The Handmade House is Geraldine Bedell’s story of her experience with her husband in building a house for their family. Rather than buying a house ready to move in, they decided to buy a piece of land and hired a team of architects to help them create their ideal home from scratch.
The book tells of how the house began to take shape from nothing. The dialogues between Geraldine, her husband and the architects reflecting on their hopes of ideal family living are intertwined with glimpses of architectural theories that reflect the way this couple and the architect approach the design process of the house. Of course, as happens in the design and building of every house, the process was not free of financial troubles. They also had to face the reality of technical matters and problems on the field before and during the construction stage of the house.
Their efforts finally led to Geraldine’s satisfaction of having a new house for her family, which offered a new way of living – more de-cluttered, satisfying and rewarding. And what was more, the house eventually won an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects as the house of the year.
The book is informative and entertaining. It is worth reading by anybody who ever thought of building their own house from scratch. It gives some ideas of what the process might be like and what troubles may come up. This book may also become a gentle reminder on client-architect relationships during the process of designing and building a private home. The story touches on the human aspects of this relationship such as the hidden feelings, worries, desires and joys of the clients that many architects may not be aware of when taking on the task.
About the book:
The Handmade House: A Love Story Set in Concrete
by Geraldine Bedell