Ken Kern: Quotes about housing

“It costs three to five times as much to remove a BTU of heat from a house in the summer as it does to add one BTU of heat in the winter.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Winter , Time , Summer , Housing

“Trellises for leafy vines, which will lose their foilage in the fall, should be set up over southern windows so that sunlight will penetrate into the house through the winter months.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Winter , Housing

“If no attempt is made to control excessive heat loss through glass… a solar house may require as much as 20 percent more fuel than an orthodox house during December and January… Wendell Thomas recognized and solved this problem… by burying the house in the ground, except for the south and east window areas. …at night… windows are covered with from inside by insulation boards and drapes…”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Problem , Loss , Housing , Night

“It must have been in Iran that Frank Lloyd Wright got his brilliant idea for cooling a house… During the summer months, the sunken fireplace hearth was filled with water. Down-draft air movement from the chimney circulates over this pool to cool… This unusual fireplace has a summer-cooling as well as winter-heating function.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Idea , Water , Winter , Summer

“The design of a house around a massive, central fireplace has, somehow, always felt right to this writer-builder.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Housing

“Most houses grossly violate the basic principles of natural summer cooling and sound winter heating.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Nature , Winter , Summer , Housing

“This process has suggested some workable alternatives as solutions to personal housing needs. Here they are in the form of seven axioms… 1. When building your home, pay as you go. 2. Supply your own labor. 3. Build according to your best judgement. 4. Use native materials whenever possible. 5. Design and plan your own home. 6. Use minimum but quality grade hand tools. 7. Assume responsibility for your building construction.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Home , Housing , Personality

“As much as 70 percent of the sun's heat rays can be reflected from one's house by the installation of a white or light-colored roof.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Color , Light , Sun , Housing

“It is a rarity of the first order when the dean of an architectural college takes it upon himself to build houses comprised of woven split bamboo placed between two layers of treated clay. These readily available materials were artfully used by Professor Stein in his creation of two demonstration low-cost homes.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Home , Housing

“For every serious attempt to achieve integration of house to site you will find a thousand houses peppering the landscape and clearly demonstrating the builder's total disregard for even the most basic considerations of sun, wind, and view.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Sun , Housing

“No critic as yet comprehends entirely why our houses are so poorly constructed, why they look so abominable, why they cost so much for construction and for maintenance, and why they are so uncomfortable.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Housing

“Every house needs a warming spot where persons coming in from the outside chill can, if for no other reason, warm hands and hearts.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Heart , Housing , Personality

“About one-fifth of all the heat that enters the average house comes through windows. …external shading is by far the most efficient method for controlling interior heat build-up. The air-wash between the shading screen and the window is also very effective. The screen should have a light-colored finish… Insulation boards placed next to the window pane at night, will help prevent heat losses through glazed openings. Overhangs and horizontal sunshades placed above south-facing windows serve effectively as heat reducers.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Color , Light , Loss , Help