require in a home setting.

I was pleased to discover this book from a review in the Orlando Sentinel. It explains why certain spaces in a home may be beautifully decorated, yet not feel right. The author says, "feeling at home isn't about spending money." Our bedrooms should reflect our private self and the living room our best self.
This book makes you rethink the spaces in your home and tells you why some area work for you and others just don't have the feel you want.

I found the basic concept of this book to be fascinating. The author takes on the task of walking us through each room in the traditional American house and analyzing not the furniture and decor, but the life and psychology of each. The result should be a series of insights into how we can design our living spaces to support and even create behaviors that are beneficial to us. And in some cases, this is what we get. But all too often - indeed, for the majority of the book - Gallagher seems to veer off course and talk about the history and sociology associated with each room. While this is an interesting topic in and of itself, the lack of a consistent method from room to room can be both confusing and distracting. As an example, here are the approaches taken for two rooms: For the section on the living room, the author describes the psychology of refuge and prospect in a way that is potentially useful for anyone trying to figure out why their house does not seem to offer them the feeling of comfort and belonging they would like. For the section on the kitchen, we are treated to the historical background of women's literal place in the home, and the way the kitchen has evolved with and contributed to the feminist movement. Both sections are well written and interesting, but only the first supported my goal of learning how to create a comfortable home.

This lack of of focus cripples what could have been both a very readable and very useful book. As it is, while "House Thinking" is still well worth reading, it will not be a book that earns a place of honor in your library. Or your living room. Or bedroom.

House Thinking is a thoughtful, carefully argued book written with a lot of love and passion. Like Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space, Gallagher's book explores the fascinating relationship between domestic space and psychology. It's also a must read for ANYONE interested in the arts, architecture, interior design or renovation. Unlike so much of the garbage out there, this is a book that makes you really think about how the way we live shapes our lives. Highly recommended!

I work with architects & interior designers every day to design commerical space, so I'm familiar with the ideas the author was trying to communicate. The concept of how we live in our homes and how design has evolved in America and throughout the world is fascinating. The author has done a tremendous amount of research. At the end of the book I was left feeling like I'd read a draft of someone's doctoral dissertation, with a lot of editing still to be done. As others have mentioned, the lack of pictures and illustrations is a huge oversight. Even for those of us familiar with design concepts & nomenclature, it is nearly impossible to wade through the descriptions given--I felt like I was being tested to translate her observations into a vision that reconciled to her conclusions. Furthermore, I think the organization of the book, a room-by-room analysis of how design has evolved, although logical in approach--did not mesh well with what the author was trying to communicate. She would often go off on a tangent siting research, trends throughout history and psychological implications that may have applied to the "room" in question, but were often as relevant or irrelevant to any other room, yard or community she might have chosen to elaborate on.

This might be a good book to introduce the evolution of design to someone with little prior knowledge (which is why I'm generous in providing 2 stars); especially at the current bargain prices on Amazon. Otherwise, I'd recommend passing this one by.

A well-researched book on the psychology of our living spaces, with practical suggestions for looking around our own homes with fresh eyes. In this way, we can often reconfigure an area so that it better serves its intended function without resorting to expensive remodeling projects. But why on earth are there no illustrations or photos at all? The author describes countless examples of homes across America, both landmark sites (such as Washington's Mount Vernon and Jefferson's Monticello) and homes that could be in our own neighborhoods, but the point she is trying to make is often lost among the words when a simple photo or two would have worked beautifully. I'm holding off on buying this book in hopes that the paperback edition will include the photos that should have been included in the first release.

Fascinating look at how architecture and interior design influence our mood and behavior. You gain general priciples and insights into what makes an space inviting or unappealing. This is a great book for an architect or interior designer with an interest in environmental psychology. This is NOT a "how to" book for consumers who want remodeling ideas.

I have decorating books replete with full-color illustrations of ideas, and I have New Age-y decorating books that explain Feng Shui and how to use essential oils, but this book is a really nice bridge between the visualizing your space and analyzing the psychology behind how you use it. It's strategic vs. tactical, but since there are so few books for laymen that tackle the former, it's a welcome addition and brings interesting insights as to how to think about our homes and make them more liveable.

This sounded like a great book. I'm interested in books about houses and how people live, and I enjoy reading about everything from home decorating to psychology. What's not to like about a book that combines lots of my interests?
Unfortunately, I just couldn't get through this book. I kept picking it up and then putting it back down, frustrated by the writing style. The author seems to have been overwhelmed by her research, and throws together statistics and quotations in a way that is very difficult to read. There is no clear point of view, just a mishmash of facts and opinions. For example, in the chapter "The Child's Room" is this sentence: "Children under the age of twelve remain an environmentally underprivileged group in a world that's mostly designed for adults, which puts them at risk, particularly where sudden confrontations with cars are concerned." Apparently children are getting run over by cars while their bedrooms, or this sentence would be in a chapter about driveways. The author then goes on to complain that children get the smallest rooms, and then complains about children's unbridled consumerism. So what is the author's point? Are modern children spoiled or underprivileged?
Unfortunately the entire book that I've read so far (I'm on page 209) seems to suffer from this lack of organization and viewpoint. There may be lots of good information in this book, but it needs to be re-written. I'm disappointed, and I won't be finishing the book.

Don't get me wrong. Despite my low rating, this is a worthwhile book, because it gets one thinking. But the author never reaches a conclusion of her own, and there is no single theme to the entire book, which gives the book a rough draft sort of feeling. The author did an impressive amount of research, and brings to our attention many famous houses, and the architects and owners responsible for such interesting abodes, revealing just a tiny glimmer of the "house thinking" that went into each living environment. Even just a few carefully selected photos would have gone a long way toward illustrating the "house thinking" expressed by each example. Instead, we are left with an extensive list of books and websites -- the start of our own research, if we wish to take up the task.

This book did not hand me fully-formed ideas on a silver platter, but instead gave me insight into a way of thinking about the history of the modern home. I never realized how much the past continues to influence the present layout of rooms, and shapes our expectations about how we are supposed to use each of those rooms. There is a weak thread running through the book. The author is pointing out that we are still being influenced by the past. If we can develop a sort of psychological awareness, we might break free of the historical conventions and expectations that clash with our modern needs on an unconscious level. Sprinkled throughout the book is another thin thread: that we are being influenced in very subtle ways by the sights, sounds, smells, and other sensory input from our rooms. We might not be consciously aware of these tiny influences until we stop looking at our rooms with the eye of an interior decorator. We need to look past the surface and feel the room from an emotional perspective. Isn't it attention to detail that makes a house into a comfortable, welcoming home? This book might get you thinking in the right direction.