The Small House Book Review

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(More customer reviews)For those who have seen Jay's houses on Yahoo! or otherwise and want more information, you might consider this book. I said "might." Jay goes through his history of living in small homes, and then goes on a bender about why small homes are preferable to large ones, why people who design large homes and large neighborhoods are poo-poo heads, calls a few architects pretentious and arrogant, then goes on to talk mostly about how to go about designing these homes in architectural terms.
There is useful information, such as how to legally build and live in one of these homes in your area, though the topic isn't exhausted by any means. He also discusses the general building process, but if anything his youtube videos or his website are more detailed.
It's just...Mr. Shafer is preaching to the choir. By the time you've bought a $36 book, you've got your own ideas about why you should build a tiny house. What you want to know is the nuts and bolts. What kind of solar and batteries to buy and how to manage them; how to plumb the house; how to downsize your lifestyle (what to get rid of, what to keep and what to get); things of that nature that just aren't present in a real way. Jay is writing for the home designer, not the homeowner. So if you buy his plans, he's writing a book that's mostly intended for himself.

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Living SMALL: The Life of Small Houses Review

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(More customer reviews)As a founding member of the Small House Society, much of my volunteer time serving the group involves reviewing books, websites, and other resources that are significant contributions to the small house movement.
I recently had an opportunity to review "Living Small - The Life of Small Houses" by Dennis Fukai of Insite Builders.
During the review, as I took the time to enjoy the book at a slower pace, I was really impressed with the attention to detail and the thoughtfulness that went into it. I've spent time working with AutoCAD and similar 3D modeling programs. I know that it takes a lot of work and attention to detail to put together the kinds of models used in the book. So, I could appreciate the time that went into that.
I also appreciated the humor, sometimes sarcastic and dry, that was sprinkled throughout the book. At one point, Dr. Fukai describes the Mini McMansion as being less expensive yet "the same waste and efficiency are included" as with the larger McMansions (page 13).
This book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in learning more about small housing. Anyone considering building or purchasing a home of any size should seriously consider buying this book. In addition to offering a thorough look at small housing today, this text guides the reader throughout the history and development of housing in North America. An overview of larger homes is also provided to offer the reader a contrasting backdrop. The cost of building and maintaining larger inefficient homes is evaluated. By pointing out specific design techniques, the reader is made aware of what to look for in their next home and what to avoid. The book includes the following unique features:
* richly illustrated with 3D wire-frame and finished visual models
* valuable footnotes are included on almost every page providing additional information, book titles, and/or internet web pages for more details
* information about small housing is presented in a holistic and historically contextual framework allowing the reader to understand the cultural conditions and sociology that fostered various housing designs
* the entire text is offered in black and white sketches and text allowing the reader to focus their attention on the construction and design of various home designs
* included with the book is a CD ROM that contains 3D models for viewing on a Windows or Apple computer - these models can be rotated and viewed from different perspectives
More about Dennis Fukai and Insight Builders can be found by doing a Google search for Insite Builders (remember to spell it as it is here).
More about the Small House Society can be found by doing a Google search for the Small House Society.
Regards,
Gregory Johnson, Founding Member of the Small House Society

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This book is a survey of small houses from early settler cabins to the tiny house movement of today. The houses include frontier shelters, squatter houses, Cracker houses, farmhouses, bandboxes, shotguns, bungalows, and tiny houses. The book shows how these houses were built and served the special needs of their owner-builders.

Each chapter starts by showing the house in the context of its construction, the kind of resources that were available to its owners, and how their construction was shaped by both their purpose and historical situation.

Many of the insights of these home-builders can be used in small house construction today. These insights include the use of decks and outdoor spaces, separation of spaces, and simple framing techniques that are visible in the construction models. These models help readers get a feel for what it might be like to live in a small space and ways traditional builders maximized the efficiency and comfort of their homes.

The book 's CD includes a model of every house in the book as well as contextual plans and elevations, three-dimensional details of the structure, and the layout of each house. Readers can explore the house s construction, deconstruct its pieces, modify the spaces, and adapt them to test their own ideas.

All our books are written as graphic narratives in a comic style. Every book mixes layers of visual information with construction models, short video tours, and tutorials on how the models were built and organized.

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The Prefabricated Home Review

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(More customer reviews)As an architect interested in the idea of prefabrication I approached this book with the hope of learning as well as being instructed and entertained.
The author succeeded on all counts.
This book is extremely readable without losing any weight in content.
I recommend it to anyone looking for both a historical and a social history of prefabricated building techniques.
My only criticism is that the book skimmed over the huge prefab industry in Asia and Japan in particular to focus on Europe and North America. A small gripe concerning an excellent and rewarding read.

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From sash windows and ceramic tiles to barracks and warehouses, industrialized building has thrived since the nineteenth century in Europe and America. Yet architects have neglected this area of practical construction in favor of historical, theoretical, and artistic analyses, resulting in the emergence of an influential building industry with architects on the far margins. Colin Davies explores in The Prefabricated Home how the relationship between architecture and industrialized building has now become an urgent issue for architects.The Prefabricated Home outlines the methods and motives of prefabricated buildings and assesses their architectural implications. Davies traces the origins of the branded building phenomenon with examples ranging from the Dymaxion bathroom to IKEA's "Bo Klok" house. He also analyzes the use of industrialized buildings worldwide—including McDonald's drive-through restaurants and contrasts the aesthetic concerns of architects against the economic ones of industrialized building manufacturers. Ultimately, The Prefabricated Home proposes a partnership of architects and industrialized building that could potentially produce an exciting new type of humane and eco-conscious architecture.

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Prefab Architecture: A Guide to Modular Design and Construction Review

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(More customer reviews)After the many coffee table books illustrating prefab modern houses, this book is a much-needed rigorous review of prefab design and construction processes and outputs. It synthesizes the many facets of offsite construction emerging in the construction industry, but does it from an accessible perspective allowing the reader to understand the history of production and its future in realizing new innovative buildings. The book gets a bit wordy on contemporary design and construction practices and the tradeoffs to industry professionals of prefabrication for the lay design enthusiast and the fabrication technician. However, it appeals to both crowds with ample coverage of contemporary architectural examples of prefabricated houses, commercial structures and interiors; and the technical coverage of materials and systems reviews the methods of production and lean approaches to outputs for building construction thoroughly. The chapter on green building is instructive in illustrating how modular and prefabrication can be leveraged to achieve LEED ratings and other environmentally responsive building goals. Resting somewhere between an updated version of A.F. Gibb's Offsite Fabrication published in 1999 and glossy architecture folio books of the early 20th century, this book synthesizes the current academic/professional research, cultural understanding, and technicalities surrounding fabrication and assembly in the U.S. building industry, demonstrating to architects and construction professionals the when, where, what, why and how of prefabrication.

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"Prefab Architecture . . . is beyond theory, and beyond most of what we think we know about pods, containers, mods, and joints. This book is more than 'Prefabrication 101.' It is the Joy of Cooking writ large for the architecture and construction industries."-From the Foreword by James Timberlake, FAIA

The definitive reference on prefab architecture for architects and construction professionals
Written for architects and related design and construction professionals, Prefab Architecture is a guide to off-site construction, presenting the opportunities and challenges associated with designing and building with components, panels, and modules. It presents the drawbacks of building in situ (on-site) and demonstrates why prefabrication is the smarter choice for better integration of products and processes, more efficient delivery, and realizing more value in project life cycles. In addition, Prefab Architecture provides:
A selected history of prefabrication from the Industrial Revolution to current computer numerical control, and a theory of production from integrated processes to lean manufacturing
Coverage on the tradeoffs of off-site fabrication including scope, schedule, and cost with the associated principles of labor, risk, and quality
Up-to-date products featuring examples of prefabricated structure, enclosure, service, and interior building systems
Documentation on the constraints and execution of manufacturing, factory production, transportation, and assembly
Dozens of recent examples of prefab projects by contemporary architects and fabricators including KieranTimberlake, SHoP Architects, Office dA, Michelle Kaufmann, and many others

In Prefab Architecture, the fresh approaches toward creating buildings that accurately convey mature and expanded green building methodologies make this book an important voice for adopting change in a construction industry entrenched in traditions of the past.

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Portable Houses Review

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(More customer reviews)I have had an opportunity to see an advance of this book and must say I am impresssed. The photography alone is a reason to pick it up. What a wonderful topic. I continue to be impressed by these authors works. Cozy, comfy, like a crackle of a corner fireplace in an wintry cabin this book takes you to those bitty homes with great charisma.

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Sheep wagons, houseboats, RVs, tents, yurts, even prefab homes and old converted school bussespeople are finding creative ways every day to build and adapt homes that aren't confined to one geographical location.Portable Houses features traditional movable dwellings around the world, from a houseboat in Sausalito to a gypsy wagon in the English countryside. Authors Irene Rawlings and Mary Abel provide essential information on making movable homes functional and practical, along with chapters on acquiring the necessary tools and gear for travel, problem solving with each type of portable house, and converting the dream into highway-legal reality. With photography of some of the world's most ingenious and unique portable structures, Portable Houses will inspire the migratory-minded to turn ordinary modes of transportation into creative living spaces. Rawlings proves that it really is possible for the dedicated, nomadic, do-it-yourselfer to make the road a comfortable home! Irene Rawlings is editor-in-chief of Mountain Living and Log & Timber magazines. Since age seven, she has wanted to buy a retired school bus, take out the seats, paint it a shiny red, and travel around the country. She is the author of many books, including The Clothesline (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2002) with Andrea Van Steenhouse.Mary Abel is the managing editor of Mountain Living and Log & Timber Style magazines. She wants to buy an old trailer, paint it pink, and take it into the mountains to fly fish and cook chili over a campfire. She's still working on it.

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