Home By Design

In this groundbreaking book, Americas leading architect and best-selling author Sarah Susanka looks at the key design concepts behind all well-designed homes. With these essential ideas, she gives you what you need to transform a house from mere shelter into a comfortable home filled with character and beauty.

In Home By Design, Susanka presents the 30 key concepts that can be applied to any home -- no matter what the style or size. Using 28 of the best designed homes from around the country, Susanka brings these concepts to life with 150 powerful and inspirational examples -- from something as simple as placing a rug under a table to defining one room from another with a framed opening or archway. Home by Design gives you a new way to "see" your home and create the home that youve always wanted. Your home can be imbued with a sense of warmth, beauty and enduring quality when these ideas are combined with care and a creative spirit.

"It would be hard to think of a more important thinker in residential design than Sarah Susanka. Sarahs not only a gifted writer who can tell a good story, she has thought carefully about what makes you feel good about being in a well-designed house. Armed with her insights you march more confidently into your own build or remodel. She deserves a wider audience and this book may do just that."

-- Russ Morash, creator, executive producer, and director, This Old House

Introduction

From House to Home

Part 1: SPACE

1. The Process of Entering
Path and Place
Receiving Place
Gateways
Entry Courtyard
Covered Entry
Front Porch

2. Shelter around Activity
Alcoves
Window Seats
Soffits
Ceiling Shape
Rug-Defined Place

3. Sequence of Places
Alcoves off a Central Space
Alcoves off Circulation
Nooks and Crannies
Connecting Views

4. Ceiling Height Variety
Dropped Soffits
Alcove with Lowered Ceiling
Floating Shelf
Lowered Hallway
Ceiling as Sculpture
Ceiling Height Hierarchy

5. Interior Views
Diagonal Views
Connecting Views
Partially Hidden View
Long Views Through
Surprise Views

6. Layering
Framed Openings
Framed Openings in Series
Connecting Pass-Throughs
Implied Walls
Sliding Partitions
Arcade

7. Inside Outside
Continuous Surfaces
Almost Frameless Windows
Outdoor Focus
Outdoor Room

8. Changes in Level
Stairs as Sculpture
Lowered Room
Raised Room
Platforms
Over Under

9. Public to Private
Focal Gathering Place
Alcoves off Focal Gathering Place
Away Room
Place of Quiet Remove
Place of Your Own

10. Openability
Sliding Doors
Sliding Screens
Sliding Panels
Movable Window Walls

11. Enclosure
Containment
Partially Hidden Room
Implied Walls

12. Differentiation of Parts
Exterior Beltlines
Interior Beltlines
Headbands
Floating Surfaces
Separate Components
Pod of Space

13. Depth and Thickness
Thick Walls
Deep-Set Windows
Library Walls
Wide Windowsills
Wall Insets
Interior Sculpture

Part 2: LIGHT

14. Light to Walk Toward
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Window at the End of a Hallway
Window at the End of a Main Axis
Lighted Picture at the End of a Vista

15. Light Intensity Variation
Layers of Light and Shade
Light Defines Form
Deep-Set Windows
Brilliance in a Dark Place

16. Reflecting Surfaces
Wall Washing
Reflective Ceiling
Hidden Light Source
Light Coves
Doubling the Space

17. Window Positioning
Daylight Fixture
Centered on the Middle
Corner Windows
Light from Above
Windowsill Height

18. Visual Weight
Colored Wall
Dark-Colored Ceiling
Textured Wall or Ceiling
Subtle Color Difference
Colored Alcove
Lipstick

19. View and Nonview
Light but Not View
Obscuring View in While Still Seeing Out
Art-Glass Focus
Small Panes

Part 3: ORDER

20. Pattern and Geometry
Simple Pattern Overlay
Grilles and Lattices
Geometric Feature
Pattern Feature

21. Alignments
Perfect Symmetry
Partial Symmetry
Asymmetry
Right or Left Justified
When in Doubt, Line It Up
Half a Bubble Off
View along a Main Axis

22. Rhythm
The March
The Triad
The Waltz
Rhythmic Refrain

23. Theme and Variations
Signature Form
Signature Pattern
Repeated Material
Repeated Relationship
Repeated Color

24. Composition
Balance
Window Composition
Surface Composition
3D Composition
4D Composition
Interruption of Order

Chapter 25: Expressed Structure
Exposed Joists and Rafters
Exposed Beams
Columns Define Spaces
Brackets
Artful Structure

Chapter 26: Point of Focus
Focal Wall Surface
Room Focus
Focus at the End of an Axis
Something Place
Attention Grabber

Chapter 27: Organizing Strategy
Simple Square or Rectangle
Long Thin House
Circulation Spine
Around a Courtyard
Assemblage of Structures

Afterword

Architects and Designers

Index

Home by Design is the book Ive always wanted to write. About 10 years ago, I started work on a book about principles of design that I hoped would enable homeowners, builders, interior designers, and architects to start talking with one another about what makes a house a home. But along the way, I became fascinated with the state of residential architecture in this country, and out of this fascination was born my first book, The Not So Big House.

The Not So Big House offered a different vision of home, one that values quality over quantity, and the book produced a groundswell of enthusiastic believers. Not So Big was even dubbed a movement. Creating the Not So Big House and Not So Big Solutions for Your Home followed, fleshing out the message and helping to explain how to tailor a house to fit the lives lived within its walls.

And now, finally, its time for the book whose principles are embedded in each of the previous three. Its time for the book I dreamed of all those years ago -- Home by Design. Organized into three sections, Space, Light, and Order, the chapters of the book take on one design principle at a time, explaining what it is, how and why it works, and how it can be incorporated into your home. So, for example, in the chapter on Alignments, the applications are Perfect Symmetry; Partial Symmetry; Asymmetry; Right or Left Justified; When in Doubt, Line It Up; Half a Bubble Off; and View along a Main Axis. All of these terms are part of the architects toolbox, but no one has ever illustrated them, explained them in jargon-free language, and made them accessible to a wide audience.

Good architectural design is every bit as important as good nutrition. Both are good medicine for our physical and spiritual well-being, and a lack of either one can cause myriad unnecessary maladies. Youll find that there is a rhyme and a reason to what you feel about the place you call home, and this book will help you understand how to craft your own surroundings into a better place to live.