Builders of the Pacific Coast Book

So Lloyd Kahn travels around the pacific coast, mostly from northern CA to BC, and photographs structures, interviews builders, and creates a portfolio of sorts of each builder. Most of the profiles include a little interview, some perspective, insight on technique/materials/training, and at least several structures the person designed/built. This book is totally eye candy, especially if you have ever been to the Pacific Northwest and admired the scenery. If you appreciate the forests and water of this region, then this book is like porn.

When I started to read this book, I knew that I would never be able to live in any of these structures, limited either by taste, geography, or economics. It's still worth reading, however, because the work is so inspirational and extraordinary. It makes you reconsider the basic box that makes most of our homes. There are infinite numbers of creative ways use, reuse, repurpose and reinvision the materials; everything is clay, wood, stone, and metal. There is a section for the indigenous builders of the Pacific Coast, and several of the white builders refer to these traditions. Even if a lot of the dwellings are way too hippie-ish for me to live in, there are a lot of lessons here about how buildings relate to people and space. In a time when more people are thinking "green" and "sustainable," this book is even more fascinating. "Sustainable" is not a slick, well-marketed, over-packaged solution you can buy at a local big box store and get delivered - it is noticing and respecting the woodgrain, the type of stone, and the stories of the place. There is so much room for quiet reflection in this book, it took much longer to read it than I expected from a large format, photo-heavy "coffee table" book.