Sarah’s first Minazine of of 2012 is a special edition titled The Not So Big Showhouse in Libertyville, IL.
This issue features numerous articles about the Not So Big Showhouse®, including a guest article by StreetScape’s own David Pollard titled Redfields and the Beta Housing Model.
Deal Estate: The Blog is the online extension of Chicagomagazine’s monthly “Deal Estate” column, which is written by Dennis Rodkin. On the blog, Rodkin—who has been covering the local housing scene for Chicago since 1991—provides timely updates on new homes to hit the market, recent high-end sales, and other residential real-estate news from the city and suburbs.
Read Dennis Rodkin’s Deal Estate Article
Entering The Home:
Living Area and Kitchen:
Away Room and Downstairs Bath:
Upstairs Bedrooms and Baths:
Sarah Susanka’s Not So Big philosophy and SchoolStreet Homes are mentioned in an article by Jeffrey Steele in Friday’s ‘Chicago Homes’ section of the Tribune.
It makes sense, said Sharon Kreighbaum, author of the new book “Is Your House Overweight? Recipes for Low-Fat Rooms” and owner of Staged Makeovers in Hudson, Ohio. When a house is overweight, it feels uncomfortable and sluggish and weighs on occupants, said the interior designer and home stager.
by Judith Pieprz
December 14, 2011
Approximately 100 years ago a woman named Maria Montessori pioneered a revolution in education. She prescribed several changes to the traditional classroom including mixed age classrooms; large blocks of uninterrupted, self-directed work time; and a model of learning where students work with Montessori-specific materials to directly and practically intuit information rather than simply being told facts.
Another major change that Montessori enacted was in the physical environment of the classroom itself. A Montessori classroom is almost always beautiful and inviting. The physical space is fashioned to support the child’s natural tendency towards curiosity and learning. This is accomplished with beautiful materials that are easily accessed on low, open shelving. Each handcrafted material has a specific purpose that allows the child to direct his or her own learning. The Montessori Trio: Beauty, Order and Accessibility.
Approximately 15 years ago a woman named Sarah Susanka pioneered a revolution in architecture. She prescribed several changes to the current residential home design including smaller size, greater quality, the elimination for the most part of rarely used formal spaces, and the integration of lifestyle realities in the design process. In other words, said Susanka, let’s build homes for the way we really live.
I had the great joy of reading Susanka’s original book, The Not So Big House, when it was first published in 1998 and watching the resulting phenomena that she has become (11 books, website, minizines, community board). Any observer of the New Urbanism movement in urban design or the Green Movement in construction will immediately feel comfortable with Susanka’s suggestions. But I would suggest that The Not So Big Revolution is not just a fad or a theory- just as The Montessori Method was not just a fad or a theory. Rather, Susanka has offered to the world a new way of thinking about architecture just as Maria Montessori taught us a new way to think about education.
When I first stepped into the Not So Big Showcase at Libertyville, Illinois, I had high hopes. After all, as I mentioned, I have been following Susanka’s work for years. I was prepared to be impressed. I was not, however, prepared to be blown away. Just ask Nancy McLinden, who was giving me my tour the day before Thanksgiving and she will concur that my jaw had to be consciously raised a few times from the ‘mouth agape’ position. I actually pirouetted across the bamboo floor once or twice when I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm for the floor plan. What, you may ask, threw me into an epiphany? The answer is that it was a Prepared Environment.
Usually, architecture dictates to us how we organize and use the space around us. For example, an enclosed kitchen dictates to us that this space is for cooking- not for socializing or working or eating. If we were meant to socialize in a kitchen it would have a couch in it. If we were meant to work in a kitchen it would have a desk. And if we were meant to eat in a kitchen it would have a table. The problem is that most of us do all four things in our kitchens: we cook, socialize, work, and eat in them. Accordingly, an enclosed traditional kitchen simply does not meet our needs. The answer: a new bigger kitchen with room to do all of these things. However, the Achilles Heel of this solution is that we can (and have) said the same thing for every room in our house. I do more than just work in my office, so let’s throw a television, couch, and snack table in there too. While we’re at it, a 500 square foot dining room would be great and could double as a ballroom/guest room.
Susanka has suggested something different and much saner. She has suggested taking all of our highly used spaces and merging them into a highly designed and structured place that is beautiful, orderly, and accessible. Her comfortable kitchen is cozy yet spacious and effortlessly opens onto a gracious living area that is nice enough for company but forgiving enough for reality. The dining area is an everyday blend of homework space and coffee corner that can easily be transformed through brilliant lighting and clever placement into a formal holiday meal space. And the in-home office (called The Away Room) is close enough to hear the screams of tickle-tortured children but acoustically separate enough to meet your payroll deadlines. By keeping all of the activities in close proximity, Susanka is designing a way for us to live- or should I say, Susanka is designing a way because of how we do live.
“Wait!” I can hear you say. “I don’t want to live in one big room!” Well, here Susanka has you covered. Here is where we separate the decorators from the designers and where Sarah S. has earned her keep. The Not So Big House not only has separate rooms, it supports separate activities. In Susanka’s home the architecture reinforces the parallel but distinct behaviors of a real family. By creating nooks, the home allows different actions to take place right next to one another without getting in each other’s way. The variation in ceiling height unconsciously beckons us to sit down and get busy or lie back and relax- all while a few feet away the dishes are being done behind a counter high enough to hide that greasy pot from view. The Away Room is a succinct answer to the home office that must be a place of productivity within a larger environment of familial responsibility. In other words, Mom can get her work done while still being aware of what’s up with the kids. The smaller square footage allows us to put money and quality into the rooms we do use- and turn them into everyday showcases of usability, beauty, and flexibility.
Even the staircase was a study in detail and perception. A covered entry step gives way to the vaulted and light-filled stairwell that beckons you to the ‘private’ part of the home. Everything, from the soaring light fixtures in the whimsical shape of snowflakes to the gasp-invoking roof deck, all propels you to not only use the space, but to enjoy it. In Susanka’s creation, Beauty is everywhere and in every detail: a red accent wall welcomes you and holds you long enough for our ADD minds to process and enjoy the beautifully contrasting flower arrangement; the window seat with cushions a little more plush than necessary and accordingly too inviting to ignore; the indoor ‘window’ between the living area and kitchen that not only allows for easy visual and verbal contact, but also makes an ideal and cozy sitting area. Susanka is a master at turning Space into Place.
In the Not So Big House everything and everyone has a place and every place has a function and every function is made beautiful- just see what she’s done with the Laundry Room (now called the Glitter Room), but that’s for another article on “Magic in Everyday Life”. In the Not So Big House, Susanka has created an environment that is not only willing, but is waiting for you to use it, shape it, live it. That’s what it was created for. A Prepared Environment.
Prepared for what? For living.
Judith Pieprz received a Masters Degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Washington focusing on Environmental Psychology (how the brain perceives space). She has done Usability research for Microsoft to help make their products more user friendly and has also co-founded a school based on theories of education and psychology. Pieprz resides in Israel and is the Operations Director for Ayeka.
Our Sarah Susanka designed showhouse on SchoolStreet was recently featured in Realtor Mag! Make sure to check out the article and watch the video tour by Sarah herself.
Sarah Susanka delivers. For more than a decade the architect has been designing “Not So Big Houses” and writing books about them.
Fans have studied the pictures, reread the texts and tried to imagine exactly what she had in mind.
For people in the Chicago suburbs, the wait is over. The first “tract” house designed by Susanka is built, decorated and open for tours.
SchoolStreet and the Not So Big® Showhouse were featured on the front page of the Sunday Real Estate Section of the Chicago Tribune.
For the past 12 years, architect Sarah Susanka has espoused the need for houses that are smaller, yes, but also more practical and eminently more livable.
She’s written books, given presentations and worked privately for homeowners. Now, with the era of the McMansion in the rearview mirror for many, Susanka has partnered with a Chicago-area developer to construct a “not so big” home in Libertyville to show consumers what she has been talking about all these years.
The showcase home, located at the 26-site SchoolStreet Homes development under construction a block east of downtown, is open for weekend tours until May 20…. Read the rest of the article here
Hursthouse Landscape Architects and Contractors create a rooftop garden on top of Sarah Susanka’s Not So Big® Showhouse located in Libertyville, Illinois. Here is the fantastic video they made of the installation!
For more information on the Hursthouse, visit http://hursthouse.com/
Article by: LYNN UNDERWOOD , Star Tribune
Updated: November 19, 2011 – 2:34 PM
Sarah Susanka wanted to show people how they can live comfortably with less space.
So the celebrated architect and author of “The Not So Big House” series of books designed a showhouse in SchoolStreet, a new housing development in Libertyville, Ill., which opened for tours this week. We chatted with Susanka about “better-not-bigger” design, strategic wall color and the house of the future….
Read the Interview:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/homegarden/134121678.html
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