Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

An important book about innovative approaches to housing that are not quite new but have become more relevant and urgent today because of the great number of new household types. The dramatic increase in single-person and single-parent households and the ever greater number of working mothers have created just the critical mass necessary to stimulate innovative thinking and design. This is the story that Franck (New Jersey Institute of Technology) and Ahrentzen (University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee) have written and assembled here, from "Apartments and Collective Life in 19th Century New York," by Elizabeth Crowley, to the story of the New American House Competition, by Jacqueline Leavitt (the competition winner), and "SRO Hotels," by Franck. The resolution of the apparent contradiction of allowing privacy on one hand yet diminishing isolation on the other is at the heart of the development of housing design. The early European examples of collective habitations, the communal housing in Sweden, and the marvelous cohousing designs in Denmark are admirable and instructive achievements. Throughout, the authors also describe/contrast/illustrate US achievements that are ingenious and compassionate. This rich volume, well illustrated with photographs and numerous drawings, is an important publication for the housing field. -B. Jacob, University of Minnesota