Shelter: 40th Anniversary Edition (The Shelter Library of Building Books)

How great is this book? Great enough that I've had to replace it several times because it's been borrowed and never returned. Great enough that I now keep my own house copy, and keep a second copy on hand for selective lending. If you have even a passing interest in the history and present of how humans have sheltered themselves, I don't know if there's a better resource

The first copy I saw was the gi-normous newsprint copy on the cable table next to the bong and Whole Earth Catalog. But this volume is much more than a coffee table book for hippies. Somehow I managed to absorb a few of the lessons from it that have proven invaluable in real life. I just had to get a copy of the reprinted book to go with the old newsprint copy of the WEC I found at a yard sale. I showed the copy to Eustace Conway at a recent seminar where he said, "Oh, yeah this book is really useful and inspirational, I'll have to go back and read more of it." (like most people, he had mostly looked at the pictures and diagrams which can take a long time, without a thorough reading of the brilliant supporting text content). Being "hip" to architectural symbiosis is anything but trite. This book should be required reading.

Wow. Just wow. This is exactly what I needed. I am totally inspired by the idea of buying a piece of land and building myself a home "shelter" with what I can collect locally . This book shows shelters from all over the world for different climates with different techniques it does detail many of the method enough for you to try build but its more of a " look , this is how people built it when they needed shelter and they lived in it for a lifetime." it's not a typical house with permits style, it's a "lets build an awsome forest dwelling,cottage,cabin, longhouse, mud house style." If you have the will there is a way!

Throughout the 1960s and `70s, hundreds of unwashed, longhaired youth from around the world descended on the open foothills around Placitas, New Mexico, and established multiple communal hippie settlements. These youth had read of the Placitas scene in national magazines and counterculture books, or heard about it from other hippies; they were idealistic types from all around the world, and they came to the area to try to raise their own food, escape The Man, indulge in free love and mind-altering drugs, and live communally in tents, geodesic domes, adobe shacks, and experimental homes they built themselves out of plastic and scrap metal. This book, "Shelter" documents their bizarre housing experiments in wild detail. It also documents curvaceous mud homes in Africa, riverside huts in Yugoslavia, thatched huts in Ireland, homes in busses, homes in caves, dome homes, homes made of car parts, homes carved into mountainsides, homes made of hay, tipis, barns, gypsy tents, and more. If there's a strange kind of housing, you'll probably find it in here, and you'll probably be inspired by it. "Building this house was more of like feeling where you went as you started working with it, you know, the material and just playing it from there," said one Placitas hippie interviewed in this book. "...It's like three dimensional sculpturing, you know, we just got into building a house out here that's like jewelry. ...OK, let me put it this way, the inspiration like as we move along through it, like I found it in [Stanley Kubrick's film] 2001, where the dude had finally split out of the satellite and was heading towards Jupiter, just as he was coming in, what they had done was they had used different types of film, infrared for one, and just taken a plane and flown over Grand Canyon at a high speed, low, what is created you know, is in some respects synonymous to what the house is, you know, and certainly our cell structure in our body is synonymous with that...." As you can probably tell, this is not "Better Homes and Gardens" or even "MTV Cribs." It's "Shelter," and it's a trip.

When I was just out of college I knew that owning is better than renting, and began scheming as to how I would accomplish that while working low-paying, high satisfaction jobs. I am not a hippie, but a how-to, DIY person. "Shelter" really fueled both the notion of what was possible and that things were even possible. Having grown up in a middle class environment, I could only think of stock homes. I like stock homes, but I also know that a lot of the materials that go into them means for a huge price tag. While I would never live in a dome or a yurt, I did see plenty of ideas here and there that were more interesting than my cookie-cutter childhood home. The second theme that "Shelter" delivers on is that of being able to do it myself. I was especially struck about the idea of buying a home on the cheap, improving it and flipping it. If you get George Nash's "Renovating Old Houses" he gets into the more nitty gritty of restoration. But, if you see some of these houses you know that, at the bottom as far as desirability goes, your house might still be better than renting (hey, it's yours). The diversity explored in this book included materials I am comfortable with. Stone and recycled timber are two areas I have always wanted to explore, while the piece on demolition makes me want to buy a house and rebuild it elsewhere. Today, I have a basic house that I did a lot of work on and will probably die in. It has flaws, but it is mine. I lost my old copy, and getting this reprint felt really great as I sit down after putting a new metal roof on my barn. Armchair renovator, dreamer, real doer, or just like big books "Shelter" is great.

This is a fun, informative and slightly disorganized look at shelter. It was published in the same time period as the "Whole Earth Catalog" and has the same look and feel. The book was designed for someone who was returning to the land or wanted to create a more self reliant life style. I originally purchased this for a particular teaching project but will keep it for my own personal enjoyment. Much of the information can still be used and obviously some is dated but can be a good starting point of research. For me it is a wonderful little time capsule that I love to thumb through and read.

Really disappointed that this nice large softcover book came banged up and dogeared, as it was carelessly thrown into an Amazon plastic delivery bag Instead of being secured in some sort of protective cardboard sleeve.

We have a copy of the book and purchased this for a friend. The first order was lost, and we were offered a refund and reorder. The second book was received right away. It is a fantastic book! Recommend to all who are contemplating building.

Un gran Libro!

belle idee x la vostra casa

Très bon produit. Une références pour les personnes désireuse d’améliorer leurs qualité de vie. Ce livre permet de mettre en place des solutions pour plus d’Autonomie, d’Economie et de Liberté.

きれい、丁寧 ありがとう

Shelter: 40th Anniversary Edition, is a compelling celebration of Lloyd Kahn's seminal work on alternative housing and do-it-yourself architecture. First published in 1973, *Shelter* became a foundational text in the countercultural movement, offering practical advice on building homes that are in harmony with nature and tailored to individual needs. The 40th-anniversary edition enriches the original with updated content, new photographs, and reflections from Kahn, giving readers a deeper understanding of the sustainable living principles that have gained even more relevance today. The book remains a visual and informative feast, showcasing a wide array of hand-built homes, yurts, domes, and other innovative structures from around the world. Kahn’s philosophy of simplicity, self-reliance, and creativity shines through, inspiring readers to rethink their living spaces and the possibilities of what a home can be. Whether you're a fan of architecture, sustainability, or the DIY ethic, this edition of *Shelter* continues to be a treasure trove of inspiration and practical knowledge, solidifying its status as a timeless classic in alternative housing literature.