New Compact House Designs

Author(s): Don Metz, Ben Watson (Editor)

Publisher: Storey Books

ISBN: 0882666665

ISBN-13: 978-0882666662

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

27 award-winning plans for homes of 1250 square feet or less.

These plans are the winners from the second Compact House Design Competition, a juried contest receiving designs of up to 1250 square feet and with at least two bed rooms from North American architects, designers, and architecture students. Each design provides a floor plan, four elevations, a perspective, one wall section, and a site plan (though many designs have yet to actually be built). The houses vary greatly in cost, and range from classic to postmodern in style. The inadequate text provided means that one must be an able “print” interpreter in order to ferret out many of the good ideas and space-saving arrangements. Recommended for libraries with plan book browsers. The designs for winners of the first contest were presented in Compact House Book (Storey Communications, 1988).
– W.T. Johnston, formerly with Coastal Plain Regional Lib., Tifton, Ga.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Houses of the future will be smaller, more energy-efficient, and better suited to their environments. And intelligent design solutions can help expand the scope and livability of a compact house, making it elegant as well as practical. In 1990, Storey Communications sponsored the Compact House Design Competition, a juried contest open to architects, designers, and architecture students. From the numerous entries that were received from all over North America, professional architects Don Metz and Peter Woerner selected the best and most innovative designs to include in “New Compact House Designs”. Although the top three designs received cash awards, all 27 of the designs in this book are winners–and each design illustrates a classic or contemporary approach to living gracefully in a small house. The basic guidelines were clear: design a single-family house with a minimum of two bedrooms whose gross floor area does not exceed 1,250 square feet. Aside from these stipulations, almost anything went, and the broad spectrum of designs included in this book reflects the geographical and stylistic diversity of the winning entries–from a classic New England farmhouse to a sophisticated postmodern design, from a New Mexican desert hacienda to a fanciful house with Elizabethan overtones. The perfect idea book for current and future homeowners, “New Compact House Designs” will also appeal to anyone interested in architectural design. Each entry included in the book features a site drawing, floor plans, elevation and section drawings, judges’ comments, and a complete description of the project. Addresses for architects and designers are also provided for readers interested in obtaining scale plans or more information on any particular house.

Independent Builder : Designing & Building a House Your Own Way

Cover, Independent Builder : Designing & Building a House Your Own Way Author(s): Sam Clark

Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co

ISBN: 0930031857

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

How-To Editor’s Recommended Book, 02/01/97:
Subtitled Designing and Building a House Your Own Way, this is the book for anyone thinking about building their own home. It is comprehensive, detailed and covers subjects I have never before seen covered in home building books, like how to make a small house seem bigger, incorporating ergonomics and accessibility, doing your own drawings and scale models, making contracts that work, and working effectively with professional designers and builders. With detailed diagrams and photographs, this is the most thorough overall guide to building your own home I have ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot!).

Affordable Passive Solar Homes

Cover, Affordable Passive Solar Homes Author(s): Richard Crowther

Publisher: American Solar Energy Society

ISBN: 0916653005

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Affordable Passive Solar Homes
Richard Crowther
Publication date: June 1984
Low-cost, compact designs.

The Sauna

Cover, The Sauna Author(s): Rob Roy

Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co

ISBN: 0930031873

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Paperback, 208 pages
Publication date: March 1997

How-To Editor’s Recommended Book, 03/01/97:
This book could be called Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Saunas and Then Some! It is replete with sauna history; tradition; health benefits; a complete, detailed guide to building one for yourself, along with resources for equipment and supplies; and instructions on the proper use and maintenance of saunas. You name it, it’s here!

Customer Comments

koralglo@netrom.com from Bloomingdale, New Jersey , 11/03/97, rating=5:
It is a book about rather specific sauna I ordered that book because I wanted to construct a sauna in my basement. Based on the publisher’s recommendation I felt very confident that I will find all the necesseary information to help me with my project. To my deepest disappointment this book deals only with a very specific type of a sauna: one that is constructed from logs in a cement base.

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. About Saunas
2. Cordwood Masonry
3. The Post-and-Beam Log End Sauna
4. The Earthwood (Round) Sauna
5. The Sauna Stove
6. Variations on the Theme
7. Taking a Sauna
App. 1. Sauna Equipment Manufacturers and Distributors
App. 2. Sauna Societies
App. 3: Annotated Bibliography
App. 4. Glossary of Finnish Sauna Terms
Index

The New Strawbale Home

Author(s): Catherine Wanek

Publisher: Gibbs Smith Publishers

ISBN: 1-58685-203-5

Order From: Gibbs Smith Publishers
Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Although strawbale construction is beginning to enter the mainstream, many people continue to wonder what a strawbale house looks like. The New Strawbale Home answers definitively, “Anything you want!” Innovative architects and builders are reinventing this century-old technology to create thick walled modern houses of unsurpassed natural beauty.

The New Strawbale Home compiles floor plans and images from forty cutting-edge homes across North America, from California to Quebec, New Mexico to New England, showcasing a spectrum of regional styles and personal aesthetic choices. This practical guide discusses varying climate considerations and essential design details for problem-free construction and low maintenace care, and also points out the ecologically friendly, energy-saving aspects of strawbale construction. The New Strawbale Home beautifully illustrates how building with strawbale allows for maximum personal creativity–whether the finished product is an urban home, a country hideaway, or anything in between.

Author and photographer Catherine Wanek organized the building of a strawbale greenhouse in 1992 and has been an advocate for strawbale construction ever since. She produced and directed the Building with Straw video series, and spent nearly five years publishing and editing The Last Straw Journal. Her first book, The Art of Natural Building was published in 2002. Wanek lives in Kingston, New Mexico.

Hardcover, 150 Color Photographs
8.5 x 10.75 in, 176 pages

Passive Solar House Basics

Author(s): Peter Van Dresser

Publisher: Ancient City Press

ISBN: 0941270904

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Lays out in plain language what an owner/builder or designer will need to know about siting, designing, constructing, and living in a solar adobe home. Van Dresser’s text and pictures provide a beginner’s course in adobe construction and passive solar heat collection, including suggestions for natural heat circulation and heat storage in thermal mass. Included are sample house plans, ideas for solar hot water heaters, and plans-to-scale for solar crop dryers.

From the Back Cover

How-To House Construction Solar Anyone who has been in a solar house, on a cold winter day has felt the warmth and comfort of its natural radiant heat. In 1958, solar pioneer Peter van Dresser built his first solor-heated house, one of the two oldest in the United States. In Passive Solar House Basics, van Dresser lats out in text and illustrations the principles an owner builder will need to know in siting, designing, building, and living in their solar house. Several sample house plans, ideas for solar hot water heaters, and plans for solar crop dryers give the solar enthusiast the basic information they will need to begin plans on their energy efficient home. In this book van Dresser shows that solar energy can be economically harnessed by simple means. Means that are within the grasp of the average homeowner and builder. “…an everyman’s guide that could easily become the textbook for the beginning professional in the arts and sciences of buildings.” -Jeffrey Cook, College of Architecture Arizone State University

136 pages Publication date: April 1996

Timber-Frame Home: Design, Construction, Finishing

Author(s): Tedd Benson

Publisher: Taunton Press

Hardcover: 234 pages

ISBN: 1561581291

ISBN-13: 978-1561581290

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Publication date: May 1997

Author, teacher, and master craftsman Tedd Benson shows readers how to plan a timber-frame home to meet their own needs and concerns. Tedd Benson can be seen on the PBS series This Old House. 97 color photographs and 140 drawings. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Synopsis: Built for modern lifestyles, today’s timber-frame homes feature open spaces, durable craftsmanship, and an accent on comfort. This book provides a comprehensive reference to timber-frame house design, written by one of the nation’s foremost builders of this type of house. 145 color photos. 130 drawings.

Customer Comments

This is a wonderful book about timber frames. As an architect i can say this book is perfect from every aspect. Complete and understandable for every kind of readers. It gives a lot of important design and technical information in a form of an artistic photo album.

Build a Classic Timber-Framed House: Planning & Design/Traditional Materials/Affordable Methods

Author(s): Jack A. Sobon

Publisher: Storey Books

Paperback: 208 pages

ISBN: 0882668412

ISBN-13: 978-0882668413

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

The timber-framed home is attractive, affordable, and easily expanded to meet the needs of a growing family. With the step-by-step instructions in this book you can build your own classic timber-framed house — one that’s enduring, and features a level of craftsmanship rare in modern construction. Following the traditional “hall-and-parlor” home design, architect and builder Jack Sobon carefully and clearly explains finding the ideal building site; creating the master plan; selecting the best tree species; hewing and milling timbers; assembling the frame; installing wall sheathing, windows, and doors; designing and finishing the interior; expanding on the plan.

One of the best-known and most distinctive figures in the timber-framing revival, Jack Sobon knows how to make home building affordable with economical hand tools, by taking control of the processing of building materials, and through using local inexpensive supplies.

The basic house design of this book is easily adapted to meet different needs. Sobon’s practical advice incorporates the latest knowledge on building a healthy house, integrating natural systems, and finding effective home heating solutions.

Booklist:

Sobon outlines a unique craft that is part conventional furniture building, part home construction. In timber frame construction, there’s a minimum of metal fasteners (nails, nuts, bolts, etc.), and wood is joined by many of the basic joints (for example, the mortise and tenon, the dovetail) traditionally used in making furniture. Knowing that one’s home is put together by a variety of pins, slots, and notches may not be reassuring to most, but be assured that timber framing is an old technique that produces very solid structures. It does, however, require quite a lot of timber, since main beams, for instance, can be as much as eight-inches square; the various cuts must be made to rather close tolerances; and the way the timbers are harvested and sawn will have great effect on how they (and the building) respond when exposed to moisture and cold. Although the book’s sample project and copious illustrations do enlighten the initiate, it’s possible to come away feeling that a month-long class on the subject might provide a better education. Still, this is an excellent how-to. Copyright© 1994, American Library Association. All rights reserved –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The publisher, Storey Books , 04/17/98:
Using actual plans, the book shows how to build a classic hall-and-parlor home. Includes photos and line drawings.