Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Read this book in one sitting. Mr. Hirsch makes many excellent points about house design, especially the feel and flow of a house, symmetry and asymmetry, capturing light, repeating certain motifs, etc. etc. If this is the only book you read prior to designing or remodelling a house, you will be ahead of the game. However, I do think many of the same points are made more effectively, with more extensive illustrations, and in a better organized fashion in two other books: Patterns of Home (Jacobson et al.) and Home by Design (Sarah Susanka). To supplement learning about design principles, a great book to walk you through through nitty gritty details of functionality so that you avoid annoying mistakes like poor placement of light switches, inconvenient door locations, awkward placement of appliances and so forth, try Better House, Better Living, by Myron Ferguson.