The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live

FROM OUR EDITORS

If you think that living in a sprawling mansion is a dream come true, really think about your decision. You probably already spend more of your time in the kitchen and family rooms than in the formal living and dining rooms. You probably are more c omfortable in an intimate, cozy breakfast room than in an oversized room with the acoustics of a sports stadium.

Between model homes and dictator-like builders it is difficult to translate your vision of what a home should be like into a plan your builder completely understands. Whether you live alone, have a huge family, or are an empty nester, The Not So Big House, written by Sarah Susanka with Kira Obolensky, offers some guidelines to help you design a house that reflects the personalities and lifestyles of the inhabitants of the house. Susanka, who was asked to design the 1999 Life magazine dream house and whose architecture reflects that of Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., stresses the importance of spending money on the quality of the space rather than on the quantity. With the help of a good architect, not to mention all of the tips included in The Not So Big House, it will be easy for you to see that when the focus is on strong details, square footage can easily be reduced. How, you may wonder? When you maximize every square foot of your house, you consider making spaces take on double-duty roles. For instance, most people have a room set apart from the kitchen for eating; Susanka suggests creating an eating room t hat can serve double duty for formal eating and everyday dining. Another idea is to put stools at the kitchen's island countertop for casual eating.The Not So Big House also stresses organization. For families that are not big television watchers, Susanka suggests putting it in a cabinet so that it is not the focal point of a room. She also suggests creating a "control center" for the home, which consolidates the cordless phone, thermostats, lighting, and air-quality controls in one unit. Susanka also suggests planning with the future in mind. This means considering making entryways two-feet, eight-inches wide so that a wheelchair could fit through, designing creative and flexible rooms for kids to grow in, and building closets in the office space so that it can also be used as a guest room with lots of privacy.

All of these extras that really make a house special are going to cost you. If you think practically, a fine balance can be achieved between quality, quantity, and cost. The Not So Big House does have some cost-effective suggestions that are wort h checking out, such as a combined dining and living area, using a lower grade of cedar in the exterior, and using standard-size materials. Susanka's clearly written book, with 200 photographs, will inspire you whether you are going to build, are remodeling, or are just imagining your dream home.
— Soozan Baxter

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Not So Big House proposes clear, workable guidelines for creating homes that serve both our spiritual needs and our material requirements, whether for a couple with no children, a family, empty nesters, or one person alone. In 1938, LIFE magazine commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a dream home for America. The result was the Usonian house, an enduring model of modest-sized residential architecture. Now, Sarah Susanka, brings Wright's same commonsense, human-scale design principles to our generation. Consider which rooms in your house you use and enjoy most, and you have a sense of the essential principles of The Not So Big House. Whether you seek comfort and calm or activity and energy at home, The Not So Big House offers a place for every mood.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Architect Susanka believes that the large homes being built today place too much emphasis on square footage rather than on current lifestyles. Here she shows how homes can be designed to feature "adaptable spaces open to one another, designed for everyday use." She describes how to examine occupants' lifestyles, how to incorporate the kitchen as the focal point of the home, how to give the illusion of space, and how, with storage, lighting, and furniture arrangement, a smaller home can be comfortably livable. Photographs of contemporary homes as well as those by Frank Lloyd Wright and other modern architects illustrate Susanka's ideas and show the timelessness of the style she advocates. This thought-provoking book will be a good addition to architectural and interior design collections.

Booknews

Susanka designs houses for living: comfortable, compact, uncrowded space for, often, multiple functions. Contrast her inviting, manageable houses with the vulgar, wasteful, show-off monuments to consumption containing specialized rooms that are rarely used (often because they are icy, sterile, forbidding). Taunton's usual splendid photography is evident in some 200 color plates. Floor plans show how traffic and life will flow.

Internet Book Watch

The principle theme throughout The Not So Big House: A Blueprint For The Way We Really Live is that when it comes to the places in which we live our private lives, quality should come before quantity. Highly recommended reading for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in interior design, Sarah Susanka" The Not So Big House provides homeowners the "language" they need to convey to architects, contractors, and interior designers the comfort, beauty, and level of detail that best suits their own personal lifestyles and needs. Also very highly recommended is Susanka's companion volume, Creating The Not So Big House (377-4, $34.95), in which she provides an informative and inspiring survey of twenty-five houses designed according to her "not so big" design principles.

Jay Walljasper - Utne Reader

...[W]hy not skip the cost of building or buying a gigantic house with rooms you rarely use....The book is full of practical plans...[to use] space more efficiently and elegantly.

Washington Post

[Susanka shows] how to downsize the dream house without diminishing the dream.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING