How to build your own living structures

by Ken Isaacs

This classic is about Isaacs’ Matrix Idea of building sustainable, eco-friendly, modular, flexible, multi-functional living structures which reconfigure the entire volume of a room, being bigger than furniture and smaller than architecture. The book explains how to make a variety of flexible experimental indoor interiors, storage units, and a flexible microhouse.

Genres: Architecture, Design

136 pages, Spiral-bound

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Onda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book with some inspirational thinking and tinkering. This one got me really thinking about how to utilize space properly and as such, was the first in line of many books of which I'd recommend Nomadic Furniture and Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts: And Whatever the Heck Else We Could Squeeze in Here.

You can probably find this free from the web (legally).

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

The text: wonderfully utopian and badly in need of an editor: classic 1970s hippie. The modular furniture/living structures Isaacs built and presents detailed schematics for in this book are genius. This is DIY modern in its earliest and most accessible iteration. It reminds me that every generation thinks it has invented the wheel - artists and designers keep coming up with similar concepts in lofts and modular furniture and calling them revolutionary, 30-40 years later.