indonesia hOme iNTeriors

The best guide to homebuilding on the market. It Rocks! -
This is the first book I've found that actually addresses living patterns in home design. The book describes the fact that people can be uncomfortable sitting in a huge living space and actually crave the need for smaller spaces like alcoves. Social behaviours and traffic patterns while entertaining are studied and factually explains what makes a room feel comfortable or homey. With traffic patterns and accessibility as the basis for the design half of the book, Clark provides a solid foundation for design fundementals and the why behind it.

The second half of the book covers home building. A s a complete novice in this area, I can't vouch for the accuracy of the information, but it does seem quite comprehensive in its description, demystifying the building process, and empowering owners to monitor their contractors with an informed eye, while giving insight to the bigger picture and mindset of contractors. I think this understanding will help communication between owners and contractors and make homebuilding a smoother process. Of particular interest, I found the load calculations for foundations fascinating as it wasn't something I had ever considered in home building as it is something the architecht waves his magic pencil to produce.

The book is written in a familiar tone the layperson will relate and understand, and while it doesn't shirk the industry jargon, explainations are forthcoming, making it easy to understand and simple to follow.

I've read quite a few books on home building and have done extensive research on the internet. This book covers design priciples and the why not found elsewhere. I highly recommend this book as the foundation to anyone planning and building their own home.

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Really good book -
I have been researching owner building for almost a year now and this is the first and only book I've found that both had all the information I needed, and presented it in a way that a layman could understand. Five thumbs up.

good reading for the owner-builder -
For the owner-builder looking to educate her/himself, sifting thru the oceans of books to read is tough. This one is definitely worth the time. Clark takes a no-nonsense, unpretentious approach. The text is easy to read and in plain language that lay people can understand. Focuses mostly on conventional stick-building, but there are lots of great ideas (in the "doing it yourself on a budget" theme) that apply to any building style.

An ACCURATE subtitle: as much about design as about building -
Sam Clark uses up half the book before he gets into the nitty-gritty of construction methods. This really IS a book about house DESIGN as well as construction. As such, it's an EXCELLENT book for someone who's starting from scratch to create their own house. The approach is extremely methodical, treating mindsets and goals as elements of the design process equal in importance to elevation drawings.

The illustrations bear particular attention. The (black and white) photographs are well composed, and have high contrast to clearly delineate the features that are supposed to be of interest. The line drawings are rather funky looking (in part because Clark appears not to own a ruler), but nevertheless do a very good job of illustrating what the text is talking about. This is the case for three reasons: (1) they were created by the author, who knew EXACTLY what part of the text needed visual aids; (2) their rulerless nature means that Clark can emphasize particular features rather than focus on strict scale drawings; and (3) each one is sized independently to take up as much space as is required to depict the subject matter, without worrying about "wasting" some page area. The end result is that the text and illustrations fit together well to make a unified whole.

For more detail on the Building part of creating a house, I'd recommend "Do-It-Yourself HOUSEBUILDING" by George Nash. But because Nash's book doesn't come close to Clark's for clarity, I'd first read Clark's book cover-to-cover. Then I'd keep Sam Clark's book open to the same subject area so that you can step back and get a clear overview as you get confused in the details of the Nash book.

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Your own way indeed! -
This tells you how to design a house for you. Not just a house out of a book, but one that takes your living patterns into account. Don't want a formal living room? Don't put one in! Also reminds you if you want to live in the house a long time, to make room for handicapped access that may be needed later. Design your kitchen and baths the way you live! Have fun! ;-)