My wife and I are building a house and I am equally intrigued and frustrated about the process of home design and building. I am looking for books with any themes of:
consumerism culture/ keeping up with the joneses/ suburban sprawl/ architecture throughout modern history/ art vs. function/ small business psychology/ physical labor as a career.
I have read Shop Class as soul craft and loved it!
I also love all of the Not so big house books and the Pretty Good house, as well, anything like this would be great!
I tried to read At Home by Bill Bryson, it was interesting but more of a study of human behavior, through the lens of a house, not as much about the house itself.
Thanks all!
by Kbee2202
3 Comments
story house by Timothy Taylor is more on the bleeding-edge side of rockstar architecture/design. you know, “the new fuzzy-bunny brutalism soars as searing judgement on man’s [fill in the blank]” type of talk.
that said, it’s also a novel with a genuine human-interest plot (half-brothers who hate each other; common cause), and it’s also set in a city with mad property-value culture and a robust bureaucracy. and he’s an unusually good writer. and it’s about a (kind of) house.
{{House of Leaves}} is an obvious choice.
Compact Houses by Gerald Rowan is very solid
You might like A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester