Shelter

With over 1000 photographs, Shelter is a classic celebrating the imagination, resourcefulness, and exuberance of human habitat. First published in 1973, it is not only a record of the countercultural builders of the 60s, but also of buildings all over the world. There is a history of shelter and the evolution of building types. Tents, yurts, timber buildings, barns, small homes, domes, etc.

There is a section on building materials, including heavy timber construction and stud framing, as well as stone, straw bale construction, adobe, plaster and bamboo. There are interviews with builders and tips on recycled materials and wrecking.

The spirit of the 60s counterculture is evident throughout the book, and the emphasis is on creating your own shelter (or space) with your own hands. A joyful, inspiring book.

See:

Some Sample Pages From Shelter

Sample Chapter

About Shakes and Shingling

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A piece of environmental drama.”

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Building Design

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An embarrassment of riches…”

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Manas

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A cult classic from the heyday of teach-ins and VWs, this large-format book may have inspired more owner-builders to build crazy structures than any other. Organized like a big scrapbook, it seamlessly blends vernacular building traditions from all over the world with far-out American hippie shelters, including geodesic domes, gypsy wagons, tree houses, windmills, and bizarre ferrocement living sculptures. The great photos and drawings, interviews with builders, historical research, and wacky anecdotes are still just as entertaining 30 years later.”

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The Art of Natural Building

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How very fine it is to leaf through a 176-page book on architecture — from baliwicks to zomes — and find no palaces, no pyramids or temples, no cathedrals, skyscrapers, Kremlins or Pentagons in sight…instead, a book of homes, habitations for human beings in all their infinite variety.”

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Edward Abbey
Natural History Magazine

Edited By Lloyd Kahn

See:

Some Sample Pages From Shelter

Sample Chapter