Product Description

Small Spaces is about living comfortably and using space wisely, and where better to find ideas on that subject than Japan, one of the world's most urban and densely populated countries? Tokyo resident Azby Brown, a distinguished architect and designer, has assembled dozens of creative solutions to space and storage problems, illustrating them with photographs and plans of actual living environments in contemporary homes. The key to his approach is what might be called "The Three Cs "-compact, comfortable, and convenient. Use of space is reconsidered, with easy living always the uppermost goal. A living room is opened up by creating level changes or "joining it with the exterior." A staircase can double as a chest of drawers, a space beneath the floor can serve as a kitchen pantry or hiding place for a disappearing bed: an adjustable table can serve different purposes at different heights. From top to bottom, in bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and hall, Azby Brown presents solutions to the problems of inner space, illustrated with dozens of full-color photographs, drawings, and architectural plans. Small Spaces will be a lifesaver for all those with growing families, shrinking resources, and limited room to grow-or indeed anyone who wants to transform a disorganized, cluttered environment into an orderly, attractive living area.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256611 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

House & Garden ,July 1993
"A major bane of any householder's life is what to do with seemingly uninhabitable domestic spaces. A bane no longer. This book has some dazzling answers: most simple and colourful, all imaginative and practical. Invaluable."

Stewart Brand
"This book is an elegant jewel-box of ingenious design ideas for close-packing the elements of comfortable, even luxurious, living."

--Fine Homebuilding
"... presents an attitude toward designing space that inspires creative solutions.... to bring order and tranquility back into our lives."

Customer Reviews

Good ideas, but needs updating.
This is an excellent book with some unique ideas. The sections on how to zone open plan living spaces and clever ideas to locate storage are useful to everyone, no matter the size of your home. Some of the ideas, especially in the kitchen section, are now making there way in to mainstream kitchen design so are not as revolutionary as they would have been when the book was written.

My main criticism of the book, and the reason it gets four starts, is it desperately needs updating. Although the ideas are just as relevant today the photographs of dingy 80's interiors and references to storing 'walkmans' and 'cassette tapes' make the book feel dated.

Azby's other book 'The very small home' looks at interiors more than actual storage ideas but is much more up to date and features the kind of interiors we would expect in a modern book and makes an excellent companion to this one.

Modern Japanese design solutions
This book highlights solutions for making better use of living space, drawing on modern design and classical Japanese interior design. Highlights include some interesting storage solutions, ideas about low-level living and some great examples of apartments and houses which have interesting design features.

A refreshing and idea-provoking look at how we live.