Customer Reviews

25 Houses Under 2,500 Square Feet

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a fantastic book. The houses shown are, as another reviewer noted, largely vacational homes, but one can still appreciate the way in which they create a modern coziness that hints at previous American architecture styles. A great bonus in this book is the inclusion of floorplans, artist's conceptions, some computer models, et cetera, that show the houses in the planning stages. The photos capture both the exterior and interior of each house in beautiful, full-color pictures. I fully recommend this book to others who, like myself, enjoy dreaming of owning such homes.

The book is lovely, but not at all what I was hoping for, which was inspiration for a building a small home. All these homes seem like no one lives in them...big empty rooms with hardly and furnishings. I was also hoping for ideas for using space more effectively but I don't think this was the book for that. I agree with the other review that this book was all about vacation homes.

Part of the work we do with GOD'S CHILD Project (www.GodsChild.org) volunteers around the world is we build houses, clinics and community centers for the poor and the homeless. Quite often these constructions go up in very confined spaces or on tiny plots of land where we don't have the option of building "bigger".

While 25 Houses Under 2,500 Square Feet is designed to show some very beautiful houses, it has also been a great for ideas on how we can better use curves, light shafts, stairwells and room divisions / shelves / closet space / kitchen areas. In other words, this book has been an invaluable resource for the general concepts on minimal space usage - building beautifully, practically and in a dignified manner within limited physical dimensions.

This book is currently on my nightstand and several times a week I flip through its pages once again to find an idea to help me best utilize an angle, corner, room, or triangular cut-away. This book isn't just for those who are building beautifully small, but also for those who want to see their small buildings be beautiful.

The houses presented in this book are great but I would not define them as small! Indeed this is a joke: in my opinion, a 2500 sq.ft. one-bedroom house is huge. Only a few of them are real family homes that one can live in.

The presentation and format is great but more technical info (besides floorplans which are great) would be appreciated.

In short, a beautiful book which requires some housework to get useful ideas out of it.

I find the premise for the book really intriguing. I was hopeful to see meaningful projects done in a thoughtful way and many of the houses are interesting, but there's not a lot of originality here. If you follow architectural publications, you will recognize a number of the examples offered in this book. I was hoping for a bit more insight either into technical or philisophical reasoning behind the houses...I can accept that it wasn't the purpose of the book, which is fine if the projects are well photographed, but here again the book fell short. Exposures were not done properly and many of the photos were not crisp. From the various reviews I had read, and the level of quality on a number of other architecture books I've purchased over the years (and even the quality of photos in arch. magazines) I expected much more.

A very nice large coffee table book with good picture quality. Unfortunately lacking in depth and details. Every house only has a few views with minimal descriptions. Not for the serious interior decor person.

This Book is sooooo my style!
I have and have looked through a pluthra of architecture books and magazines for many years, and this may be the best and most closely aligned with my contemporary style. If you like a mix of contemporary, industrial, minimal, deconstructivism, and cubism in architecture, this is probably your book. There are several houses in this book utilizing metal siding in verying patterned designs, styles and planes, that were especially appreciated. Don't let the title fool you, for me, this book has nothing to do with the small size of the houses shown, and everything to do with their great architectural styles.

25 Houses is an overall good book for the layperson. It's successful in showing that well-designed custom homes don't always have to be enormous. However, it lacks in depth for those who are looking for "how it was done". This book would really shine if there was information about materials used, custom details or the inspiration behind the designs.
Also, there are a few examples of ordinary houses that, in my opinion, shouldn't be in this publication.

Book had alot of cool homes, most seemed like vacation/guest houses though. Only problem I have with the book is the binding wasn't terribly strong. After lying it out and people looking thru it a few times the spine is broken.

Small thing, good content

I love the large format of this book. The houses were interesting, big beautiful pictures, a lot of fun to look at. If you can consider it a down side i would say i would have personally enjoyed more practicality of house and i felt i have seen these houses or something very similar before. For modern houses i found them a little garish. Of course i have a lot of similar books.