Azby Brown

This is an amazing book that manages to combine two at first disparate things - a popular history survey of Edo (now known as Tokyo) two hundred years ago, and a guide to the principles of sustainable living. Brown has done a brilliant job of bringing to life three sections of Japanese society - farmers, merchants and samurai - with interesting prose, a depth of historical detail, and illustrations and diagrams, many so detailed you could almost use them to build your own buildings or plant show more up a forest! After each of these sections, Brown uses the lessons from the past and explains how features from then are applicable to a sustainable community now.
If you like reading about sustainability issues (especially relating to communities) this is the book for you. If you are interested in learning about a fascinating period of Japanese history and culture, presented in an interesting manner, this is the book for you. If, like me, you are fascinated with both, make sure you get your hands on a copy of this book so you can savor it and be inspired! show less

This book is packed full of space-saving ideas in very livable houses (as opposed to Bahamon's "Mini House", which was more about the architecture and didn't include many houses that I could see living in). Some of the designs were created to fit very odd lot sizes and constraints, and I was impressed by how each house took those constraints and turned them into features of the dwellings.

As someone who is considering purchasing a Very Small Home, I found this book to be a fascinating and inspiring catalogue of ideas. From in-floor storage, to built-in units and unique use of levels, this book really got my wheels turning. Visually stunning and definitely worth the money.

creative basics

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