The Simple Home: The Luxury of Enough (American Institute Architects) [Hardcover]

Sarah Nettleton (Author), Frank Edgerton Martin (Author), Randy O'Rourke (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2007 | Series: American Institute Architects

For everyone who craves a simpler lifestyle, not only in how they live but also where they live, The Simple Home features 21 houses and presents six different approaches to creating a home that realizes its full potential both simply and elegantly.
We are living in complex times, in a commodified, virtual, and overstimulated culture. One response to high levels of complexity and overstimulation is to look for yet another gadget or closet organizer to simplify our lives. But the answer lies somewhere else. The road to a simpler more satisfying life begins with a clear-eyed examination of the choices we are making for our time--and that includes choices about where we want to live.
The Simple Home presents six paths to simplicity, each illustrated by human-scaled, unadorned homes with straightforward floor plans and forms. These are open, light-filled homes (with rooms or spaces that are often multipurpose) that express their beauty in their utility and practicality. Simple homes are low maintenance and often green, designed for homeowners who wish to embody a different set of values in their housing choices than the run-of-the-mill starter castles littering the landscape.
The 6 Paths to Simplicity:
1. Simple is Enough
2. Simple is Thrifty
3. Simple is Flexible
4. Simple is Timeless
5. Simple is Sustainable
6. Simple is Refined

Editorial Reviews

Review

So many Americans are paying huge amounts to live in houses. But is that really a benefit to them as they look at their own lives and resources, or is it a burden to buy a large elaborate house? This book isn't saying, "Don't build a big house." It's about beginning that conversation with yourself about what's good enough for you. "--Denver Post"
Oversized rooms, clutter and complexity are rejected in favor of simplicity and sustainability in the 21 homes examined through text and photos. From San Francisco to upstate New York, these homeowners have chosen eco-friendly, sustainable designs and turned away from mindless acquisition in a quest for a less frenetic lifestyle. --"New York Newsday"
If you want to live a greener life, live a simpler life - by spending and consuming less, especially when it comes to your home. "The Simple Home: The Luxury of Enough," by architect Sarah Nettleton, showcases houses that embrace this ideology - including an 1,800-square-foot Brooklyn row house where minimalism triumphs over extraneous details, a Seattle farmhouse where materials and services were purchased locally, and a solar house in Taos. Nettleton offers strategies for building green, including using recycled, reclaimed and eco-friendly materials, and shows how good design can result in smart, earth-friendly living. --"New York Post
"
One thing we all learned from Katrina: We can live with less. So Sarah Nettleton is preaching to the choir when she writes about "The Simple Home." We know that simplicity sells in today's fast-paced environment, that simple homes are more flexible, thriftier, more timeless, more sustainable. Yes, Sarah, simple is enough.Ultimately, the authorpoints out, it's not the items we place in our homes that bring us joy, but the ambiance we create there. Serenity lies not in architectural design or decorative style, but in the peace we feel when our surroundings suit us. And that's a simple but profound lesson indeed. --"Times-Picayune"
WHAT is simplicity in a home, and how can we achieve it? It's more spiritual than specific, these authors say. And they make some good points, in prose and pictures.The simple house is not explained by size, they write. A simple house can be big or small. It is not defined by architectural style: A simple house can be traditional or modern. And it is not determined by the amount or vintage of its furniture.Bottom line, forget the latest trends. You know the architectural style you love. You know what you and your family's needs are. So don't be fooled into building or buying something with too much of what you don't need, and too little of what you do. --"The Los Angeles Times"

About the Author

Sarah Nettleton, AIA, has been a registered architect in Minneapolis since 1987. Her firm, Sarah Nettleton Architects, focuses on house and landscape, with an emphasis on sustainable design. Sarah is Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota Architecture School and taught architectural technology at the Minneapolis Technical College for 11 years. This is her first book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 249 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press; First Edition edition (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561588318
• ISBN-13: 978-1561588312
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 0.9 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #587,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

140 of 141 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Too Simple. April 12, 2007

By Mary K.

Format:Hardcover

The image on the cover is as "simple" as this book gets. While most of the homes in this book are beautiful, I did not find them to be particulalry simple. The image on the cover, as well as the editorial notes, conjure up notions of not only simplicity in home design, but a real departure in our thinking about the way we live. I already own several books on the subject, and was excited to learn something new - but nothing new here. While the homes generally lean towards cleaner lines and a BIT less clutter, they are quite elaborate and complex in terms of building materials, construction & application of those materials, and the costs involved. I was also disappointed that most of the homes are located in the country and with only a sparse representation of urban examples. Finally, when I looked at the list of architects and firms whose designs were featured in this book, I recognized some of the most famous names in the industry. This left me feeling somewhat mislead by chapters with titles such as "Simple is Thrifty" and "Simple is Enough" when this caliber of professionals and their respective price tags are involved.

58 of 66 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Towards a new lifestyle February 27, 2007

By John Matlock

Format:Hardcover

To me, the essence of this book is beautifully summarized in the photograph on the back cover. It shows a plain and simple room, tan/biege colored walls, a couple of windows, a painting on one wall and the only furniture is an easy chair, a small table beside it and a stack of books on the table.

Like most of you, I suppose, I've lived in a bunch of houses and apartments. I finally decided to move to a small town in Nevada. I bought a tiny house, less than a thousand square feet. It's old, I don't know how old, but at least a hundred years. As Ms. Nettleton says in one of her chapters, Simple is Timeless. It was cheap, $30,000 (plus another $12 for remodelling), As Ms. Nettleton says, Simple is Thrifty. And as she also says, 'Simple is: Enouth, Flexible, Sustainable, Resolved Complexity. As she quotes Albert Einstein (who wasn't talking about houses, but it's a very good quote) 'Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.'

Ms. Nettleton has grasped the essence of living a much simpler life. The homes presented here might not fit your ideal, but the ideas she presents are exactly what I wanted when I moved here from the East Coast. Beautiful book.

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars $o $imple! June 15, 2008

By Merope

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is an absurd, but very American, architecture book. Usually with this genre the glossy pictures make up for the text -- that is NOT the case here. The pictures are very average. The text is okay ... a gospel of architectural $implicity substituted for actual ... well ... simplicity.

Here's the thing: simplicity in this book is interpreted as minimalist furnishings. Well and good. But it is easy to relish the zen luxe of a room when one has the most wonderful architecture to surround that perfect, single $10K furnishing. It is easy to be "simple".... own few possessions and buy few furnishings when you can afford a house designed with built in window seats, dining nooks, stainless appliances and murphy beds.

What is really needed is a guide to designing with simplicity and sustainability in mind. That would be .... you buy some nasty tract home for $300K in Redmond Washington and want to decorate / design sustainably, simply, tastefully and, above all, peacefully.

Probably the most amusing thing about Sarah Nettleton's book is the secret glimpses into the homeowner's stuff: forests of books, cotton fields of clothes, acres of wood cabinetry, and pits of stone and concrete tile and countertops.

My hard earned ducats bought this book. Don't use yours.