The Value of Housing Design and Layout


Book Description

National opinion surveys consistently show that a significant section of the house buying public would never consider purchasing a new house, preferring more established neighbourhoods and building stock. House-builders must therefore look to offer more attractive designs. Innovative thinking, integration with existing communities and investment in quality are the key elements that will persuade people that they want to live in modern housing.




Introduction to Residential Layout


Book Description

A comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of residential design. Referring to a wealth of international case studies, including the US, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, this resource covers issues such as planning, design, affordability, context, space definition, layout, accessibility, security and landscaping.




The Value Handbook


Book Description




Housing Design Quality


Book Description

This book directly addresses the major planning debate of our time - the delivery and quality of new housing development. As pressure for new housing development in England increases, a widespread desire to improve the design of the resulting residential environments becomes evermore apparent with increasing condemnation of the standard products of the volume housebuilders. In recent years central government has come to accept the need to deliver higher quality living environments, and the important role of the planning system in helping to raise design standards. Housing Design Quality focuses on this role and in particular on how the various policy instruments available to public authorities can be used in a positive manner to deliver higher quality residential developments.




Fair Housing Act Design Manual


Book Description

The Fair Housing Act Design Manual: A Manual to Assist Designers and Builders in Meeting the Accessibility Requirements of The Fair Housing Act provides clear and helpful guidance about ways to design and construct housing which complies with the Fair Housing Act. The manual provides direct information about the accessibility requirements of the Act, which must be incorporated into the design, and construction of multifamily housing covered by the Act. It carries out two statutory responsibilities: (1) to provide clear statement of HUD's interpretation of the accessibility requirements of the Act so that readers may know what actions on their part will provide them with a "safe harbor"; and (2) to provide guidance in the form of recommendations which, although not binding meet the Department's obligation to provide technical assistance on alternative accessibility approaches which will comply with the Act, but may exceed its minimal requirements. The latter information allows housing providers to choose among alternative and also provides persons with disabilities with information on accessible design approaches. The Manual clarifies what are requirements under the Act and what are HUD's technical assistance recommendations. The portions describing the requirements are clearly differentiated from the technical assistance recommendations.




Designing Your Perfect House: Lessons from an Architect


Book Description

A #1 best seller for years, Bill Hirsch's Designing Your Perfect House: Lessons from an Architect has been called an essential read for Homeowners as well as Professionals. Bill's flowing style of writing makes you feel like you are sitting with him having a chat about your project. The philosophy behind design decisions is explained with stories, photos, sketches, and checklists. The book is divided into Twelve Lessons, with an additional Bonus Lesson ," Building Green, Naturally". You will learn how to evaluate your needs and work towards creating a suitable design, perfect for you and your family. The experience of home design and construction should be controllable, gratifying and enjoyable. With the valuable advice that Designing Your Perfect House: Lessons from an Architect provides, it can be.




Ultimate Book of Home Plans


Book Description

Select from 730 of the most popular home plans from the country’s top architects and designers, with full color photos of the actual homes, floor plans, and design ideas. Virtually every home style is offered, including farmhouses, country cottages, contemporaries, luxury estates, vacation retreats, and regional specialties. Once you’ve selected your dream home, you can obtain easily customizable construction blueprints, cost estimates, materials lists, and CAD files.




Housing Design and Society in Amsterdam


Book Description

Winner of the 1999 Spiro Kostof Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. During the early 1900s, Amsterdam developed an international reputation as an urban mecca when invigorating reforms gave rise to new residential neighborhoods encircling the city's dispirited nineteenth-century districts. This new housing, built primarily with government subsidy, not only was affordable but also met rigorous standards of urban planning and architectural design. Nancy Stieber explores the social and political developments that fostered this innovation in public housing. Drawing on government records, professional journals, and polemical writings, Stieber examines how government supported large-scale housing projects, how architects like Berlage redefined their role as architects in service to society, and how the housing occupants were affected by public debates about working-class life, the cultural value of housing, and the role of art in society. Stieber emphasizes the tensions involved in making architectural design a social practice while she demonstrates the success of this collective enterprise in bringing about effective social policy and aesthetic progress.




A House is Not Just a House


Book Description

A House Is Not Just a House argues precisely that. The book traces Tatiana Bilbao's diverse work on housing ranging from large-scale social projects to single-family luxury homes. These projects offer a way of thinking about the limits of housing: where it begins and where it ends. Regardless of type, her work advances an argument on housing that is simultaneously expansive and minimal, inseparable from the broader environment outside of it and predicated on the fundamental requirements of living. Working within the turbulent history of social housing in Mexico, Bilbao argues for participating even when circumstances are less than ideal--and from this participation she is able to propose specific strategies learned in Mexico for producing housing elsewhere. A House Is Not Just a House includes a recent lecture by Bilbao at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, as well as reflections from fellow practitioners and scholars, including Amale Andraos, Gabriela Etchegaray, Hilary Sample, and Ivonne Santoyo-Orozco.




The Housing Design Handbook


Book Description

How well have architects succeeded in building housing and what lessons can be learned from their triumphs and failures? The Housing Design Handbook will give you a complete understanding of what makes successful housing design. Through the analysis of work by Levitt Bernstein and a wide range of other UK practices, it illustrates good design principles and accumulates a wealth of knowledge in a readily accessible format for the first time. Written by a recognised authority in the field, the book provides: a range of cases to illustrate the way that different issues in the design of housing have been approached and with what degree of success a review of the place of housing as the most significant built form in the urban landscape an understanding of the importance of achieving a sense of place as the bedrock of social continuity a discussion of how flexibility might be achieved in order to accommodate future changes in housing need, if wholesale demolition and replacement is to be avoided more recent examples which explore why certain social groupings are more resistant to design innovation than others and why there has been such an architectural breakthrough in market led, higher density urban living. David Levitt examines the ideas behind the schemes and assesses how successful and sustainable those ideas have proved, making this an essential reference for professionals and students practicing and studying the design and commissioning of housing.