Bookshelf    How to Read Houses: A Crash Course in Domestic Architecture

How to Read Houses: A Crash Course in Domestic Architecture

By Will Jones (Rizzoli, 2014) Buy It Now

Perfectly sized for informal browsing (or stowing in the glove compartment for rambling Sunday drives), this compact guide offers the curious a wealth of readily identifiable clues to a house’s history. British-born architectural journalist Jones details the characteristic silhouettes, building materials, and stylistic elements typical of various eras, from Tudor to postwar prefab. Multiple gables on a steeply pitched roof ? Victorian! Floating staircase? Modernist! While other volumes in this popular series focus on identifying the significant features of churches, bridges, and other public structures, Jones maintains that “houses tell the human story of architecture better than any other type of building.”