Small House Designs

Rating:
Summary: Commendable
Review:

For one thing, the book deserves recognition for pointing out that houses need not be any bigger than 1,250 sf. In 1947, the average new house in the United States was 1,000 sf -- houses like that accommodated the Baby Boom! No one needs a huge house.

Anyway, this book presents a bunch of properly sized houses, some conventional, some unusual. It's fun to look at the various technical drawings and plan for your own building project. Most of the projects have reasonable building-cost estimates, too -- many under US$90,000.

The authors talk about energy costs and some of the houses use modules, rammed earth and other "alternative" building techniques, but this book would be better if it covered those technologies (and others, like straw-bale construction) in greater depth.

Rating:
Summary: A broad spectrum of designs
Review: A good book for making you think about the possibilities. Few photographs, mostly illustrations. Cost estimates for building, heating and cooling.

Rating:
Summary: We loved SMALL HOUSE DESIGNS!
Review: Don't waste your money on this book. Most of these homes look like miniature prisons. Unattractive, cold, and bland. My copy went into the recycle bin. Atleast it'll do some good there.

Rating:
Summary: Recycle Bin Canidate
Review: Don't waste your money on this book. Most of these homes look like miniature prisons. Unattractive, cold, and bland. My copy went into the recycle bin. Atleast it'll do some good there.

Rating:
Summary: Out of Sync
Review: I believe that bigger is not necessarily better. I was hoping to find good solutions and ideas (modernist or traditional is not an issue) to help bring a bungalow into the 21st century. The main problem with the book is that it seems 15-20 years out of date. For example, the bathroom square footage and storage areas in the plans are not generous (but this is ok for vacation or second homes). In this respect, the plans in the home have a lot in common with bungalows from the 1920s! The book does not give examples of forward thinking design for the year 2000.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the paper it was printed on.
Review: If you want a book with better house plans just go to your local grocery store and buy any of the plan books there. It should only cost you a few bucks and you will find hundreds of better ideas than this book contains.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Save your money. With few exceptions, the designs found in this book are not pleasing to the eye -- and there's just no way around it, some are downright hideous. This reviewer admits to a bias against modernistic design, which the editors seem to favor.

Rating:
Summary: a great resource with a variety of ideas and diagrams
Review: This book is the product of a contest among architects to design homes of 1250 square feet or less. The resulting variety of designs and concepts is amazing. The designs range from conservative to modern to downright odd, and the book provides commentary with square footage, estimated cost to build, estimated cost to heat/cool, and suggestions as to what the particular floor plan is best suited for.

The best part about the book is the ideas and concepts that can be picked out from the individual floor plans and incorporated into your home design - the use of curved walls and atriums, for example, to maximize space without adding square footage.

We bought the book as a companion to The Not So Big House - we highly recommend them in tandem.

Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Money
Review: This is the worst home design book that I have ever seen! The vast majority of these designs are unattractive and unworkable. I was greatly disappointed. Spend your money on a full-service architect instead. A full-service residential architect will be better able to design a small home for your particular lot and will monitor the builders and sub-contractors for you too.

Rating:
Summary: We loved SMALL HOUSE DESIGNS!
Review: We loved SMALL HOUSE DESIGNS. Since we don't expect to get something for nothing, and know that we will have to have an design drawn up anyway, we got a lot of great ideas on what we would like to see in our home design from this wonderful book. My spouse and I think it is well worth the money spent on this book to help us articulate to designing and building professionals what we want in our ideal house.