Newly built or remodeled, a house is not a home until you've built in character to make it eminently more livable.

In her continued efforts to help you get your house in that kind of order, architect and interior designer Sarah Susanka recently released a new hard-bound treatise on space, light and order, Home By Design (Taunton Press, $35). It's her fifth in a series of "Not So Big" (NotSoBig.Com) books written to help hone your thinking inside the box called home.

During a telephone interview from her Raleigh, N.C., home, Susanka said her newest book is actually the prequel to the other four. The others were written in advance to attract an audience by explaining the need for information about how the home environment can shape experiences.

"This book is basically the stuff I wanted to write about first. This is really how architects think. But my publisher told me to develop an audience first by getting them to understand what design does for them," she said.

She went beyond developing an audience, prompted many to trade in the bigger-is-better approach for a livability-is-larger mantra and reached guru status with a movement that revolutionized the way people think about where they live.

The true feeling of home, Susanka says, is not about the emotional lust for ever-more-expansive space, but the need to tailor a house to fit the human form and the need to scale a house in proportions that serve real human functions. Your house truly should be your home, not a box stamped from a cookie-cutter assembly line.

Susanka says her followers are comprised largely of a growing group of so-called "Cultural Creatives" or CCs as defined by sociologist Paul H. Ray, executive vice president of American LIVES Inc. (for Lifestyles Interests Values Expectations and Symbols). His work focuses on the research and analysis of values and lifestyles as a cultural phenomenon.

Among their worldly traits, CCs have values steeped in sustainability and neighborhood rebuilding, and they live for innovation, authenticity and experimentation.

They tend to buy fewer homes, and instead stay put longer, buying resale homes to tailor them to fit, rather than buying "off-the-shelf" new homes. They believe most new homes are designed for the masses, not individuals. Their homes display personal good taste and a flair for creativity, says Ray.

Now, thanks to Susanka's newest book, they can design their home with the insight of an architect on a mission.

"This new book is the basics for architects, but for most people it's brand new stuff. This book is about how architects think and how they make your surroundings engage you," she said.

Brilliantly illustrated with the photography of Grey Crawford, the book is designed to turn on those overhead lightbulbs and help homeowners better communicate their bright ideas to builders, contractors, architects and designers.

Susanka has culled 150 examples of household character-building from 28 homes—from Connecticut to California—which already have been designed with thoughtful attention to details.

The examples reveal 30 key concepts, which are organized in three general sections.

Space

"Most people think about space in terms of square footage and volume. But this is about the shaping of space, much like a potter shapes space inside a pot. It's tailoring space," she said.

Light

Light, says Susanka, brings the space to life. Without it, there is only darkness—in all senses of the word. "Light is the great animator. Walls and ceilings and surfaces create the space, but with no light you might as well not have anything there. Light helps you understand the space and how to engage in it. Light makes you want to do certain things. It talks about how you can use the walls, ceilings and surfaces," she said.

Order

Order is not where to put all the "stuff"; rather, it's an arrangement of forms, spaces and surfaces to assist in the flow of activity or in the perception of a given space. Order is defined here as more of a visual abatement of chaos to allow space to emit a sense of well-being.

"It's a level of thought process that most people aren't aware of. It's a real revelation in the sense of order and flow," says Susanka, ever the guru.

To read sociologist Paul H. Ray's thesis on Cultural Creatives, go to http://www.noetic.org/publications/review/issue37/r37_Ray.html. His website is www.americanlives.com.

Real estate writer Broderick Perkins, executive editor of San Jose-based DeadlineNews.Com, writes regularly for
Los Gatos Weekly-Times.