Handmade Houses

Reviews / Votes

"Handmade Houses: A Century of Earth Friendly Home Design (Rizzoli; $45), by Richard Olsen, a former editor at Architectural Digest, is a breezy history of the genre, tracing its roots from Henry Thoreau to Carl Jung, and from Helen and Scott Nearing, whose mid-century subsistence living experiment in Vermont and Maine prefigured the '70s-era back-to-the-landers, to Lloyd Kahn, once the shelter editor of The Whole Earth Catalog, and the dean of the hand-built movement." ~New York Times

"What Richard Olsen has assembled is an attractive and engaging book, suitable for coffee table, bookshelf, or drawing board. Through interviews, research, and the collaboration of his photographers Lucy Goodhart and Kodiak Greenwood, he has created a beautifully tactile storybook about a passion to build." ~New York Journal of Books

"This tale is a lot more than hippies and hot tubs, however. Olsen provides a thorough history of the owner-built, woodbutcher movement from places like Big Sur, California, and Prickly Mountain, Vermont. And he addresses the sources of handcraft construction: Buddhist architecture of Japan, Norwegians cabins, Sea Ranch in California, Gaudi, Maybeck, and Jung, to name a few). Works from Europe and Australia provide an international context." ~Architectural Record

"If you are like me, interested in environmentally friendly design and unique style in the home, you will appreciate this book." ~Mid-Century-Modern.net