Rating: 
Summary: Not so original, but well said.
Review: I enjoy reading and re-reading this book, so I think there's a lot of useful content here. I bought this book shortly after remodeling my house, and found that the book expressed many of the ideas and goals of my house remodel. I find myself disagreeing with most of the criticisms I have read, save that many of the photographs are examples of the same "style." I think the author's intended audience is people who are planning to build a new house (or substantially remodel an existing one), and obviously as an architect she is encouraging people to find and work with an architect, to value the importance of design, and to spend money on qualitative aspects of a house rather than raw square footage.I would note that many ideas in the book are neither original to the author nor to this book; the fact that the book seems to be a big success indicates however that previous efforts to put forth these ideas had not reached many people. An example of a good book in a similar vein (and written in 1985) is: "Modest Mansions: design ideas for luxurious living in less space" by Donald Prowler (now out of print but Amazon might get it for you used, or try the library).
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring book to dream about
Review: I have a dream house in my head, and a lot of the examples in Susanka's book resemble it: it doesn't have too many rooms, it doesn't have "cathedral ceilings," the rooms aren't so big that they create echos....but every space is on a human scale, and EVERY detail is thoughtful. She shows wonderful use of built-in spaces (I must have those bookcases someday!). She is very thoughtful about how improving the traffic flow and the sightlines from room to room (and from inside to outside) makes every square foot of space count. I find her argument that it makes more ecological sense to put the money into details than into natural-resource-grubbing VOLUME very compelling. So, for me, this book is like a box of my favorite mixed chocolates: it's delectable to go through and savor. The pictures are beautiful and detailed. You will got lots of ideas for your own dream house. However, this book is really about NEW houses. If you are looking for information about how to make your existing small house more livable *today* it will be of less use to you. And her ideas are not cheap....but we can all dream, can't we?
Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad, but Not Great Either
Review: Susan Susanka presents her ideas on how to build a better home. Half way through the book she presents her trinity of compromises that the architect, builder & home-owner have to make...price, quanity & quality of the proposed home. I think this is the gem in the book. As many have noted, this is definitely not a book for a "small" or "cheap" home; and this should be obvious as nobody who is limited to building a "small" or "cheap" home would hire an architect to design it! Though she never states it, I estimate that the houses she designs cost over $500,000 to build so consider that when you read this book. I value this book for the ideas it presents; however, it is definitely a coffee-table book rather than a reference for an architect or home-builder. Not until the last two super-homes does Susan even mention a number. Nowhere in the book does it actually talk about the square feet, total price, price for materials, cost/square foot, material trade-off possibilities, building codes, or anything that is actually needed to design or build a house (or even remodel). The lack of details and thoroughness was disappointing and the reason I only gave her three stars. I suppose this book can be considered a "theory" book rather than a "practical" book, but it seems to me that a well-written book could contain both. On the plus side, the pictures were very nice; there were floor-plans for each of the houses and Susan has a very nice and clear writing style.
Rating:
Summary: Too much Frank Lloyd Wright
Review: The authors of this book present some great ideas about designing a small house. However, they adhere too vehemently to Frank Lloyd Wright's aesthetic for my taste (e.g., rooms dripping in detailed, straight-lined warm woods; detailed color insert glasswork; not much art on the walls since Frank disliked art in homes, etc.). I would prefer to see a more balanced approach to designing a small house, with ideas from the many different offshoots of contemporary architecture and design presented as alternatives. After reading this book, you are left with the idea that the authors think there is only one style for building a good house. Houses should express people's attitudes and style. For the record, to be fair, my style is more mid-century modern (van der Rohe and Eames) meets Zen... and I like art on the walls. Kudos for presenting Christopher Alexander's ideas on "patterns" though. (His books "The Timeless Way of Building" and "A Pattern Language" are must reads.) I found out about Alexander after getting into the software engineering patterns movement. Ironically, his influence on software has been arguably greater than his influence on architecture. I like some of his design ideas, although some are too extreme, especially when it comes to town planning and collective ownership of public spaces. The authors of the present book present the most practical of his ideas. In sum, this book is great if you know you already want to do your house a la Lloyd Wright. It's not so great if you have a different mindset.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, but Not Great Either
Review: Susan Susanka presents her ideas on how to build a better home. Half way through the book she presents her trinity of compromises that the architect, builder & home-owner have to make...price, quanity & quality of the proposed home. I think this is the gem in the book. As many have noted, this is definitely not a book for a "small" or "cheap" home; and this should be obvious as nobody who is limited to building a "small" or "cheap" home would hire an architect to design it! Though she never states it, I estimate that the houses she designs cost over $500,000 to build so consider that when you read this book. I value this book for the ideas it presents; however, it is definitely a coffee-table book rather than a reference for an architect or home-builder. Not until the last two super-homes does Susan even mention a number. Nowhere in the book does it actually talk about the square feet, total price, price for materials, cost/square foot, material trade-off possibilities, building codes, or anything that is actually needed to design or build a house (or even remodel). The lack of details and thoroughness was disappointing and the reason I only gave her three stars. I suppose this book can be considered a "theory" book rather than a "practical" book, but it seems to me that a well-written book could contain both. On the plus side, the pictures were very nice; there were floor-plans for each of the houses and Susan has a very nice and clear writing style.
Rating: 
Summary: Bourgeois bohemian guilt assuagement
Review: Let's see....2000 square feet is considered "not so big." And working one's way up -- oops, I mean down! -- to that modest allotment of space requires spending at least six, more like seven figures. And, supposedly, this fits under the philosophy of "simpler living." What sort of people buy into this? Bourgeois bohemians, of course, a subspecies wittily described in "Bobos in Paradise" by David Brooks. These are people with lotsa dough who live in nice neighborhoods and drive nice cars. But they're not rich, you see. They're "progressives" (read: liberals). So, in order to assuage the subconscious guilt they suffer for the "sin" of their own affluence, they drop loads of money on expensive stuff that's no different in quality from many cheaper brands, but merely has "progressive" cachet. You know...REI and L.L. Bean clothing ("environmentally aware"), coffee that costs $12 a pound (because it's "fair trade"), and just about anything that comes out of the public radio tchotchkes catalogue. Susanka's book has kicked this up the ultimate notch. No longer is buying a high-priced Saab or Volvo the ultimate in pretense to "conscience" while indulging oneself. Now the bobos of America can take out second and third mortgages to cover what their six-figure incomes won't and build the "not so big house" of their dreams. Hey, it's not the money that's important. It's "feeling good about your choices." Susanka, Obolensky, and anyone who gave this book a good review are welcome to trade their huge houses for my one-bedroom, second-floor apartment in a working-class neighborhood with no off-street parking. They can then acquaint themselves to their hearts' desires with the reality of "modest living." As for me, I'll buy lots of cool stuff and fill up their former abodes. I've got better things to do than wring my hands over my "ecological footprint." And for my housewarming party, I'll be barbecuing up a few spotted owls, bald eagles, dolphins, and baby seals in that spacious back yard.
Rating: 
Summary: Not So Big, but Just Right
Review: My husband and I are preparing our 5-year old, sterile house for sale with the intention of buying an older bungalow. We'll be looking for slightly smaller houses, since we've found that so much of the space in our present house is really wasted. We won't be building from scratch or even remodeling, but the philosophy of design in this book is really helpful to us as we think through what we want and need in our next house. I think the basic Not So Big concept is sound for any budget: square footage means little, rather, utility and comfort is paramount. The book is teaching us to think in terms of spaces rather than rooms, of getting the most possible use and enjoyment from a space. I think it will definitely help us train ourselves to see the possibility in houses we look at in our search.
Rating:
Summary: Informative
Review: I just finished this book and I found it informative. Susanka plainly writes about the way most houses are typically built and the waste in their construction as well as the lack of soul and personality in most. I have noticed this myself for years. I completely agree with her concept of creating homes that are smaller and more efficient, using more of the structure's square footage for actual living and evolving the formal spaces that are rarely used anymore (i.e. formal dining and living room) into one area. Creating a home with enough room and spaces for how people live day to day and not just a place that says "look at how much money I have".
I especially liked the chapter "Dreams, Details, and Dollars". Although it was disheartening to read that even a small home with attention to detail can be costly. And this is what I am/was leaning toward. Also, to keep the cost down in most home building one needs to start with the box shape, which to me is boring.
The one negative point I would make is that, as someone else mentioned, this book does lean toward those who have more to spend than most. Although she does give a good stratedgy on how to begin to look at affording a home (the quantity, quality, cost triangle) that can work for anyone.
All in all I liked this book and plan on reading the second one, Creating the Not So Big House. This may answer more of my how-can-I-do-it questions.
The photos are great too!
Rating:
Summary: 4.5 stars: Great treatment on use of space; so-so economics
Review: "The Not So Big House" is the best treatment I know of on efficient use of available space in a house design. Sarah Susanka favors built-in storage near the points of use, which is efficient in both use of square footage and on time spent getting things out of storage to where they're needed. Of course built-ins raise the cost of a house, which leads to Susanka's central thesis: a small, well-designed house with attention to detail will be costly -- but, in her opinion, worth it. She suggests toting up the square footage vs. time spent in various home spaces, and finds that typically formal living and dining rooms are budget busters that are used only rarely. Skipping these formal rooms will free up money for higher quality in the remaining spaces. Susanka falls down on the job with her limited treatment of ways a prospective home owner can save money on their dream house. Specifically, she mentions only
- smaller size
- less attention to detail (lower quality)
- a cheaper lot
but not, for example
- changing the number of stories (2-story homes save on foundation costs over ranch homes)
- owner labor
- owner functioning as general contractor The book, filled with excellent color photographs (many by the author) is extraordinarily well laid out. The text continually refers to "the photo above" rather than something like "Fig. 8-3b". Accompanying floor plans show the point and angle of the associated photos, making it easy to build up a mental picture of the overall space from a few choice shots. The lighting, contrast, color balance, and composition of the photos is outstanding. I must mention that the book is basically a paen to houses heavy on natural interior wood detail. In American homes this is exemplified by the Craftsman style; the feature also applies to traditional Japanese houses. It's a style that I personally like so that's not a detriment for me. If instead your taste runs to French country homes, where every scrap of wood must be painted, you'll probably have some qualms at the author's architectural bias. Unlike most architecture books which feature carefully decorated rooms you couldn't possibly be comfortable living in, the spaces depicted in Susanka's opus are refreshingly naturalistic. That's not to say that there are photos with kids' fingerprints around the light switches (as in real life). But this book is a rarity in showing bookshelves loaded with paperback books instead of the usual sets of matching leather-bound volumes, each shelf having three books stacked sideways to hold some Object d'Art. And there are actual kids' toys on actual floors! A final, fairly significant drawback is Susanka's short shrift when it comes to non-design topics. For instance, energy efficiency only gets a couple of pages. There are even shorter treatments of recycled materials, sustainability, and alternate (other than stick-built) construction styles. All of these "peripheral" subjects are crammed into the last (and shortest) chapter. Summary: This book is a rich resource of ideas on how to design a house that's efficient for your actual lifestyle. You'll need to look elsewhere to figure out how to build it and pay for it. But because design is the spearhead of the architectural process, this is an excellent starting point.
Rating:
Summary: Not so small!
Review: This book is chock full of good ideas about how to maximize space in a house. It also makes you really think about how you spend time--i.e. live--in a house. That's the good news; the bad news is that Ms. Suska's idea of a "small" house seems to start well over 2,000 sq ft (although she does tantalize you with a one-person house built by another architect in her practice). The other problem with this book is that virtually all of her not-so-big solutions would be really expensive to build. If you're looking for a book to guide you in building a new house, this probably isn't it unless you're kin to Bill Gates.
| 
