Recommended Reading

Books

Looking Around by Witold Rybczynski, published by Penguin Books

Home: A Short History of An Idea by Witold Rybczynski

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, published by Oxford University Press

Green Building Guidelines: Meeting the Demand for Low-Energy, Resource-Efficient Homes, published by The Sustainable Buildings Energy Council and the US Department of Energy

How Buildings Learn: what happens after they are built by Stewart Brand, published by Viking

American Homes: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Domestic Architecture by Lester Walker, published Black Dog and Leventhal

Built by Hand: Vernacular Buildings Around the World by Bill Steen, published by Gibbs Smith

Web sites

Energy Star: an efficiency-rating system sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency that labels products meeting its standards. www.energystar.gov.

Forest Stewardship Council: provides third-party certification of wood products that have been harvested and produced in an eco-sensitive manner. www.fscus.org.

American Solar Energy Society: a national organization dedicated to advancing the use of solar energy for the benefit of US citizens and the global environment. www.ases.org.

Green Seal: a nonprofit organization that provides standards based on performance and environmental impact and certifies the products and services that meet those standards. www.greenseal.org.