DETAILING THE NOT SO BIG HOUSE

Previously, ArchitectureWeek explored the popular ideas of architect Sarah Susanka in "Big Ideas Behind Not So Big Houses". In her new book "Creating the Not So Big House," Susanka explains and illustrates spatial design concepts in a way that makes it easy for readers to apply them in their own houses.

Three of these detailing design concepts are discussed in this excerpt, and illustrated with houses from three different regions of the United States.

FASHION MEETS FOOD AT THE BRASSERIE 8-1/2

The debut of the new "Brasserie 8-1/2" in New York was attended with all of the usual hype and star power one might expect of a fashionable midtown Manhattan restaurant. Even before its official opening in mid-July, 8-1/2 was the setting of the chic, after-screening party for the movie "Butterfly," thrown by Gwyneth Paltrow. Can you imagine all of this in the basement of a 1974 Gordon Bunshaft building?

ILLUMINATING FOSTER

The young German artist Thomas Emde, whose medium is light and color, has just added the finishing touches to a Norman Foster building. The Commerzbank in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is said to be the world's first "ecological high-rise." With Emde's light installation, the special characteristics of the building are now as visible at night as they are during the day.

NEW MUSEUM CELEBRATES THE AMERICAN FLEET

New York's new Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum Visitors Center, by the architecture firm Suk Design Group LLP was constructed in a brief nine months. Despite the challenges of building on the waterfront, it was completed this summer just in time to celebrate the Tall Ships 2000 visit to the northeastern seaboard.

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