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 has unveiled a new treatise on space, light and order, Home By Design (Taunton Press, $35).

It's her fifth in a series of Not So Big books written to help hone thinking inside the box called home.

During an interview, Susanka described her newest book as 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 I was told to develop an audience first by getting them to understand what design does for them," she said.

Going beyond developing an audience, Susanka reached guru status and created a movement that revolutionized the way people think about where they live while prompting others to trade in the bigger-is-better approach for a livability-is-larger mantra.

The true feeling of home, she 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 -- inside and out -- from a cookie cutter assembly line.

Susanka's 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.

CCs, in part, have values steeped in sustainability and neighborhood rebuilding and they live lives that quest for innovation, authenticity and experimentation, among their many worldly traits.

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 tailor 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 largely with the photography of Grey Crawford, the book is designed to turn on those over head light-bulbs and help readers 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 an arrangement of forms, spaces and surfaces to assist in the flow of activity or in the perception of in a given space. It's a more 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. It's a real revelation in the sense of order and flow," says Susanka, ever the guru.

Published: April 27, 2004

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the Web site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for "Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home" (Nolo $24.99) and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.