In the early 1980’s with the customary dearth of commissions for a young architectural practice Massimo Vignelli had designed a series of prototypical houses. These were specifically affordable houses, houses that could be built inexpensively, but without the onus attached to cheap housing. Fundamental to the design was the notion that these dwellings should have resonance with what is deeply recognized in all peoples as house. Massimo noted that the concept, indeed, the word friendly as applied to an object was unique to the English language and that these houses with their simple geometry and pitched roofs embodied the idea, from which was born this book.