When I brought a copy of the glossy home construction magazine Fine Homebuilding , to the office in the 1990s, one of my more design-conscious colleagues turned up her nose at what she saw. She was disappointed that the projects were not the high-style designs seen in Architectural Record, Casabella, Domus, or Progressive Architecture. In many issues the designs tend towards the vernacular, and the beauty is more in the detailing, with pictures, diagrams and descriptions of how someone installed a basement window, or a roof deck, or a balustrade. I stopped subscribing because I was moving too often, but I still keep an eye out for the yearly House issue.

I'm going to plug their Houses 2012 Awards issue, which costs about nine dollars, and probably isn't viewable online. This issue includes an article called A Case for Resilient Design, a partially straw bale house, an airtight remodel, a small (800 SF) house, a rather grand zero energy house, several other houses, a good article on The Trouble with Building Science, and another called A Practical Approach to Passive House. Most of the houses featured were designed by architects, and some might even be zotzy enough to satisfy my former coworker. I think anyone with any thought of building or redesigning an energy efficient house would profit from this issue.