Home may be where the heart is — but you have to look pretty hard to find it in the gigantic trophy houses taking over the landscape these days. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the heart and soul of home design. A plea for the "not-so-big" house. Also, chairs that hug you, and chairs that hurt

Architect Sarah Susanka is the author of"The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live." She tells Steve Paulson that smaller doesn't mean cheaper. She advocates spending the same money you would on a trophy house, but putting it into quality and the personal touches you really crave in a home. You can view her plans on the "Not-So-Big-House" website. Also, architect Ann Cline built herself a hut in the backyard. She tells Judith Strasser about it, and about some other historic and ornamental huts. Cline is the author of "A Hut of One's Own: Life Outside the Circle of Architecture."

Artist Wendy Jacob tells Judith Strasser about her squeeze chairs that hug the sitter. We also hear the chairs in action at a gallery in Madison, Wisconsin. Jacob teaches art at M.I.T. and her work has been shown widely in the United States and Europe. Also, Galen Cranz teaches architecture at UC-Berkeley and is the author of "The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design." She tells Judith Strasser that there is nothing natural about the posture of the normal seated position and that chairs are slowly deforming human beings.

Allan Greenberg practices architecture in Washington, D.C. and is the author of "George Washington, Architect." He tells Jim Fleming that Washington was the first to include the out-buildings and supporting farms in his overall estate design for Mount Vernon; that he loved asymmetry; and that Washington D.C. is the first city designed to give form to democratic principles.

Distribution dates:

• week of 08/15/99 - hour 1