See Great Small Homes in the Mini House Books
When it comes to houses, I'm of the school that smaller houses are better. You spend less up front, use fewer resources in construction, they are easier to maintain, and they consumes less energy for heating and cooling. I also believe that the constraints of a smaller home inspire better design. Human beings are, by nature, problem solvers. That's what we do. And we do that best when we are driven by constraints. You can live large in a small home, you just need to design smart.
So here's three books that show off great small homes. Mini House, Mini House Style and Mini House Now feature fabulous small-scale houses from around the world. And, the style of the homes is decidedly modern. Whatever your taste in modern you'll find it, from sculptural Japanese beauties to Swiss ski cottages to groovy Cali-shacks in Berkley. And though the homes are small, the books feature lots of homes big enough for real families - so don't think these are just one-room cabins - they're about real homes.
Here's some examples (top to bottom): The unconventional Gae House in Tokyo, by Atelier Bow-Wow, Dekleva Gregoric's sleek XXS House in Slovenia, and the Lago Vista Lake House by the Bercy Chen Studio.
The books are great. I have two of them, and I highly recommend them (I don't have the original Mini House - I'll have to pick it up). I flip through them a lot and always find some really cool houses and lots of great ideas. They offer sound proof and inspiration that smaller really can be better.
Image Credits - Gae House from Japan-Architect.co.jp, XXS House from arkispot.com, Lake House from Bercy Chen site. Book images from Amazon.com listings.
5 comment(s):
I have the original Mini House book (excellent), but have yet to pick up the other two.[sigh] More for the wishlist......
Oh, and the architect of the house on the cover: Steven Atkinson, Architect
http://www.studioatkinson.com/ Good stuff!
Yeah, that's my problem too. I love books. There's a long list of books I "need to get." Borders and Amazon have too much of my money.
I checked out studioatkinson.com. Really cool. There are so many great architects out there designing fabulous homes. Atkinson has a real knack for making small places look interesting. It's sad that the mainstream housing industry hasn't found a way to take advantage of the wealth of talent available.
I try to see if the public library has copies of books I like first, or if I can borrow them. Here's another:
http://www.stoutbooks.com/cgi-bin/stoutbooks.cgi/47223.html
And you're right about the talent going unused, but architects are like musicians these days.......... there are just so many of them, and they're all going to have to find alternative paths to success.
Jason Cullmann said, great little design (Williams cabin)in Durango!!
Dwell Mag. Wish I was Williams for a day.
Can small houses resolve the problem of the dwelling XXI century ?
www.fernandavuilleumier.com
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