Sarah Susanka is a registered architect, a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects and is a certified interior designer.
I discovered Sarah through her first book The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (Susanka).
This book and her ‘not so big’ design theories began as a personal search for meaning and led to the writing and publication of her first book in 1998. It focuses on quality versus quantity when designing and building or remodeling a home. It helps provide a blueprint and the language needed to build a home that “emphasis comfort, beauty, and a high level of detail.”
Her personal evolution and series of books written around her ‘not so big’ philosophy’ has led to her to be described as a “cultural visionary“.
The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really Matters
Each chapter is written around a single design or architectural theory. She gives a brief description of how the theory is used in design and than expands on each topic detailing how it can be applied in your personal life. Each chapter is enhanced with stories from her own life. We follow along as her personal journey unfolds and she explores and applies these theories in her own life. She goes further by inviting the reader to explore these concepts by providing exercises at the end of each chapter and with ‘your turn’ boxes that ask questions to help you define these theories for yourself.
This book is part design, part memoir, part self-help.
It is one of my favorite books, but it is not one you can absorb in one sitting or even one reading. There is a lot packed into this small book. It is truly a physical manifestation of Sarah Susanka’s ‘not so big theory’.
Book layout
Principle: Composition
Chapter 1 Title: Blueprint for a New Way of Living
Exercise: Preparing Your Not So Big Life Notebook
Principle: The Process of Entering
Chapter 2 Title: Noticing What Inspires You
Exercise: Identifying the Significant Moments in Your Life
Principle: Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better
Chapter 3 Title: Identifying What Isn’t Working
Exercise: Understanding Your Relationship to Time
Principle: Openability
Chapter 4 Title: Removing the Clutter
Exercise: Revealing the Underpinnings of Your Personality
Principle: Interior Views
Chapter 5 Title: Listening to Your Dreams
Exercise: Exploring Your Dreamworld
Principle: Reflecting Surfaces
Chapter 6 Title: Learning to See Through The Obstacles
Exercise: Developing a Watcher
Principle: Light to Walk Toward
Chapter 7 Title: Improving the Quality of What You Have
Exercise: Experiencing presence
Principle: Point of Focus
Chapter 8 Title: Creating a Place and a Time of Your Own
Exercise: Making a Time and a Place for Solitude
Principle: Layering
Chapter 9 Title: Proceeding Through the Construction Process
Exercise: “I am not a thought”
Principle: Pattern and Geometry
Chapter 10 Title: Moving Into Your Not So Big Life
Exercise: Changing your Behavior
Principle: Alignments
Chapter 11 Title: Maintaining Your Newly Remodeled Life
Exercise: Year-end Ritual
Principle: Inside Outside
Chapter 12 Title: Being at Home in Your Life
Note: The only drawback to the paperback version is the font is very small.
