Hall of fame / Sarah Susanka: a Minneapolis architect wrote a book about houses—and made every residential architect's job a little easier - 2003 leadership awards - Biography

Residential Architect, June, 2003 by S. Claire Conroy

Others claim Susanka was not the first to argue for better-designed houses or to explain the importance of intimate, human-scaled spaces within the home. And she would agree: "I've always described myself as a child brought up on Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language. It's a fundamental text--something we can grow from. It's a great beginning. But it would give wings to the profession if we weren't afraid to be derivative."

Her fans concur. A quote from a reader review on Amazon.com: "These are by far the best books I have seen on this topic ... Susanka is a genius, and like any good genius, she is merely stating the obvious."

Perhaps. But there's nothing "mere" about it. "The first book verbalized even more than I understood," says Susanka. "I had the sense when we were done with the process that it was going to be a big deal." And it was, because the book elucidated not just the aesthetic and functional benefits of a properly designed house, but also the emotional gratification that comes with it.

For many of her readers, grasping that connection had the power of revelation. (Just wait until they read her forthcoming book, House Therapy.) For architects, it ups the ante on what it means to design someone's house. It's not simply an aesthetic and programmatic exercise. "What most people are afraid of is that the architect will force something down their throat," she says. "But you have to understand that you are their servant. You have to enter into it with humility. The only thing you're doing is making a wonderful place for people to live."

Thanks to Sarah Susanka, a half-million more people understand that's no small accomplishment.