The Contemporary House


Book Description

There is no one way to design a modern urban house. Demand for space in cities the world over is higher than ever and new buildings must meet stringent energy saving requirements and negotiate a myriad planning regulations. But the best new urban architecture suggests invention and innovation are as critical as ever. The Contemporary House brings together seventy solutions, drawn from cities around the globe to explore the many ways in which architecture can enhance the experience of living in the city. Organized geographically, The Contemporary House offers a fascinating insight into the sheer variety of contemporary approaches to urban design, from reinventions of longstanding vernacular forms like terraces and townhouses, through to the fastchanging suburbs and inner cities of modern Japan, where the short lifespan of family houses provides architects with a template for aesthetic and technical experimentation. The book also provides an insight into the conditions that shape the architecture of some of the world's major cities, through recent history, signature styles, and current conditions on the ground. The Contemporary House is an essential guide to design in the modern city.




Contemporary House India


Book Description

A stunning overview of innovative, ambitious, and beautiful houses on the Indian subcontinent. India has a long, diverse history of remarkable architecture. This stunning overview of contemporary residential architecture in India features over twenty houses from across the country, designed by leading firms such as Samira Rathod Design Associates and Architecture Brio, as well as emerging architects such as Martand Khosla. Beginning with a helpful essay, Contemporary House India is divided into four thematic chapters, each opening with a contextual introduction. Included with each featured home are detailed drawings and plans, specially commissioned photographs of the interiors and exteriors by leading architectural photographer Edmund Sumner, and accompanying text based on interviews with the architects by author Rob Gregory. Gregory places the selected homes in a global context, including the fascinating legacy of major modern architects such as Le Corbusier’s work in Chandigarh, India.




McClean Design


Book Description

The first book on the architect's custom-built residences in California, tailor-made to the highest specification one could ask for. This collection of visionary residences takes us on a tour of the height in luxury, designed to accommodate all amenities available--from the indoor gym and hair salon to the movie theater, champagne vault and wine cellar, cigar room, and wellness room. California Living looks at McClean's rise to prominence, from his first Bird Streets home in the Hollywood Hills to houses that drew attention from the likes of fashion designer Calvin Klein and the record-setting Bel Air home of Beyoncé and Jay Z. In addition to incorporating water in all of his designs, he makes extensive use of glass to eliminate the barrier between the indoors/outdoors. His sleek designs seamlessly integrate the outdoors taking advantage of the spectacular views and landscapes. After an illustrated introduction, the portfolio section of twenty-four magnificent ultra-modern homes describes each house in detail with sketches and site plans, explaining the architect's work. McClean offers his reflections on these beautiful projects and the design strategies behind their creation, all completed in the past fifteen years. McClean Design has grown into one of the leading contemporary residential design firms in the fashionable areas of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, with projects throughout the Western United States and beyond to Hawaii and British Columbia.




Contemporary Housing


Book Description

Following intense debate throughout the 20th century, the issue of residential housing is becoming increasingly central to the contemporary situation, characterised by large cities, urban sprawl and general fragmentation in spaces of the home and collective life. Projects are attempting to give answers through flexible systems that try to give form to new public and private spaces for the individual. The home speaks of a world that is changing very rapidly and the selected projects can be seen as experimental attempts to give shape to new ways of experiencing the home in the future. Through an analysis of some of the most significant projects built in the last ten years, this book traces pivotal themes such as density, flexibility, the relationship with the land, constructing on the constructed, and the image of the house. Analysis is made in essays written by leading authors in the field




Homes for Our Time 2


Book Description

Climate, environment, history, and technology are transforming architecture worldwide. The second volume in the Homes for Our Time series documents this housing revolution. It explores new approaches in building and presents resourceful and green private homes. This is a multilingual edition - English, French, German.




California Contemporary


Book Description

“Two dozen custom-designed homes that welcome in sunlight and accentuate gorgeous vistas, and the architect’s thoughts behind them.” —Luxe Interiors + Design The stunning houses of Grant Kirkpatrick and his firm, KAA Design, exemplify why so many of us look to Southern California as the pinnacle of sophisticated modern living. The twenty-four magnificent custom homes featured in this book, modern in style, are built of sensuous materials and sited to make the most of nature, views, and sunlight. This collection of visionary residences, shown in gorgeous photographs and colorful drawings, represents the California Dream, shaped by an architect chosen by celebrities including Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Matt Damon, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, for their personal retreats. Kirkpatrick offers his reflections on these beautiful projects—and the design strategies behind their creation. “Beautiful . . . For anyone who loves contemporary design and architectural masterpieces.” —Library Journal




Playing at Home


Book Description

Art Since the ’80s, a new series from Reaktion Books, seeks to offer compelling surveys of popular themes in contemporary art. In the first book in the series, Gill Perry reveals how the house and the idea of home have inspired a range of imaginative and playful works by artists across the globe. Exploring how artists have engaged with this theme in different contexts—from mobile homes and beach houses to haunted houses and broken homes—Playing at Home shows that our relationship with houses involves complex responses in which gender, race, class, and status overlap, and that through these relationships we turn a house into a home. Perry looks at the works of numerous artists, including Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Michael Landy, Mike Kelley, and Peter Garfield, as well as the work of artists who travel across continents and see home as a shifting notion, such as Do-Ho-Suh and Song Dong. She also engages with the work of philosophers and cultural theorists from Walter Benjamin and Gaston Bachelard to Johan Huizinga and Henri Lefebvre, who inform our understanding of living and dwelling. Ultimately, she argues that irony, parody, and play are equally important in our interpretations of these works on the home. With over one hundred images, Playing at Home covers a wide range of art and media in a fascinating look at why there’s no place like home.




Tom Kundig: Houses


Book Description

"Architect Tom Kundig is known worldwide for the originality of his work. This paperback edition of Tom Kundig: Houses, first published in 2006, collects five of his most prominent early residential projects, which remain touchstones for him today. In a new preface written for this edition, Kundig reflects on the influence that these designs continue to have on his current thinking. Each house, presented from conceptual sketches through meticulously realized details, is the product of a sustained and active collaborative process among designer, builder, and client. The work of the Seattle-based architect has been called both raw and refined--disparate characteristics that produce extraordinarily inventive designs inspired by both the industrial structures ubiquitous to his upbringing in the Pacific Northwest and the vibrant craft cultures that are fostered there." --




The American House


Book Description

- Unparalleled array of American architects and firms: widely known and under-the-radar, established and up-and-coming, large and small - Unparalleled variety in style and type: traditional, modern, and everything in between; grand villas and small cabins; posh seaside villas, rustic and remote cabins, urban townhouses - Unparalleled diversity in geographical range: from California to Hawaii and many states in between The American House is an exceedingly diverse collection of contemporary residential designs in the United States. This book follows the successful title European House, likewise a gorgeous collection of new residential architecture. The American House contains cutting-edge residential designs by leading architects from across the United States. Stunning color photographs and plans underline the sensitivity of today's architects to the natural environment, as well as the care and attention paid to interior design and everyday living. This new volume features an extraordinary variety in style, sophistication, affordability, site and landscape, with an emphasis on sustainability practices in both design and construction. Each project illustrates how architects adapt their signature styles to accommodate the challenges posed by local topography and variations in climate, along with a sharp focus on optimum strategies for sustainable living. A lively introduction by critic Ian Volner comments on the many trends, often contradictory, that characterize the architecture of houses in the 2010s. In its sweeping scope, this book considers the present and points to the future of residential design in the United States.