Modern Shoestring: Contemporary Architecture on a Budget

by Susanna Sirefman

Residential design provides a rich testing ground for architectural innovation. Intimate scales and specific programs inspire distinctive homes, and comparatively small budgets are catalysts for exploring nontraditional materials. Modern Shoestring proves that building a contemporary house can be affordable and shows how constraints actually stimulate the most creative design solutions. Eighteen residential projects are presented, with emphasis on the goals of the owners, the site, and the cost in the design process. Collections determine floor plans, observatories are built for starry rural nights, and found and industrial materials such as highway construction remnants, laboratory counters, plastic water bottles, and discarded chalkboards keep costs low while imbuing structures with character. These ingenious designs range in cost from $50 to $220 per square foot and represent geographical settings from Los Angeles to Anchorage to East Hampton.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2008

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I think of shoestring, I think someone who is on a bare bones budget. This book puts shoestring in quotes. The cheapest per sq ft cost in the book is $51, which is dirt cheap. The most expensive is a $1 million building ($200/sq ft x 5000 sq ft) that sits on a 16 acre farm. And then it ranges. Some are fairly cheap, and others are average. Shoestring, they are not.

Take the "Big Dig" house that used reclaimed beams and materials from Boston's Big Dig. It cost $760,000 ($200/ sq ft that is 3800 sq ft.) to build and must've required some hefty connections to access and transport those reclaimed materials that most ordinary people, (never mind those on a shoestring budget) just wouldn't have. Usually half the value of a property is the house. So, the Big Dig house is most likely a $1.5m property. Like more than half of the houses in the book, it falls into an affordable range for those in a very small percentage of the population.

Even if we ignore the shoestring aspect, the living spaces in these are uninspired boxes. There's a lot of blonde wood and glass, open staircases and high ceilings. They are the caricature of modern. And try to heat that "shoestring" box with three walls of glass and a 20 foot ceiling. You're going to be as cold as your furnishings and on a shoestring budget to buy more hoodies to stay warm.

Not for me.

[David Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would really benefit from more photos.

[Emily Mellow · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK so I only looked at the pictures. But Nik read some of the descriptions. The houses get a little wacky, but it got us inspired to start planning our dream house again. Nik pulled out the graph paper yesterday. Now we just need some easy money. And some land. And some know-how.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed seeing more pics of the Big Dig house and the house we saw on Architecture School. Not too much text, good basic idea book, not too much help for DIY'ers.