Music made in Akron symbolized an attitude more so than a singular sound. Crafted by kids hell-bent on not following their parents into the rubber plants, the music was an intentional antithesis of Top 40 radio. Call it punk or call it new wave, but in a short few years, major labels signed Chrissie Hynde, Devo, the Waitresses, Tin Huey, the Bizarros, the Rubber City Rebels and Rachel Sweet. They had their own bars, the Crypt and the Bank. They had their own label, Clone Records. They even had their own recording space, Bushflow Studios. London's Stiff Records released an Akron compilation album, and suddenly there were "Akron Nights" in London clubs and CBGB was waiving covers for people with Akron IDs. Author Calvin Rydbom of the "Akron Sound" Museum remembers that short time when the Rubber City was the place.

What happens when an architect sets out to design the extraordinary, and by doing so challenges the established norms of the industry? A riot of inventive and ingenious residential structures to delight the eye and gladden the soul. This book decodes a wide selection of stunning experimental designs. By shaking off any limitations and seeking to challenge established design conventions, and using architectural ingenuity and modern technical aspiration, these carefully selected architects show how they develop bold and striking designs that will serve as inspiration for years to come, creating home designs that are both out of left field and can take residential ingenuity to the next level. This edition is lavishly illustrated with crisp and evocative full-colour images of the architecture, with insight from the architect detailing their inspiration and the challenges encountered through the designing and building processes. Whether it be a uniquely challenging location, the decision to use materials in innovative ways, or simply experimenting with a new design shape, the works featured within these pages challenge the everyday notions of what a residence should be. Through these pages, the reader is drawn into a beautiful journey through a diverse range of truly beautiful homes as imagined—and realised—by some of the best architectural visionaries of our time.

Cool. Whether it's a cool guy, cool sunglasses, or a cool film - the attribute 'cool', which until the early '90s was still the definitive identifier of rebellious youth culture speech, is now encountered globally and across all social classes in an almost inflationary manner. The adjective 'cool' is now regarded as a vague paraphrase for something positively casual and is particularly fond of offering itself to us with an aura of self-confident modernity and stylistic confidence. Unfortunately, whoever says 'cool' today often just means a fashion word, representative of who or what is currently hip and what is not. Everything that is somehow hip, trendy or 'in' is called 'cool'. Everything should, and everyone wants, to be cool. On the one hand, 'coolness' is an empty buzzword, on the other hand, it is a self-confident, late-modern individual attitude and behavioural strategy with rebellious roots against a twisted and unjust world.