Bungalow The ultimate arts & crafts home

Powell (Bungalow Kitchens) here provides an overview of the popular bungalow home style in the early 20th century. Using photographs of homes located throughout the United States and Canada, she describes how the style became suited to the lifestyles of the time when people were moving to the suburbs to enjoy the clean air and healthy living. Bungalows are depicted in Prairie and Shingle styles as well as the more ornate Queen Anne and Spanish Mission styles. Although it features a breezy writing style, this is a serious study that concludes with a plea for the preservation and appreciation of the craftsmanship and care that went into building these homes. In their compact book, Makinson (Greene & Greene: Architecture as a Fine Art) and Heinz give an overview of the work of Charles and Henry Greene and examine the elements of the houses that put the brothers at the center of the California Arts & Crafts movement, discussing in detail their use of wood, stone, and decorative arts. Both books are recommended for public and academic collections where there is an interest. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

For anyone with an interest in bungalows or the Arts and Crafts movement, this one's essential. Powell has previously paired with photographer Linda Svendsen to produce Bungalow Kitchens, Bungalow Bathrooms, Bungalow Details: Exterior, and Bungalow Details: Interior, so there's little about this style that she doesn't know. The text is engaging, combining a lighthearted style with solid facts about these very American structures. You'll find that bungalows are only one story high, have their origins in India, and first sprung up in their Western incarnation on the English seaside. There's also much here about the actual Arts and Crafts movement, and why people like to live in bungalows today. Bungalow fans, though, will be most impressed by the vibrant pictures--pages and pages of them. This is a coffee-table book through and through, making its mission as much about eye candy as practicality. There is Morris wallpaper, Douglas fir woodwork, and countless Kelmscott manor reproductions. There are endless variations on pillars and gables, timber and shingles, all across the nation and in Canada as well. As a bonus, we get particularly amusing photos of Victorian-style parlors, buried under masses of pillows and acres of fringe, a representation of the style against which the Arts and Crafts movement was reacting. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Architecture isn't simple. Any given house represents the convergence of plan or type (how the house is arranged-types include four-square, I-house, shotgun, hall-and-parlor, etc.), time period (for instance, Victorian is a time period, not a type of house), and decorative style (the shape of the box and the stuff that's on it and in it-a house of the Victorian time period might be Italianate, Second Empire, or Queen Anne in style). Complicated enough for most things. But bungalows add a fourth dimension and that is philosophy. Although bungalows have an informal plan, are of a certain time period, and come in different styles (Craftsman, California, Japanesque, Swiss Chalet, Prairie, Rustic, and so forth), they are also based on a philosophy that is the foundation for how they were built and furnished, how people expected to live in them, and how the residents related to the larger society. Excerpted from Bungalow: The Ultimate Arts and Crafts Home by Jane Powell All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.