Houses are weird. We take them for granted because we’ve got roofs over our heads, but have you ever actually thought about why some people live in a boat while others live in a house made of literal grass? It’s wild. That’s basically the whole vibe of the If You Lived Here book—technically titled If You Lived Here: Houses of the World—written by Giles Laroche.
It’s not just a picture book. It’s a bit of a trip.
Most kids’ books about architecture feel like reading a dry textbook that someone tried to "jazz up" with a cartoon mascot. This one is different. Laroche uses this intricate bas-relief paper sculpture technique. It makes the pages look 3D, like you could reach in and touch the thatched roofs or the cold stone of a castle. It’s tactile even though it’s flat. Honestly, that’s why it sticks in your brain.
People search for this book because it hits that sweet spot between social studies and art. If you're a parent or a teacher, you've probably realized that explaining "culture" to a seven-year-old is actually kind of hard. You can't just lecture them on socio-economics. You show them a doge’s palace in Venice and then show them a yurt in Mongolia.
What the If You Lived Here Book Actually Gets Right
Most geography books for kids focus on flags or maps. Maps are great, but they're abstract. A house? That's personal. Everyone understands what it feels like to go home. By focusing on where people sleep and eat, Laroche makes the "other" feel familiar.
The book covers fifteen different types of dwellings. We're talking historical stuff like a Dutch canal house from the 1600s and a Fujian Tulou from China. But it also looks at how people live right now. It covers:
- The Venetian Palazzo: Why live on water? (Because it was a superpower of trade).
- The Adobe Pueblo: How do you stay cool in a desert without AC?
- The Mongolian Yurt: What if your house had to move with your cows?
Laroche doesn't just draw these; he builds them out of paper. The detail is staggering. If you look closely at the "If You Lived Here book" illustrations, you can see the texture of the hand-painted paper. It’s a slow-burn kind of book. You don't flip through it in two minutes. You sit there and count the windows.
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The Weird Details That Kids Actually Care About
Let's be real. Kids don't care about "architectural significance." They care about the bathroom situation. They care about where the bed goes.
One of the best things about this book is the sidebar information. Every spread has a "fact box" that answers the practical questions. What is the house made of? Where is it located? What’s the coolest feature? For instance, in the section on the decorated houses of South Africa (Ndebele houses), the book explains how the bright geometric patterns weren't just for looks—they were a way of communicating identity and even resistance.
Then you’ve got the Tree Houses of the Korowai in Papua New Guinea. They are built up to 140 feet in the air. Imagine being a kid and reading that. Your first thought isn't "how fascinating," it's "how do they get the groceries up there?" The book actually respects that curiosity. It explains that these houses protect people from floods, insects, and, historically, even rival tribes.
Why This Book Became a Classroom Staple
If you walk into any Montessori or Waldorf school, you’ll likely find a well-worn copy of the If You Lived Here book. Why? Because it aligns with the "Global Citizen" curriculum that's been huge for the last decade. It teaches kids that "normal" is a relative term.
In the US, we're obsessed with the "suburban dream"—the lawn, the fence, the garage. But Laroche shows that for a huge chunk of human history, living on top of your neighbors (like in a Matmata cave house in Tunisia) was the smartest way to survive. It’s a lesson in empathy disguised as a book about buildings.
It also pushes back against the idea that "old" or "traditional" means "primitive." The engineering in a Fujun Tulou (those massive circular earthen buildings in China) is incredibly sophisticated. They were built to be earthquake-proof and defensive. They housed entire clans of up to 800 people. It’s basically a self-contained village. When kids see that, they stop thinking of history as a straight line from "dumb" to "smart" and start seeing it as a series of clever solutions to specific problems.
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The Art Style: More Than Just Pretty Pictures
We need to talk about bas-relief. It’s a fancy term for "low relief."
Giles Laroche doesn't just paint. He cuts, folds, and layers. This gives the If You Lived Here book a sense of depth that a standard digital illustration just can't match. Each illustration can take weeks. He uses different types of paper to mimic stone, wood, and fabric. This matters because kids are visual learners. When they see the shadows cast by the paper "bricks" on the page, the architecture becomes real to them. It feels like a model they could build.
In an era of AI-generated art and flat vector illustrations, there’s something deeply refreshing about seeing actual craftsmanship. It encourages kids to go get some construction paper and scissors and try to build their own version of a stilt house or a chateau.
Common Misconceptions About the Book
Some people think this is a travel guide. It’s not. Others think it’s a history book. Sorta, but not really.
The biggest mistake people make is thinking it’s only for "little" kids. Honestly, even as an adult, the technical details about how a Log Cabin is notched or how a Houseboat in Sausalito stays level are genuinely interesting. It’s a "living book," a term coined by Charlotte Mason to describe books that spark the imagination rather than just dumping data into a child's head.
Another misconception? That the book is exhaustive. It’s not. It’s a curated gallery. Laroche chose these fifteen houses because they represent radically different environments—mountains, deserts, rivers, and cities. It’s a starting point, not an encyclopedia.
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How to Use This Book for Learning (Without Being Boring)
If you're using the If You Lived Here book at home, don't just read it cover to cover. It’s too much info at once. Pick one house. Read about it. Then, look it up on Google Earth. Seeing a 3D satellite view of a Venetian canal after looking at Laroche's paper version is a "lightbulb" moment for most kids.
You can also do the "Materials Challenge." Ask your kid: "If we had to build a house using only what’s in our backyard, what would it look like?" If you live in a place with lots of trees, you're building a log cabin or a brush shelter. If you're in a rocky area, you're looking at stone. This is exactly how the people in the book lived. They used what they had.
The Lasting Impact of Global Architecture
There's a reason we're still talking about this book years after its release. Architecture is the physical manifestation of culture. It's how we say "this is what we value."
When you read about the Spanish Cave Dwellings in Sacromonte, you aren't just learning about holes in a hill. You're learning about a community that found a way to stay cool in the brutal heat of Andalusia. You're learning about the Romani people and their history.
The If You Lived Here book doesn't hit you over the head with these lessons. It just shows you the house. It lets you imagine yourself walking through the door. And once a kid (or an adult) can imagine themselves living in a yurt or a chateau, the world gets a little bit smaller and a lot more interesting.
Actionable Next Steps for Readers
If you want to dive deeper into the world of global architecture with your family or students, start with these specific activities:
- The "Material Hunt": Go for a walk and identify the primary materials of your own home. Is it brick (clay), siding (vinyl/wood), or stone? Compare it to the "Fact Boxes" in the book to see which global house uses similar materials.
- Bas-Relief Art Project: Don't just draw a house; build one. Use cereal boxes, scrap paper, and glue to create a layered "3D" picture of your dream home, inspired by Giles Laroche’s style.
- Google Earth Exploration: For every house mentioned in the book, find a real-world example on Google Earth. Looking at the Toulou in China from a top-down satellite view provides a massive perspective shift on the scale of these buildings.
- The "Climate Design" Discussion: Pick two houses from the book—one from a hot climate (like the Adobe Pueblo) and one from a cold climate (like the Log Cabin). Ask why the windows are different sizes and why the roofs are shaped the way they are.
This book is a gateway. Use it to stop looking at buildings as just "heaps of stuff" and start seeing them as the clever, beautiful, and weird solutions to being human.