TINY HOUSES or How to Get Away From It All

by Lester Walker

Tiny Houses is an invitation to dream and, perhaps, to build any one of the 43 charming tiny houses. Both playful tribute and handy how-to, this is a wonderfully illustrated volume that features hundreds of photographs and detailed scale drawings. Whether you're a student of philosophy aspiring to build a replica of Thoreau's cabin, an ice fisherman in need of four walls to fend off winter winds, or just a dreamer with a vision of a humble cottage on a quite seashore, Tiny Houses is a precious resource for ideas, instruction, and inspiration.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Design

Hardcover

First published May 1, 1987

About the author

Lester Walker is an award-winning architect and author of numerous books related to houses and architecture, including Little House of My Own, Housebuilding for Children and Block Building for Children. He lives in Woodstock, New York, where his architectural firm is based.

Reviews

[Behoove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh three-star books. You hardly ever get reviews from me. Not good enough for me to sing your praises and not terrible enough for me to vent my disgust. I would have liked more photos of the inside the of the featured tiny houses.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I passed away a delightful afternoon studying the architectural drawings in this book. Some of my favorites: Tent House, which is made mostly of nylon, but which can be folded up into a tight locked structure when you are away from it. George Bernard Shaw's Writing Hut which could be rotated to follow the sun. 1950's Ranch House which is a tiny version of the house we all know. Also the Dune Shack which at the time of publication could still be found in the dunes of Cape Cod.

This is great inspirational reading for anyone who dreams of having a small space of her own. It also highlights great innovations in small space technology. I'm sure I will turn to this again and again.

[Michael Head · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed just looking at this book, I think I've thumbed through it 7 times just letting my imagination run rampant. I did however finnally read it and enjoyed all the history and guidelines. Truly made me feel as if I could build one of these if I had a notion to.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. It has plans for building these tiny houses. Some are quite inventive.

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book showing the history of tiny houses as well as some rough plans for building them.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok book, but many of the photographs are the same ones that keep popping up in all the other books. All in all, not a whole lot of new information here.

[Colin Baumgartner]

Lots of rich information and some neat ideas for planning the layout of a small space.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published back in 1987, this is one of the original tiny house books. It covers historical tiny homes, including such esoteric items like the San Francisco earthquake refugee shacks, chattel houses, revival camp dwellings and much more. On the more modern side, it covers trailers, shed, motels and some fairly strange designs of the kind that showed up in Popular Mechanics before they dropped most of their serious DIY. The book includes scads of black and white photos and well executed line drawings. While not intended as a full blown DIY book on the subject, handypersons could build many of these from the information given.

[Aaron Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great design ideas and history for tiny shelters

[Martin Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book for Dad years ago (1987), and after he passed away I put on my bookshelf as a memento. The other day I sat down to read it. There is another "Tiny" in the title: "Tiny Tiny Houses: or How to Get Away From it All". A wonderful history book of small houses, which covers: Thoreau's, a history of camp meeting dwellings which sprung up from tents, portable and prefab houses. The cherry on top is a 1929 essay by Chic Sale, a portion of which I first read in English class (MTSU). What a joy! A carpenter "specialist" ... in privys (outhouses). He explains why the better ones are...better. Why a leanto roof (as opposed to a pitched roof), why two opposing colors (daytime red to match barn, trimmed in white to find in the dark), door swinging in (an obvious choice, but he explains why), a 4x4 pole anchored at least 5' in the ground to deter pranksters, how a January catalog can last until the next issue is released. And changing the (sitting) holes for a football coach so his players don't avoid practicing by sitting too long in the lew. Plus very clever advice on why the outhouse should be placed past the wood pile. Would love to see a revised new edition of such a book

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Tiny houses before they were cool" as my dad likes to call this book.

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schematic drawings and renderings.