Name: Get your house right
ISBN: 9781402791031

Get your house right

Even as oversized McMansions continue to elbow their way into tiny lots nationwide, a much different trend has taken shape. This return to traditional architectural principles venerates qualities that once were taken for granted in home design: structural common sense, aesthetics of form, appropriateness to a neighborhood, and even sustainability. Marianne Cusato, creator of the award-winning Katrina Cottages, has authored and illustrated this definitive guide to what makes houses look and feel right—to the eye and to the soul. She teaches us the language and grammar of classical architecture, revealing how balance, harmony, and detail all contribute to creating a home that will be loved rather than tolerated. And she takes us through the do’s and don’ts of every element of home design, from dormers to doorways to columns. Integral to the book are its hundreds of elegant line drawings—clearly rendering the varieties of lintels and cornices, arches and eaves, and displaying “avoid” and “use” versions of the same elements side by side.

What Hacker News says

insaneirishOct 2021

It's a form of skeuomorphism and it's something that greatly irritates me as well. Unfortunately, it's only one of the many common design atrocities you see in most neighborhoods.

Get Your House Right by Marianne Cusato (https://www.amazon.com/Get-Your-House-Right-Architectural/dp...) is a really good book that helps you appreciate some of the finer details of architecture in your own home.

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everybodyknowsJul 2020

>you should read two books. The first is Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid

I own and have read a copy, excellent. Note however that it's entirely oriented toward traditional design: Deco, Streamline Moderne, and Mid-Mod are terra incognita. Eichler fans, you have been warned.

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simonsarrisNov 2019

None of that specifically but read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher

I realized that the cupola on my 1840's house growing up, this was it's function. Wind pulls air through, which pulls air up into the attic, which cools the first and second floors.

Then read The Timeless Way of Building and perhaps A Pattern Language

Then Get Your House Right, or a condensed (...in a way) version is Drawing for Architecture by Krier.

Hmm there are probably others I cannot recall right now, but those are a great start.

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simonsarrisOct 2019

I designed/built my own house too[1], giving sketches to an architect and working with him. Some major takeaways for others who have yet to build:

* No one will care about your project as much as you and this includes the architect :(

* Few(???) architects and zero builders seem to understand light/wind/circulation like people apparently intuitively did 200 years ago. You might be better off with the average curious engineer designing the house than the average architect. Everyone is astonishingly lazy, even mansions around here have terrible light/circulation problems.

* VR is no match for IRL! It's best to actually get a measuring tape and stake out the dimensions of the house on the land. An even better, get chalk and go to a big flat parking lot and draw out the entire floor plan (compass-correct) and walk inside, looking at the sun (keeping in mind what season). This worked well for me, I should have done more of it. I didn't build a porch though, which is where getting more exacting summer/winter sun angles would matter.

I actually got the chalk idea from the excellent movie The Founder, where the creators of McDonalds try out different kitchen workflow models this way.

* Draw and sketch a huge amount. Sketch facades freeform, with the ruler, etc. The fidgeting will help you discover things.

* Read a bunch of books about old houses. Maybe most approachably: Get Your House Right and A Pattern Language

* Get a pinterest board for you + spouse. We used ours heavily and it was great for keeping track of interior detail decisions.

[1] It's a fundamentally simple house, basically a box that maximizes light and airflow and wood burning heat, so I probably had a much easier task than you. Some of the original drawings: https://twitter.com/simonsarris/status/1183150002002112512

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