This book is a concise and comprehensive guide to building defects and building inspection. Whether, as a practitioner you are employed in buying, selling, managing or maintaining houses or whether, or as a layperson, you are buying a property to invest or live in, this book will help you make sound decisions and avoid costly mistakes. Written by two highly experienced authors, House Inspector is a general and accessible book which describes how and why house construction has changed, identifies some of the more common defects, and provides a series of elemental check lists. Essential reading for trainees and general practice surveyors, maintenance inspectors, housing managers, estate agents, planners, and even private purchasers and investors. This book will improve your knowledge and understanding of potential problems and provide a simple framework for a competent building inspection.

Storybook style, fairy tale, Disneyesque, Hansel and Gretel-these are all synonyms for what is surely the most delightful residential style of the twentieth century. With their romantic evocation of faraway lands and eras, storybook homes were created by architects and builders with a flair for theater, a love of fine craftsmanship, and above all a sense of humor-attributes that make them especially endearing to the jaded modern eye. The storybook style was born on the backlots of Hollywood in the 1920s, where brilliant set designers first learned to evoke the exotic architecture of medieval Europe and the Middle East. Movie-going Americans became fascinated with these settings, and architects and builders were quick to capitalize on this enthusiasm. The whimsical style soon spread from coast to coast, and the unforgettable results are portrayed here.

London's modest eighteenth-century houses-those inhabited by artisans and laborers in the unseen parts of Georgian London-can tell us much about the culture of that period. This fascinating book examines largely forgotten small houses that survive from the eighteenth century and sheds new light on both the era's urban architecture and the lives of a culturally distinctive metropolitan population. Peter Guillery discusses how and where, by and for whom the houses were built, stressing vernacular continuity and local variability. He investigates the effects of creeping industrialization (both on house building and on the occupants), and considers the nature of speculative suburban growth. Providing rich and evocative illustrations, he compares these houses to urban domestic architecture elsewhere, as in North America, and suggests that the eighteenth-century vernacular metropolis has enduring influence. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and in association with English Heritage

Owners of old houses are often baffled by the confusing advice they receive from their builders, architects or surveyors who may be more familiar with repairing modern buildings than dealing with the issues associated with traditional houses. Old houses generally require a different approach, one, for instance, which takes account of their need to 'breathe'. Modern solutions do not always recognise that need. This book will help owners, builders and all construction professionals make the decisions that are right for old buildings. It illustrates the long term benefits of using more traditional solutions on older houses rather than modern materials like cement based mortars, sealants or impervious paints. It offers practical guidance on: How to get the right professional advice; Legal requirements for listed buildings; Problems with damp and rot; Use of lime mortars, plasters and renders; Why old buildings need to breathe; Planning applications; and, Trees, outbuildings and gardens.

Covering the full life span of the project, from siting issues through specific design features to maintenance of the property and equipment, this is a comprehensive guide to designing, planning and building a solar house. The author uses his experience of living in a solar house to inform the reader of the technology and practices needed for the design, operation and maintenance of the solar home. Each of the technologies of the house, such as space heating and cooling, domestic hot water and electric power technologies, are critiqued from the point of view of the owner/resident, with the author using his thirty years experience of living in a solar home. This provides home owners who are thinking of going solar with first hand evidence of best practice, and provides the architect and designer with the knowledge of how to best satisfy their clients needs.

Theories of the domestic stemming from the 19th century have focused on the home as a refuge and place of repose for the family, a nurturing environment for children and a safe place for visitors. Under this conception, domestic space is positioned as nurturing and private, a refuge and place of retreat which gave rise to theories of 'home as haven'. While, arguably, some social conditions might suggest this is the case, Domesticity Under Siege exposes a different world, one in which the boundaries of nurturing domesticity collide with both outside and inside agents. Whether these agents are external military forces, psychological trauma or familial violence, they re-position meta-narratives of domesticity, not through identity politics or specialized subgroup experience, but relative to the actions of the world around an inhabited domain. That is, when home is constituted as a private realm, a place where individuals or groups can reside in 'safety and comfort', it is argued as a place in which the individual exercises control or power. However, there are many occasions when forces act upon the home and threaten aspects of safety and comfort, often through such things as ruination, violence, mortality, and infestation. Organised around four thematic sections, 'Microbes, Animals and Insects', 'Human Agents', Wars and Disasters as Agents' and 'Hauntings, Eeriness and the Uncanny', chapters provide a range of approaches to the home which challenge notions of 'haven' and reflect major causes that have played an important role in undermining the modern home. Examples and case studies explore the domestic screen, hoarding, hauntings, violence and imprisonment in the home, wartime interior art, the Hanover Merzbau and Wolfgang Staudte's 1946 film Die Moerder sind unter uns ('The Murderers are Among Us').

Since its founding in 1976, the non-profit Habitat for Humanity International has built more than 255,000 houses for more than one million people and families in need world wide. First published in 2002, "Habitat for Humanity How to Build a House "has helped thousands more build simple, energy-efficient homes of their own by helping guide them from foundation to roof, through all interior finishes and fixtures. Written by long-time carpenter and Habitat volunteer, Larry Haun, this extensive revision features up-to-date information on residential codes, construction methods, and materials -- as well as an updated design inside and out. Haun also provides new sections on tools, siding, ventilation, and landscaping. With Clear information on everything from obtaining a site and permit to finishing touches like installing door locks and cabinets, this is the best single-volume resource for the beginning homebuilder.

"This thought provoking book is a great resource for anyone considering joining the tiny house movement. It's all the information you need in one book! The author has done a phenomenal job blending real world experience, data and practical knowledge on all types of tiny homes." -Corinne Watson, Principle and Co-Founder, Tiny Homes of Maine "Charlie Wing's very readable Tiny House Handbook leads you through the processes of designing and building a tiny home, with careful attention to all the details, including legal issues, cost estimates, material utilization and foundation options. Charlie is a master at demystifying the seemingly complex process of homebuilding. This book will help you live both comfortably and lighter on the land." -John S. Crowley, CEO of FACET and Board member, Build It Green Plan, design, and build a tiny house from scratch The Tiny House Handbook is a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know to construct your very own tiny house. Produced in Charlie Wing's signature "visual handbook" style and jam-packed with full-color illustrations and diagrams, this book includes step-by-step instructions for building a tiny house as well as information on cost estimating and design requirements. Based on 2018 International Residential Code (IRC) Appendix Q, this book includes sample construction drawings and floor plans for a variety of tiny home styles, including: - Mobile (8'6"-wide trailers and RVs) - Movable (12'-wide, routine transport permit) - Site-built (up to 20' wide) Rather than being just another inspirational collection of tiny home photographs, The Tiny House Handbook constitutes a complete and fulsome reference for anyone seeking to build their own tiny home. From seasoned construction vets to total novices, this book will walk you through the process of designing and building a tiny house from start to finish.

Villa Madama, Raphael's late masterwork of architecture, landscape, and decoration for the Medici popes, is a paradigm of the Renaissance villa. The creation of this important, unfinished complex provides a remarkable case study for the nature of architectural invention. Drawing on little known poetry describing the villa while it was on the drawing board, as well as ground plans, letters, and antiquities once installed there, Yvonne Elet reveals the design process to have been a dynamic, collaborative effort involving humanists as well as architects. She explores design as a self-reflexive process, and the dialectic of text and architectural form, illuminating the relation of word and image in Renaissance architectural practice. Her revisionist account of architectural design as a process engaging different systems of knowledge, visual and verbal, has important implications for the relation of architecture and language, meaning in architecture, and the translation of idea into form.

'The book should serve as a useful primer for housing development in the era after the eagerly awaited urban white paper.' Building

'A very good resume for students.' Architectural Review

-- Key West -- an architectural treasure trove of houses built in the 19th century
-- Eyebrow houses, shotgun houses, Conch Victorians
-- Color photographs throughout
-- Many of Key West's houses were built by ship's carpenters with no plans other than memories of seaport homes from their past
-- Widow's walks borrowed from New England, overhanging eaves (eyebrows) from the West Indies
-- Builders added details from architectural fads of the time -- from Greek Revival columns to Creole trellises
-- Many charming anecdotes about old Key West gleaned from interviews with descendants of the families who built houses there
-- For anyone who loves to look at charming old houses and imagine their histories

This book, which fills a gap on the materiality of lived relations, examines households within the context of their immediate physical surroundings of home and shows how human interactions are reflected in built forms. Houses are dynamic participants in family life in many ways. They often pre-date the origins and outlast the life spans of their inhabitants, but they can exert a powerful influence on the organization of behaviors and the values of family members, as well as on the forms and flows of family life across the generations. Constituting wealth, investment, security and inheritance, they are an objective in and of themselves in many domestic strategies.
Drawing on developments within anthropology, archaeology, architecture and social history, the authors demonstrate, through detailed case studies, how household or family relations can usefully be mined to re-situate social theory in both space and time. Space, boundaries, family cycles, historic changes, migration patterns, ethnicity, memory and gender are all interrogated for the light they shed on how people interact with the physical world around them and what this means culturally and symbolically. Europe is an especially rich focus for this kind of analysis because it is distinguished by its long, well-documented history and a recent period of intense change.

Some of the world's greatest architects, including Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, have used their talents to create groundbreaking innovations in American residential architecture over the past 120 years. Though wide-ranging in style, these houses share a remarkable sensitivity to site and context; appreciation of local materials; experimentation with form, materials, and technology; and understanding of clients' needs. Spanning the length and breadth of the United States, The Iconic American House features fifty of the most important, timeless, and recognizable houses designed since 1900. With pithy text and fresh, vibrant illustrations, this book presents a lavish array of architectural masterpieces designed by architects such as Philip Johnson, Richard Neutra, Peter Eisenman and Thomas Gluck. Specially commissioned and stunning photographs, floor plans, drawings and architect biographies ensure that it is perfect for students, professionals, design aficionados and anyone who dreams of building a house of their own.

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.

So rich and unique is traditional Japanese architecture that it's nearly impossible to improve upon. Yet contemporary Japanese designers and architects keep finding fresh approaches to refurbish and take inspiration from the ways of old. Whether it's a pristinely preserved traditional house or a sleek modern apartment, the best Japanese homes share a love of cleverly designed spaces and warm materials like wood, brick, and bamboo. From a thatched roof farmhouse occupied by a Zen priest to Tadao Ando's experimental 4x4 House, from Shigeru Ban's conceptual Shutter House to a beautiful domestic homage to bamboo, this elegant compendium traverses the multifaceted landscape of Japanese living today. Enriched by 170 brand new, unpublished photographs, this edition takes you on breathtaking journey through the Land of the Rising Sun-complete with a list of addresses, should you wish to undertake this journey to Japan's most fascinating inns and homes yourself. An insightful glossary of key terms, such as tatami, shoji, and noren, will also help you come to grips with all elements of Japan's unique aesthetic of Eastern minimalism. About the series TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

The lure of a home by the ocean resonates with us all, bringing to mind the beauty and changing moods of the water, the intoxicating salty scent and the sound of waves against the shore. But what makes a beach house, and how does the idea of a home by the coast differ across the world? This stunning edition showcases a global snapshot of beautifully designed coastal homes, with a diverse mix of types, from Hamptons style to more minimalist residences, reflecting the different landscapes and locations. Lavishly illustrated with full-colour images of award-winning architecture combined with spectacular views, this curated list brings together the most recent designs from highly regarded architects to produce the best examples of contemporary beach house residential design. This book is a captivating glimpse into the irresistible world of modern and stylish contemporary living in homes that take full advantage of their beachside settings.

A monograph of duotone photographs, taken in the Palm House at the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin, beautifully illustrate this building as it was prior to its restoration. The photographs capture the cluttered green jungle, worn by time and held high in affection by the enchanted visitors who stepped inside its lofty paradise. By bringing the reader around the house as it was, drawing the eye to detail upwards, along its unique metal walkway and into the smaller treasure, the orchid house; to look at the intricate glass panels, metal structure, the wooden frames with their own unique patina of the passage of time, The Palm House tells its story visually. Meanwhile, in an accompanying text, Brendan Sayers relates how a visitor felt on entering and exploring this exotic world, the history and the origin of the planting, the unique pot and tub culture, and the importance of the collection.

In a climate that ranges from cold, dark and unforgiving to endless sun and crystalline skies, the homes of the Nordic countries are lifted by ever-changing and dramatic natural light balanced by an intrinsic sense of warmth. Nordic architects today are as much informed by vernacular traditions and natural materials as their forebears, but the most recent generation of practitioners reflects a new appetite for spatial exploration and changing lifestyles. Divided into four chapters - rural cabins, coastal retreats, town houses and country homes - this survey of over forty of Scandinavia's finest and most innovative houses features work by a broad spectrum of leading architects, such as Jon Danielsen Aarhus, Tham & Videgard, Snorre Stinessen, Reiulf Ramstad and Todd Saunders. Structured by terrain to reveal the full diversity of the landscape and its architectural challenges, the book is full of fresh thinking about living spaces that are at once universal and distinctively Nordic. From country houses complete with traditional Nordic fireplaces, saunas, window seats and verandas, to remote cabin hideaways and artist's studios, there are details and grand ideas that can be applied to residential design anywhere. A reference section includes an appendix of architectural plans.

Known for designing welcoming Southern homes, Historical Concepts, one of today s leading traditional architecture firms, is now working on diverse projects across America and in exotic locales, such as the Caribbean and Patagonia. A multigenerational team of architects is extending the firm s founding philosophy expressing both timeless and inventive perspectives on design. Showcased are beautifully photographed country estates, coastal retreats, and pastoral properties, all weaving the classical principles of symmetry, scale, and proportion with vernacular motifs and artisanal craftsmanship to create stylish and comfortable backdrops for contemporary living. Sophisticated interior decoration and stunning landscapes accompany the architecture, creating a harmonious sense of place. Through engaging stories that inform, Andrew Cogar shows how to reimagine the traditional home whether an elegant Greek Revival pavilion, a chic Hamptons summer house, or a reinterpretation of a historic Charleston single house to capture one s unique point of view. Visions of Home is an invaluable resource for those who enjoy the warmth and charm of traditional architecture.

How has housing changed in Sub-Saharan Africa since the first Europeans set foot on the continent? Why don't Africans live in their traditional homes any longer? This historical evolution from "hut to house," from traditional abode to Western-style house, considers the consequences of slavery, colonialism, and other social influences, with a focus on the Central African country of Cameroon, known as "Africa in Miniature" because of its geographical and cultural representation of the continent at large. Descriptions of architectural styles, layouts, materials, and construction techniques are woven into a discussion of the larger historical and cultural context, examining how lifestyle changes and architectural trends influence one another. Readers will come away with a rich understanding of the challenges and opportunities for a new generation of African architects to integrate the lessons of the past and create a future most responsive to the needs of the region.

From artworks and chairs to architecture, landscaping and interior design, Michael Boyd's devotion to the principles of modernism is comprehensive. An artist and musician, he acquired his expertise as a collector, surrounding himself with rare and beautiful finds. His immersion in the philosophy and creativity of the masters inspired him to restore a succession of classic modern houses, curate exhibitions, create a versatile range of furniture and rugs, and design sculptural gardens. Millennium Modern: Living in Design details his work across the first two decades of the new millennium and reflects his belief that the tenets of modernism - honesty and simplicity - developed more than a century ago, are equally relevant to our pluralistic age. In contrast to the pioneers who wanted to do away with the past, his creations are deeply rooted in the history of design. Essays by Boyd and architectural writer Michael Webb, along with comments from collaborators and critics, explore each facet of his residential design. This beautifully illustrated volume reveals Boyd's holistic design practice from his discovery of design classics in flea markets, to his own furniture designs, which feature in residential interiors, hotels and museums, through to his sensitive restoration of the houses by Paul Rudolph and Oscar Niemeyer, Richard Neutra and Craig Ellwood, and the sculptural landscapes he designed to enhance these residences, as well as masterpieces by John Lautner.

Many people dream of commissioning an architect to design their perfect home. It is a commitment that takes time and money, but having a bespoke space built around your specific needs, interests and desires can be life-changing. So, what makes an award-winning, 21st-century house? The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has been championing outstanding work for over 180 years, and the internationally recognised RIBA awards celebrate the very best in British architecture. The winning houses, featured here, showcase truly innovative design, contemporary materials and techniques, and inspired responses to historical and urban settings, as well as areas of natural beauty. By working closely with clients every step of the way, the architects' extraordinary buildings redefine what 'home' looks like. This compilation of some of the best RIBA award-winning houses from the last ten years offers an essential source of ideas and inspiration for the contemporary British home. From a sustainable townhouse to a modern cottage, a hillside home to a lakeside escape, these houses are show-stopping examples of architects surpassing their clients' loftiest dreams. Featuring: * The best RIBA award-winning houses from the last decade * Houses from each region of the UK * A rich variety of projects - from new builds to conversions to extensions * Case studies from esteemed practices, including: Alison Brooks Architects, Chris Dyson Architects, Foster Lomas, Henning Stummel Architects, Mole Architects and Tonkin Liu * Guidance for working with architects.