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Recommended Readings

"In a three-ring binder, start to assemble data about the places in your life that make you feel comfortable and those that make you feel uncomfortable. Document their size, take photos or make diagrams, illustrating what it is within the space that evokes the response. Images of other spaces can supplement your notes--magazines are a great resource for this."

--from The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka


Articles Recommended by Sarah Susanka

The Rise of Integral Culture
There's a large segment of the population (over 24%) that has become disenchanted with the current emphasis on materialism, and the "bigger is better" mentality. The people who comprise this group have been named Cultural Creatives by Dr. Paul Ray, the author of this excellent and important 1997 American Demographics magazine article.

The NEXT Industrial Revolution in the Atlantic Monthly. This article is a must read for those interested in understanding how we can go about designing a more sustainable world. Authors William McDonough, FAIA and Dr. Michael Braungart have written an extraordinarily clear description of the current confusions in our thinking, and have put forward a remarkable and attainable vision for our future.

Sarah recommends these books about home design

Green Restorations: Sustainable Building and Historic Homes
Aaron Lubeck

Yankee Modern: 10 Houses By Estes/Twombly
William Morgan

Mascord Efficient Living
Alan Mascord Design Associates

Get Your House Right
Marianne Cusato

Home: A Short History of an Idea
Witold Rybczynski

House as a Mirror of Self
Clare Cooper Marcus

Designing Your Perfect House
William J. Hirsch Jr., AIA

How To Work With An Architect
Gerald Lee Morosco, AIA

Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House; Bringing Your Home into Harmony with Nature
Carol Venolia and Kelly Lerner

The Barefoot Home: Dressed down design for casual living
Marc Vassallo, co-author of Inside the Not So Big House
www.barefoothome.com

Salmela | Architect
David Salmela is an incredibly talented Minnesota architect, whose work is primarily residential, and very beautiful. This book can serve as inspiration for anyone considering the design of their own home, or simply interested in what a house can be when designed from top to toe.
Tom Fisher, with photography by Peter Kerze

Creating the Inspired House
A cross-country tour of over 20 inspired homes
John Connell

The House You Build: Making real-world choices to get the home you want
Duo Dickinson

The Distinctive Home: A Vision of Timeless Design
by Jeremiah Eck

The Farmhouse: New Inspiration for the Classic American Home
Jean Rehkamp Larson

The Getaway Home: Discovering your home away from home
Dale Mulfinger

The Cabin: Inspiration for the classic American getaway
Dale Mulfinger, Susan E. Davis

Good House Parts: Creating a Great Home Piece by Piece
Dennis Wedlick

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein

The Timeless Way of Building
Christopher Alexander

The New Cottage Home
John Tolpin

The New Family Home: Creating the Perfect Home for Today and Tomorrow
John Tolpin

Meditations on Design: Reinventing your Home with Style and Simplicity
John Wheatman

 

Additional recommended books

You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall by Colin Ellard
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World by Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson
New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community by Peter Katz
Silence, Song and Shadows by Tom Bender
Building with the Breath of Life by Tom Bender
Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, & Hunter Lovins
The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken
Waking Up in Time by Peter Russell
Global Mind Change by Willis Harman
The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot

Magazines Recommended by Sarah Susanka

These are a few of the home design magazines available on the web. Some merely offer you an opportunity to subscribe, while others are more generous in their online articles and images.

Fine Homebuilding
Architectural Digest
Better Homes and Gardens
House Beautiful
Life Magazine's Dream Houses
Natural Home Magazine
O at Home
Soulful Living
Traditional Home


These are a few of our favorite magazines on related issues:
The Sun
Seed
Shambhala Sun
Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures
Parabola Magazine
Feng Shui for Modern Living
The Well
Hope Magazine
What Is Enlightenment?
Tricycle Hub
The Environmental Magazine
The Utne Reader

Web Sites Recommended by Sarah Susanka

www.simplyliving.com
Connecting you with people, products, and ideas that allow you to live more simply.

www.homeportfolio.com
This is a web site filled with excellently designed products, suitable for a Not So Big House. There's a wonderful feature on the site that allows you to collect images and data on the products you like, that you can later download and give to your architect or designer. I recommend this site to all my clients.

Television & Video Recommended by Sarah Susanka

The television series Hometime has featured houses that utilize Not So Big House concepts.

Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska is a television show that offers thoughtful ideas to inspire each of us to make adjustments to possession-cluttered, time-starved lives.

The Arts and Crafts Movement

Founders of the Arts & Crafts Movement
A fine site on the Arts & Crafts Movement, it includes an anthology of writings on interior design by William Morris and his contemporaries.

The Arts & Crafts Society
The home page of the Arts & Crafts Society, including events and archives.

In the Craftsman Style: House Plans by Ashmore/Kessenich Design
Features a book of 10 house designs and 2 studio/garage designs "inspired by designs of the early 20th century".

Frank Lloyd Wright

The Frank Lloyd Wright Source Page
An overall reference source for Frank Lloyd Wright locations on the web.

The Taliesin Preservation Commission
The Taliesin Preservation Commission works to preserve Taliesin--Frank Lloyd Wright's estate in Spring Green, Wisconsin--as an eminent example of organic architecture and the vision of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Frank Lloyd Wright in Minnesota
Listings and information about Frank Lloyd Wright's Minnesota architecture.


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