Review: Redux: Designs that Reuse, Recycle and Reveal

Redux: Designs that Reuse, Recycle and Reveal
by Jennifer Roberts
£11.87 from Amazon

Like yesterday's Green by Design, Redux has some redundancies and some excellencies.  Her "Five Easy Pieces" (fly ash concrete, reclaimed wood flooring, regular materials that are partly recycled, secondhand and vintage furniture, recycled glass countertops) are all good entry points for newcomers to greener housing.  There are many lovely photos.  But like most designer books, there's a surfeit of white space.  I know this is conventional in design books, but given the subject matter I feel the green publishers should make more of an effort to develop a layout for books that both look lovely and are more respectful of the resources involved.  The more green design books I look at, the more this bothers me, and distracts from the value of the actual content.  They should be setting a better example.

That said, there are some very good practical examples of, say, how to improve the house insulation by overhauling the internal structure, how to make a green commercial space that is still sleek and professional, and how to repurpose and recycle materials.  It lacks the hard dollar figures of Green by Design but does include more useful tips.  Its case studies are varied and useful.  She talks about how to deconstruct old properties in a way that allows for salvage and reuse of materials.  Under what circumstances reclaimed windfall wood can be used for construction.  Even suggestions on how to make your own garbage into furniture.  This book is slightly in the lead for most practical guide I've seen this week.  [GT]