John Connell (2) (1951–)

In the introduction, the author calls this "Your First How-To Book". The book provides very basic information on how to design and build a house. Connell covers how to evaluate your site, how to develop your program, and introduces you to pouring foundations, framing, temperature and moisture control, roof design, door and window design and placement, thermal comfort, energy for power and heating, and plumbing and drainage.

Obviously, in only a bit over 400 pages (including appendices) the book only provides a rudimentary introduction to those topics. However, the author made that decision intentionally. This book does not aim to teach you how to build a house. There are many existing books to do this (Homing Instinct includes a bibliography). Instead, the author wants to accomplish two things. First, set up a framework on which design/builders can hang additional knowledge. Second, show how every aspect of the design/build process influences every other. The site influences the framing system influences the plumbing influences the power sources influences the site and round and around again.

The book succeeds. I do not know how to pour a foundation, but I now know the general features of a well designed foundation and how it influences my home's ability to stay upright. I do not know how to build a frame, but I understand the basic constraints that traditional stick framing puts on structure.

Even though we are not building our house with our own hands, this book was worthwhile. It provided me with a better understanding as I go into the design process, and it provided me with the beginnings of a vocabulary for talking with my builder. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who hopes to be at all involved with designing and building their own home someday.… (mais)

I am a big fan of Connell's Homing Instinct: Using Your Lifestyle to Design & Build Your Home, so I was quite excited when I discovered that he had written a second book, Creating the Inspired House.

In comparison to Connell's first book, this book was a disappointment. Where Homing Instinct really got down to nitty gritty details, Creating the Inspired House is just another addition to the genre of books which feature a number of houses and describe them. That said, this book was a stellar example of that genre.

The most important factor in judging a book from this genre is whether or not the book contains houses you like. This book contained homes of many styles, including several modern homes. Since our house is going to be modern in styling, I appreciated the presence of those examples.

The other factor which made this book enjoyable was Connell's choice to talk about the people who created the house, the owners and builders. Often these books talk about homes without including the personal stories which went into creating those homes. The personal details made the book more interesting.

Overall, a good read.… (mais)