Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age by Brent Hull
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this because my wife and I are about to buy our third house and I wanted wisdom. Our second house, it turns out, was very well made in 1948. We already miss it and we haven’t yet left it. I wanted to know what made me like this house. Hull helped. He told me about a classical tradition of home construction that, he says, has been nearly lost in America. He told me to build a house (if I ever get to do such a thing) to tell a story about my family and my beliefs. He told me to build a timeless house by going back in time for wisdom.
Some better editing would have helped, and not just the typos. But Hull loses a star mainly because I felt he didn’t really connect theory and praxis as much as I hoped he would, and because I felt he had so little to say to someone who will be for the foreseeable future in that segment of the middle class which is unlikely to build new homes. I may not be able to buy a house meeting his criteria. But I’m glad I’ve got them in mind.
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