Customer Reviews

The New American Cottage: Innovations in Small-Scale Residential Architecture

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2 star:		(1)
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For those with smaller homes who are searching for ideas, this book is a real find. Tons of color photos showing great detail. The material of choice is wood, but some metal structures are included. This is not a back to the 60's book about building with remnants. The homes are first rate with a tremendous amount of innovation and care. I stole more than a few ideas for my own home.

This book is a good resource for people who are looking to build a smaller, designed home. It shows that architects aren't just in business to build 10,000 sq. ft. trophy homes like the ones in the other two books in this series. It is full of ideas for designers and home onwners alike. It can be used as a starting point for opening up communication between client and designer. The thing I like most about this book series is that the author includes some of the construction drawings for some choice details. A student could learn a lot about how to put something together from these drawings (although, some are a little unclear and lack the neccesary context drawings, but I do this thing for a living and I like to see the whole picture when comes to why these designers came up with such COOL stuff!)

Seems less than half the examples are houses; the rest are studios, guest houses, or cabins. All stylishly spare and uninviting. And while there are occasional floor plans and elevations, and about two detail drawings, the emphasis is on the pictures. You'll finish this book in about 20 minutes and wonder why anyone would spend money on these unlivable houses.