Sarah Susanka's first three books have launched a revolution in residential architecture with the message that it's not the size of the house that matters, but the quality of its design and details. Her books strike a chord in homeowners, who are finding that bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. Now, in Home by Design, Susanka presents 30 design concepts that can transform any house into a welcoming home filled with character, beauty, and comfort. Opening readers' eyes to what's possible, she makes spatial design accessible to the layperson. Each of the design concepts here, from entryways to public/private space to window positioning, is illustrated with examples from houses by leading architects. Homeowners will learn how to assess their environment to discover what works or doesn't, and find the necessary tools to create the homes they really want.
Date Published 3/15/2004
Ratings
Rated By: James Preston "Jim Preston"
From: Santa Clara, CA
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Comments: Practical extension of "A Pattern Language" First off, I disagree with the negative reviews. The photos are just fine and I'm 54 years old and a bit eyesight challenged. The scale of many of the home plans is easy to calculate from her textual descriptions. Many, if not most, of what she explains can be done on the cheap and I've done some of them.
For those studying architecture, either as a professional architect or interior designer, or one of us perenial students of everything, this is the best intro to residential architecture I've found. It lays out the various principles in wonderful detail but in short enough chapters to keep our attention. Theory and practice are merged in a concise and clear manner. If you like "A Pattern Lauguage" and other Christopher Alexander books or were thinking of reading them then I would recommend this book for further study.
This book sits next to my work area as I design interiors in 3D computer graphics. It is now one of my most important references. With this information I can understand the problems and "fix" those awful house plans that are pervasive in plan books and on the Web.
- jim
Rated By: S. Koller
From: Sydney Australia
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Comments: An Aussie's Perspective I really love Sarah Susanka's design philosophy. It just makes sense. Here in Australia, there are so many fringe suburbs which are filled to the hilt with McMansions. These houses are built to within centimetres of their boundaries and are generic and worse, shockingly ugly and devoid of character. I loved this book which illustrates the way seemingly small details and good quality workmanship can make such a difference to the feel of a house. If more people embraced these ideals, our cities would improve drastically - more green space has to be a good thing, doesn't it?
Rated By: L. Smyth
From: California
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Comments: Great support for dreams As usual, Susanka's books are worthwhile and support in depth looking at pictures and thought. It arrived promptly - 3 weeks faster than another book ordered on the same day.
Rated By: Gypsy Mom "gypsy999"
From: TX
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Comments: Excellent content, Repetitious Photographs As a non-designer, this is an excellent design book in that it explains how we can make changes to our homes (or use this as a tool during initial home design prior to construction) to make the home more cohesive, more welcoming, more comfy. The concepts are well described; the biggest weakness of the book is its photography. The small photographs did not bother me per se, but the repetition of photographs really took away from the book. The same photographs are used multiple times to highlight different aspects in different chapters. The homes are primarily architecturally gorgeous, and they are wonderful to look at, but I would like to see these concepts described with less elaborate homes and a wider variety of homes. Most of these have a lot of wood, beautiful views, and lots of investment in design features. Using the same photograph more than once is unnecessary, it would be more helpful to show another home to explore the concept. That said, the content is sufficient to recommend this book to others.
Rated By: Kate Smart
From: Vancouver, BC
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Comments: Exasperating Who edited this book? Does Sarah Susanka really believe that a photograph which measures 1.5" x 1.5" is useful? I am a young person with 20/20 vision, and could not focus on these pictures. Susanka explains good design in a way that is original and refreshing; when a room looks good, she tells you why - and this is deeply informative. But the art of design is VISUAL, end of story. A blind person does not care if the alcove has wainscoting! Why then, would a designer of her calibre allow puny, useless, annoying photos in a book that costs $35.US??
All throughout, there they are: tiny little pictures that would have been stunning examples of well-placed design ideas, but instead serve to leave the reader frustrated and disappointed. For example, under the heading "Art Glass Focus" is a picture of a remarkable stained-glass window panel. But the photo measures 2.25 x 3 inches. There is no context in a picture this small!
If you aren't bothered by pictures so small that you need a magnifying glass, then by all means buy the book. If you only care about interesting text - buy the book. But if you love interior design and get a thrill from a picture of a truly great room, then do yourself a favour and buy the New Decorating Book from Better Homes & Gardens. I waited two months on a waiting list at the library for this book and I am so glad that I didn't buy it - I would be furious.
Rated By: a small house owner
From: outside Boston, MA
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Comments: beautiful photos, fewer details This book is divided into three parts (space, light, order) and 27 chapters. Each chapter has a two-page spread introducing the topic (e.g. Changes in Level), with one full-page and several smaller photos, followed by a two-page spread giving examples of the concepts (e.g. Stairs as Sculpture, Lowered Room, Raised Room, Platforms, Over Under), with one or two illustrating photos or sketches and a couple of paragraphs for each. Following is about 4 pages profiling how the concept is used in one house. Some chapters include a half-page feature on the concept as used in public architecture, or using doctored photos to show how a space looks with and without the concept (e.g. show a space with a lowered soffit and without). I found Susanka's first book, The Not So Big House, a helpful reference when buying my current quite-small house 4 years ago. It's far from architecturally designed, but allows light on two sides of major rooms, and I arranged furniture and art to use diagonal views and create window-seat-like spots on the edge of the living and dining rooms. The lack of visual connection between the living room and kitchen/dining area does, as predicted, make that room less used. Her second book, Creating the Not So Big House, I found a helpful continuation of the theme, and I expect to use concepts I learned in both in five years or so when I hope to be looking for a slightly larger house in the same school district--land prices here would preclude building new. I'm trying to train my eye to figure out what is fixable with minor remodeling, or even a paint/drapery/furniture change, and what is intractable or very costly to fix, a skill I don't yet have a natural instinct for. So I bought this book hoping to add to my toolkit. Many themes are well-illustrated, but I miss the focus on individual houses from Creating--the featured home sections show a couple of striking highlights, but I really wanted to see how it all worked together. There's no scale on the floorplans, so you can't tell how big a huge-seeming space really is. If you have read books from the Taunton Press, or Inspired Home magazine, you've seen some of these homes before. And by and large these are million dollar homes, including a truly beautiful two-story pool-house/gymnasium. It's stunning, but since you don't need to furnish it or lay it out to work like you do a home, how useful is this example? Of course, if you're thinking of building an elaborate two-story poolhouse, buy this book... The doctored photos are an inspired idea, useful in identifying patterns that matter to you and those that don't. I confirmed that changes in ceiling height often irritate me, while aligning views is important. The two photos of the same space are a much better comparison than two photos of different rooms, since the only difference is the ceiling height, open view, trim line, etc. Overall, the book is useful but not as strong as the others by the author. If you have those, you may not need this. I wish I'd gotten it from the library, and perhaps bought the paperback version in a year. I would buy a book about Estes Twombley's architecture--in this and Creating they showcase comparably modest homes, made special by attention to detail. I'd like to see more of that, and fewer mansions--even if not mcmansions, they still aren't something I ever plan to buy or build.
Sarah Susanka's first three books have launched a revolution in residential architecture with the message that it's not the size of the house that matters, but the quality of its design and details. Her books strike a chord in homeowners, who are finding that bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. Now, in Home by Design, Susanka presents 30 design concepts that can transform any house into a welcoming home filled with character, beauty, and comfort. Opening readers' eyes to what's possible, she makes spatial design accessible to the layperson. Each of the design concepts here, from entryways to public/private space to window positioning, is illustrated with examples from houses by leading architects. Homeowners will learn how to assess their environment to discover what works or doesn't, and find the necessary tools to create the homes they really want. 
