Timely, important and popular subject Integrated view of a complex subject rarely tackled in a holistic way Targeting a lay audience but with enough richness to be of interest to experts Clear writing and approach already tested through Why Architects Matter

This book explores how houses are created, maintained and conceptualized in southern Oman. Based on long-term research in the Dhofar region, it draws on anthropology, sociology, urban studies and architectural history. The chapters consider physical and functional aspects, including regulations governing land use, factors in siting houses, architectural styles and norms for interior and exterior decorating. The volume also reflects on cultural expectations regarding how and when rooms are used and issues such as safety, privacy, social connectedness and ease of movement. Houses and residential areas are situated within the fabric of towns, comparison is made with housing in other countries in the Arabian peninsula, and consideration is given to notions of the 'Islamic city' and the 'Islamic house'. The book is valuable reading for scholars interested in the Middle East and the built environment.

The history of this magnificent house has been neglected along with the reputation of its gifted architect, Hugh May. In this book, John Bunney has extensively researched the fascinating details of the building's previous owners and occupants , its architectural history and the evolution of its sumptuous parkland setting. The book is lavishly illustrated with original photographs, historic paintings, archival maps and architectural drawings to create a complete visual record of Eltham Lodge from its commission by wealthy merchant Sir John Shaw in 1663 to its current incarnation as a magnificent clubhouse. The author has brought together missing pieces of the jigsaw, from portraits of its previous owners now in far-off collections to fragments of its exquisite hand-painted wallpaper preserved in the V&A museum. The lives of the occupants from the 1st Baronet, financier to Charles II , through to Kitty O'Shea wife of Irish Nationalist Charles Parnell Stewart - mirror the history of the United Kingdom. Through changing fashions in architecture and landscape, the book traces how successive generations of owners and tenants developed Eltham Lodge to keep pace with the times and reflect their status, or their declining fortunes. Architectural historians, club members, golf enthusiasts and anyone living or interested in the history of the Eltham area will find much to enjoy in the author's meticulous research.

Ever since Henry David Thoreau's described his two years, two months, and two days of cabin existence at Walden Pond, Massachusetts in Walden, or, Life in the Woods (1854), the idea of a refuge dwelling has seduced the modern psyche. In the past decade, as our material existence and environmental footprint has grown exponentially, architects around the globe have become particularly interested in the possibilities of the minimal, low-impact, and isolated abode.This new TASCHEN title, combining insightful text, rich photography and bright, contemporary illustrations by Marie-Laure Cruschi, explores how this particular architectural type presents special opportunities for creative thinking. In eschewing excess, the cabin limits actual spatial intrusion to the bare essentials of living requirements, while in responding to its typically rustic setting, it foregrounds eco-friendly solutions. As such, the cabin comes to showcase some of the most inventive and forward-looking practice of contemporary architecture, with Renzo Piano, Terunobu Fujimori, Tom Kundig and many fresh young professionals all embracing such distilled sanctuary spaces.The cabins selected for this publication emphasize the variety of the genre, both in terms of usage and geography. From an artist studio on the Suffolk coast in England to eco-home huts in the Western Ghats region of India, this survey is as exciting in its international reach as it is in its array of briefs, clients, and situations. Constant throughout, however, is architectural innovation, and an inspiring sense of contemplation and coexistence as people return to nature and to a less destructive model of being in the world.

The 1930s home presented an exciting new way of living for the generation that moved out to the suburbs. Young couples who had previously rented accommodation in urban centres found themselves able to afford new-build homes with hot running water, a bathroom indoors and even aerials for the wireless already installed. Some four million houses were erected, mostly in cosy semi-detached styles that harked back to traditional cottage architecture. The design elite rejected this 'Stockbroker Tudor' look and opted instead for brave, flat-roofed modernist villas. But whether the house drew on historical references or futuristic ones, interest in interior decoration boomed. This book introduces the homes that people fell in love with in the 1930s, and the fixtures and fittings that went in them. With nearly hundred illustrations and informative chapters on architectural styles, gardens, furnishings and technology in the home, this book is the most popular introductory guide to the houses of the period. It is not only a practical and valuable companion for people who own or wish to renovate an inter-war house but also will appeal to all those interested in period design.

Gandhi and Architecture: A Time for Low-Cost Housing chronicles the emergence of a low-cost, low-rise housing architecture that conforms to M.K. Gandhi’s religious need to establish finite boundaries for everyday actions; finitude in turn defines Gandhi’s conservative and exclusionary conception of religion. Drawing from rich archival and field materials, the book begins with an exploration of Gandhi’s religiosity of relinquishment and the British Spiritualist, Madeline Slade’s creation of his low-cost hut, Adi Niwas, in the village of Segaon in the 1930s. Adi Niwas inaugurates a low-cost housing architecture of finitude founded on the near-simultaneous but heterogeneous, conservative Gandhian ideals of pursuing self-sacrifice and rendering the pursuit of self-sacrifice legible as the practice of an exclusionary varnashramadharma. At a considerable remove from Gandhi’s religious conservatism, successive generations in post-colonial India have reimagined a secular necessity for this Gandhian low-cost housing architecture of finitude. In the early 1950s era of mass housing for post-partition refugees from Pakistan, the making of a low-cost housing architecture was premised on the necessity of responding to economic concerns and to an emerging demographic mandate. In the 1970s, during the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries crisis, it was premised on the rise of urban and climatological necessities. More recently, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, its reception has been premised on the emergence of language-based identitarianism in Wardha, Maharashtra. Each of these moments of necessity reveals the enduring present of a Gandhian low-cost housing architecture of finitude and also the need to emancipate Gandhian finitude from Gandhi’s own exclusions. This volume is a critical intervention in the philosophy of architectural history. Drawing eclectically from science and technology studies, political science, housing studies, urban studies, religious studies, and anthropology, this richly illustrated volume will be of great interest to students and researchers of architecture and design, housing, history, sociology, economics, Gandhian studies, urban studies and development studies.

How to Read Buildings is a practical introduction to looking at and appreciating architecture. It is a guide to reading the historical and architectural clues that are embedded in every building. Small enough to carry in your pocket and serious enough to provide real answers, this comprehensive guide: - Explores key characteristics of structures dating from every period from the ancient Greeks to the present day. - Gives expert advice on how to identify any building and put it in historical context. - Provides an accessible visual guide, using detailed engravings and text, to architectural styles and structural elements.

The frescoes of Peruzzi, Raphael and Sodoma still dazzle visitors to the Villa Farnesina, but they survive in a stripped-down environment bereft of its landscape, sealed so it cannot breathe. Turner takes you outside that box, restoring these canonical images to their original context, when each element joined in a productive conversation. He is the first to reconstruct the architect-painter Peruzzi's original, well-proportioned, well-appointed building and to re-visualize his lost facade decoration-erotic scenes and mythological figures who make it come alive and soar upward. More comprehensively than any previous scholar, he reintegrates painting, sculpture, architecture, garden design, topographical prints and drawings, archaeological discoveries and literature from the brilliant circle around the patron Agostino Chigi, the powerful banker who 'loved all virtuosi' and commissioned his villa-palazzo from the best talents in multiple arts. It can now be understood as a Palace of Venus, celebrating aesthetic, social and erotic pleasure.

Housing is a major contributor to CO2 emissions in Europe and America today and the construction of new homes offers an opportunity to address this issue. Providing homes that achieve "zero carbon", "carbon neutral", "zero-net energy" or "energy-plus" standard is becoming the goal of more innovative house-builders globally, whilst energy providers seek to decarbonise the energy supply to new and existing development. Various new technical systems for achieving these goals are beginning to emerge. For example the passive house whose energy requirement for space heating and cooling is almost zero; the smart grid that has revolutionized the management of energy, whilst enabling the connection of small-scale, renewable energy producers and electric vehicles to the grid; or the European super-grid which will enable zero carbon energy to be generated in the Sahara desert and stored in Norway. This book explores the diverse approaches that are being adopted around the world to deliver zero carbon homes and the different societal systems and geographic circumstances in which they have developed. It postulates a roadmap for delivering zero carbon homes, together with a toolbox approach for policy and practice to suit particular national and local circumstances. A series of case studies are presented that offer lessons for delivering zero carbon homes. These examples are also used to demonstrate how prototype systems can move into the mainstream. The book highlights some of the instruments and mechanisms that could be used to support this transformation and addresses the wider implications of introducing these innovative systems in terms of industry, lifestyle and urban form.

Tower and Slab looks at the contradictory history of the modernist mass housing block - home to millions of city dwellers around the world. Few urban forms have roused as much controversy. While in the United States decades-long criticism caused the demolition of most mass housing projects for the poor, in the booming metropolises of Shanghai and Mumbai remarkably similar developments are being built for the wealthy middle class. While on the surface the modernist apartment block appears universal, it is in fact diverse in its significance and connotations as its many different cultural contexts.

Florian Urban studies the history of mass housing in seven narratives: Chicago, Paris, Berlin, Brasilia, Mumbai, Moscow, and Shanghai. Investigating the complex interactions between city planning and social history, Tower and Slab shows how the modernist vision to house the masses in serial blocks succeeded in certain contexts and failed in others. Success and failure, in this respect, refers not only to the original goals to solve the housing crisis and provide modern standards for the entire society but equally to changing significance of the housing blocks within the respective societies and their perception by architects, politicians, and inhabitants.

These differences show that design is not to blame for mass housing 's mixed record of success. The comparison of the apparently similar projects suggests that triumph or disaster does not depend on a single variable but rather on a complex formula that includes not only form, but also social composition, location within the city, effective maintenance, and a variety of cultural, social, and political factors.

This work includes 35 fully costed barn conversions. It also contains projects to suit all budgets - all fully costed with detailed project descriptions. Clussic, rustic and contemporary styles are complete with details of suppliers and craftsmen for each project.

Architecture and the Housing Question examines how the design and provision of housing around the world have become central both to competing political projects and to the architecture profession. How have architects acting as housing experts helped alleviate or enforce class, race, and gender inequality? What are the disciplinary implications of taking on shelter for the multitude as an architectural assignment and responsibility? The book features essays in the historiography of architecture and the housing question, and a collection of historical case studies from Belgium, China, France, Ghana, the Netherlands, Kenya, the Soviet Union, Turkey, and the United States. The thematic organization of the collection, interrogating housing expertise, the state apparatus, segregation and colonialism, highlights the methodological questions that underpin its international outlook. The book will appeal to students and scholars in architecture, architectural history, theory, and urban studies.

Tree houses have come a long way since our collective childhoods. The very definition of a tree house has broadened to now include anything from a boutique hotel room where star gazing is a must to exceptional viewing platforms and, of course, not forgetting a treehouse for kids such as exists only in their dreams. This carefully compiled list provides an overview of striking tree houses across the globe, with designs that are truly unique, inspiring, and beautiful. Leafing through this inspiring collection, the reader will wonder in amazement at the exquisite and whimsical yet sophisticated constructions dreamed up by modern architects and designers. This beautiful edition is lavishly illustrated with evocative full-colour images of ingenious arboreal architecture, with a focus on the forested surroundings, verdant treetop canopies, and rural experiences. This book will not only appeal to your inner child, but provide a welcome respite from the stresses of modern living by offering a pleasurable visit to the green world of tree houses.

Though it lies just across the Mediterranean from Europe, barely a stone's throw from Spain's southernmost tip, Morocco couldn't possibly be farther away. With its mountainous and desert landscapes, labyrinthine souks, delectable cuisine, exquisite rugs and textiles, vibrant mosaics, fragrant odors, mesmerizing music, and welcoming people, Morocco is a most alluring and tantalizingly exotic destination. Digging a little deeper into the myth of Morocco, Barbara and Rene Stoeltie bring us this eclectic selection of homes to demonstrate all that is most wonderful about the Moroccan style: from tiled, turquoise swimming pools and lavish gardens to carved wooden furniture and jade-colored marble fountains. With more than 500 pages featuring stunning, inspiring photographs, flipping through these fairy tale-like visions of exotic havens (ideally while sipping a steaming cup of sweet, fragrant mint tea) will instantly whisk you away. About the series TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

The Lone Star State continues its love affair with innovative and contemporary architecture and design. Showcasing a stunning range of modern homes, this book will inspire best-design practice and spur on lifestyle dreams. Set out with beautiful full-colour photography, New Texas Modern delves into the finer details of trending architectural styles. The exquisite kitchens, glorious living spaces, sumptuous bedrooms, luxurious bathrooms, spectacular outdoor entertaining areas, and other delightful spaces, are all part and parcel of the Texas residential dream. Abundant available space, a sense of Texas architectural historical vernacular, and a need to cater to the harsh Texas climate all combine together to produce gorgeous livable contemporary residences to delight the eye and the senses.

Jefferson County, New York, has one of the richest concentrations of stone houses in America. As many as 500 limestone houses, churches, and commercial buildings were built there before 1860. Some of the buildings are beautiful mansions built by early entrepreneurs, and others are small vernacular farmhouses. Some are clustered together; others dot the countryside near limestone outcroppings. Embedded in the fabric of each building are the stories of its location, its maker, and those who have lived there. Lavishly illustrated with almost 300 photographs, this volume highlights eighty-five stone houses in the region. The editors explore both the beauty and permanence of the stonework and the courage and ambition of the early dwellers. They detail the ways in which skilled masons utilized local limestone and sandstone, crafting double-faced stone walls to protect against fire and harsh winters. The book includes detailed discussions of the geology of the region, the stone buildings that have been lost, and the preservation and care of existing structures. Stone Houses of Jefferson County provides a fascinating look at the intrinsic beauty of these buildings and the historical links they provide to our early settlement.

In the search for sustainable architecture, there is growing interest in the relationship between nature and design. In this vital new book, the term bioclimatic, relating to the dynamic between climate and living organisms, is applied by the authors in focusing on countries where housing requires cooling for a significant part of the year. In this context, Bioclimatic Housing covers creative, vernacular architecture to present both the theory and practice of innovative, low-energy architecture. The book interweaves the themes of social progress, technological fixes and industry transformation within a discussion of global and country trends, climate types, solutions and technologies. Prepared under the auspices of a 5-year International Energy Agency (IEA) project, and with case studies from Iran, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka and Italy, this is a truly international and authoritative work, providing an essential primer for building designers, builders, developers and advanced students in architecture and engineering.

As with the best-selling 'Architects Pocket Book' this title includes everyday information which the architect/designer normally has to find from a wide variety of sources and which is not always easily to hand.
Focusing on kitchen design, this book is of use to the student as well as the experienced practitioner. It outlines all the information needed to design a workable kitchen, including ergonomics, services such as water and waste, appliances, and material choices for the floor, walls and ceiling. There is no similar compendium currently available.
* Gathers together essential, useful and practical information for both the student and practicing architect
* An easy to use reference for both the drawing board, and on site
* Provides comprehensive design guidance on the latest products

This clear and accessible guide provides a comprehensive outline on how to convert your house into a more 'green' home. Buildings are the greates energy wasters and for those of us concerned about the environment, and household bills, this book presents the key design changes that we can implement to our own homes to remedy energy loss.
This title covers the full range of design chanegs that are available to the homeowner and designer for renovation, from the roof to the basement, from insulation to windows. It also feature a selection of case studies illustrating the experiences of other homeowners and designers and how they have adapted and used the technology available to them in creating an energy efficient home. This is a practical, hands-on guide, ideal for architects, designers and homeowners.
* Comprehensive practical design guide to making your home energy efficient
* Covers all aspects of the house, from roof to basement, making it relevant to all homes
* Clear explanations give you a basic understanding of the technology behind the design

In this essential TASCHEN introduction to Tadao Ando we explore the hybrid of tradition, modernism, and function that allows his buildings to enchant architects, designers, fashion designers, and beyond. Through key projects including private homes, churches, museums, apartment complexes, and cultural spaces, we explore a uniquely monumental yet comforting aesthetic that draws as much on the calm restraint of Japanese tradition as the compelling modernist vocabularies of Bauhaus and Le Corbusier. With featured projects in Japan, France, Italy, Spain, and the United States, we see not only Ando's global reach but also his refined sensitivity for the environs: the play of light through windows, and, in particular, the interaction of buildings with water. From the mesmerizing Church of the Light in Osaka to the luminous Punta della Dogana Contemporary Art Center in Venice, this is a radiant tour through a distinctly contemporary form as much as a timeless appeal of light, elements, and equilibrium. About the series Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture series features: an introduction to the life and work of the architect the major works in chronological order information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts, and plans)

Good design helps to make the environment more understandable, resulting in huge benefits for everyone. The 25 case studies illustrated in this book demonstrate the principles of good design for people with dementia. The examples are drawn from nine countries across Northern Europe, North America and Australia. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone committed to improving the built environment for people with dementia: from chief executive officers and directors of service providers, through to officials from regulatory authorities, home managers and staff, architects and interior designers, as well as nursing, medical and related professions.

The book when it first appeared was also well received by "House and Garden Architecture Forum" and "Landscape Architecture." "The handsome book will be a joy to possess for those who love beauty in architecture and cultivated nature," so wrote Pearl S. Buck. In 1940 Henry Inn of Honolulu, art collector, designer, and photographer, produced a collection of Chinese architectural pictures that is extraordinary.

Although probably the only record of its kind, many of the photographs were taken as recently as 1936. Of those locations very few remain if any. A veteran traveller to his ancestral homeland, Henry In had an extraordinarily wide set of acquaintances which gave him an entrance into some of the choicest homes and gardens throughout China. This combination of artistic shell and unusual opportunity are unique.

Stanisic Associates have designed and constructed an array of apartment blocks throughout Sydney's inner-city that have provided a new way to live and to work in a totally urbanized environment. Many of these apartments have been built on the 'brownfield' sites of the redundant industrial land south of the city centre. The architecture has evolved - through an exploration of planning, material usage, spatial organization and the maximization of sunlight - into a climatically-responsive and appropriate modernism: an architecture that can be described as 'Eco-Minimalism.' STANISIC LIVE/WORK documents this approach to architecture and regenerative planning, and features all the practice's most significant projects, as well as selected un-built schemes that explored key ideas and strategies. All projects have been photographed by Patrick Bingham-Hall, and the book is illustrated with conceptual and schematic renderings, as well as formal drawings.

Recognising that buildings are a major contributor to global warming and the critical role of embodied versus operational carbon, the book focuses on houses built from materials that either sequester carbon (plants), use materials with very low embodied carbon (earth and stone) or reuse substantial amounts of existing materials. Organised by those materials (wood, bamboo, straw, hemp, cork, earth, brick, stone and re-use), and incorporating life cycle diagrams demonstrating how the raw material is processed into building components, the book shows how the unique properties of each material can transform the ways architects conceive the sections of houses. The house was selected as the vehicle for these investigations due to its scale, its role as a site of architectural experimentation, and its ubiquity. Building on the techniques of the Manual of Section, the book is comprised of newly generated cross-sectional drawings of 55 recent, modestly sized houses from around the world, making legible the tectonics and materials used in their construction. Each house is also shown through exploded axonometric, construction photographs and colour photographs of the exterior and interior. Introductory essays set up the importance of embodied carbon, the role of vernacular plant-based construction and the problems of contemporary house construction. Drawing connections between the architecture of the house, environmental systems and material economies, the book seeks to change how we build now and for the future.