Robust and raw, concrete has been a rudimentary building material for centuries, but it is only relatively recently that architects have begun exploring its softer, tactile side in the design of houses. Concrete is durable, recyclable, and thermally efficient, and it goes up quickly compared to wood or metal framing. The appeal for architects, though, is its plasticity and potential for magic, making poetry out of the mundane. Witness concrete's endless form-making possibilities in this collection of contemporary homes by A-list architects in diverse locations across Japan, Australia, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, the US, and more. Along with exquisite colour photography and plans, the architects share their design approach to projects ranging from 10,000 square feet on spectacular sites, to compact urban gems. This close-up of 20 striking houses celebrates the texture and physics of a material that has long been taken for granted.

Crime and the fear of crime are issues high in public concern and on political agendas in most developed countries. This book takes these issues and relates them to the contribution that urban planners and participative planning processes can make in response to these problems. Its focus is thus on the extent to which crime opportunities can be prevented or reduced through the design, planning and management of the built environment. The perspective of the book is Transatlantic and comparative, not only because ideas and inspiration in this and many other fields increasingly move between countries but also because there is a great deal of relevant theoretical material and practice in both the USA and the UK which has not previously been pulled together in this systemic manner.
This book is for anyone who wants to know about how planning processes and crime prevention activities can be more effectively integrated. It is essential reading not just for planning students but also for those in many built environment and community disciplines, for practitioners in these fields including police and property development professionals, for politicians interested in this area of public concern and those who advise them.

This title is dedicated to a common and very frequent construction task in Switzerland and Austria: the detached house. Current design trends and new interpretations of alpine building cultures, different life forms and realities, changed demands and needs can be discovered in what architects and designers have created in recent years. A particularly exciting phenomenon in this context is the creative handling of room arrangements and the spatial partitioning, for which very different solutions are found.

For this volume, the author has selected outstanding contemporary concepts and designs that deserve to be noticed and appreciated much more. Between prefabricated houses on the one hand and fancy villas on the other, all presented homes are within a middle-class budget. Floor plans and elevations, key figures on square feet, facts on ecological aspects, materials used and, last but not least, the respective designers offer the potential builder an extremely practical benefit.

A captivating personal inquiry into the art of architecture, the craft of building, and the meaning of modern work.

When Michael Pollan decided to plant a garden, the result was the acclaimed bestseller Second Nature. In A Place of My Own, he turns his sharp insight to the craft of building, as he recounts the process of designing and constructing a small one-room structure on his rural Connecticut property—a place in which he hoped to read, write, and daydream, built with his own two unhandy hands.

Michael Pollan's unmatched ability to draw lines of connection between our everyday experiences—whether eating, gardening, or building—and the natural world has been the basis for the popular success of his many works of nonfiction, including the genre-defining bestsellers The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. With this updated edition of his earlier book A Place of My Own, readers can revisit the inspired, intelligent, and often hilarious story of Pollan's realization of a room of his own—a small, wooden hut, his "shelter for daydreams"—built with his admittedly unhandy hands.

Inspired by both Thoreau and Mr. Blandings, A Place of My Own not only works to convey the history and meaning of all human building, it also marks the connections between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.

The essential kitchen and bath design reference, updated with the latest codes NKBA Kitchen & Bathroom Planning Guidelines with Access Standards is the industry standard reference, written by the National Kitchen and Bath Association and updated with the latest codes and standards. This new second edition features revised guidelines for cooking surface clearance, electrical receptacles, and ventilation for kitchens, as well as ceiling height, shower size, electrical receptacles, and ventilation for bathrooms. Revised to reflect the 2015 International Residential Code and the ICC A117.1-2009, all illustrations have been expertly redrawn using 2020 Design and Chief Architect Software to provide clearer visual reference for real-world application. With thirty-one kitchen guidelines and twenty-seven bathroom guidelines, this book provides full planning recommendations, code references, and access standards for today's kitchen and bath design professional. Kitchens and bathrooms are the two most functional rooms in the house, and also the most code-intensive. It is imperative that design professionals stay up to speed on the latest guidelines to ensure the safety and efficiency of their projects. * Get up to date on the latest kitchen and bath codes * Reference a new range of standards for clearance, ventilation, and more * Design for storage based on the results of university research * Examine illustrative and descriptive plans, sections, and perspective views The NKBA guidelines are based on a composite of historical review, current industry environment and practices, emerging trends, consumer lifestyles, research, and building codes. These factors combine to help kitchen and bath professionals create designs that are beautiful, functional, accessible, and safe. The NKBA Kitchen & Bathroom Planning Guidelines with Access Standards is the complete reference professionals turn to for the latest in kitchen and bath design.

From the gothic fantasies of Walpole's Otranto to post-modern takes on the country house by Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan, Phyllis Richardson guides us on a tour through buildings real and imagined to examine how authors' personal experiences helped to shape the homes that have become icons of English literature. We encounter Jane Austen drinking 'too much wine' in the lavish ballroom of a Hampshire manor, discover how Virginia Woolf's love of Talland House at St Ives is palpable in To the Lighthouse, and find Evelyn Waugh remembering Madresfield Court as he plots Charles Ryder's return to Brideshead. Drawing on historical sources, biographies, letters, diaries and the novels themselves, House of Fiction opens the doors to these celebrated houses, while offering candid glimpses of the writers who brought them to life.

The life of Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) was full of complexity and contradictions. As a young man he joined the Catalonian nationalist movement and was critical of the church; toward the end of his life he devoted himself completely to the construction of one single spectacular church, La Sagrada Familia. In his youth, he courted a glamorous social life and the demeanor of a dandy. By the time of his death in a tram accident on the streets of Barcelona his clothes were so shabby passersby assumed he was a beggar. Gaudi's incomparable architecture channels much of this multifaceted intricacy. From the shimmering textures and skeletal forms of Casa Batllo to the Hispano-Arabic matrix of Casa Vicens, his work merged the influences of Orientalism, natural forms, new materials, and religious faith into a unique Modernista aesthetic. Today, his unique aesthetic enjoys global popularity and acclaim. His magnum opus, the Sagrada Familia, is the most-visited monument in Spain, and seven of his works are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Through brand-new photography, plans and drawings by Gaudi himself, historical photos, as well as an appendix detailing all his works-from buildings to furniture, decor to unfinished projects-this book presents Gaudi's universe like never before. Like a personal tour through Barcelona, we discover how the "Dante of architecture" was a builder in the truest sense of the word, crafting extraordinary constructions out of minute and mesmerizing details, and transforming fantastical visions into realities on the city streets.

In the Nile Valley and desert oases south of Cairo-Upper Egypt-surviving domestic buildings from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries demonstrate a unique and varied strand of traditional decoration. Intricate patterns in wood, iron, or plaster adorn doorways, balconies, windows, and rooflines in towns and villages throughout the region.
One of the most distinctive cultural features of these traditional homes is the decorated wooden balcony-screen-with jigsaw-cut patterns often based on creative repetitions, inversions, and mirrorings of the Arabic letter waw-which was designed to veil the residents from public view while allowing them to take the air and watch the outside world go by.
Here, Ahmed Abdel Gawad presents a wide range of these exuberant and largely unknown designs, in both photographs and detailed architectural drawings, for the use and appreciation of designers, decorators, artists, and lovers of vernacular architecture.

Today s cabins are for all-season use, making them the delight of hikers, explorers, and urbanites searching for peace of mind. They are practical, comfortable, and built to withstand the harsh climates in the high mountains or the rugged coast. Some are basic and sparsely fitted shelters; others are unique glamping (glamorous camping) retreats with all the comforts of the home or, better yet, with the amenities of a luxury hotel including hot tub, sauna, and Wi-Fi. Clearly, the idea of escaping to remote locations to reconnect with nature has expanded its experiential boundaries, but traditional cabins prevail as timeless structures that sensibly integrate into their surroundings. Glass and wood take centre stage as the predominant materials used inside and out. Generous fenestration opens interior spaces to the daylight and the views. Sustainable principles and the designs they generate evolve to reflect the use of materials and technology that is inherently linked to a place and time. Such principles were already implanted in vernacular architecture through the consideration of factors including geographical, topographical, climatic, as well as cultural and historic.

This guide describes every Historic Houses Association property open to the public. For each, it provides details of history and ownership, and places particlular emphasis on features of architectural interest and noteworthy art collections.

A fascinating insight into Britain's built heritage and the diverse housing styles of the twentieth and twenty-first century. This book showcases 100 houses - one from each year from 1914 - that represent the range of architectural styles throughout the years and show how housing has adapted to suit urban life. Each house is accompanied by stunning photography and texts written by leading architectural critics and design historians, including Gavin Stamp, Elain Harwood, Barnabas Calder, Ellis Woodman and Gillian Darley. From specially commissioned architect-designed houses for individuals and for families to housing built for increased workforces, each of the 100 houses brings a different design style or historical story. There are houses built as part of garden cities, semi-detached suburban houses, housing estates, eco-houses, almshouses, converted factories and affordable post-war homes. The architectural styles encompass mock Tudor, modernist, Arts & Crafts and brutalist and the featured architects include Giles Gilbert Scott, Walter Gropius, Edwin Lutyens, Powell and Moya and David Chipperfield. The book also contains essays that explore the social and political aspects of housing design in Britain over the last 100 years, looking at the impact the World Wars had on housing, exploring domestic technology and building materials and asking how the modern house came about. Whether exploring Grayson Perry's folly-like House for Essex, Patrick Gwynne's modernist glass villa in Surrey, Sarah Wigglesworth's Straw Bale House or Simon Conder's black rubber-clad fisherman's hut in Dungeness, this book gives a glimpse into the wonderful housing in Britain and is a must-have for all fans of design history and architecture.

While Dale's earlier books have focused on smaller cabins (1,600 sq. ft. and below), this one will be less about size and more about the living experience. The Family Cabin will feature new and old family compounds from across North America, much as The Cabin and Back to the Cabinhave done. New structures explore the prospect of family bonding, where old ones tell the tales of generations of family use. Since the beginning of the 20th century, cabin retreats have had a unique place in the lives and lore of many American families. In the 21st century, cabin creation continues with new forms and materials that give shelter at nature's doorstep. In this new collection of 37 cabins, Mulfinger rekindles his love for this treasured American icon with fresh insight and seasoned strategies for the logic, utility and beauty of cabin design.

American Architects and the Single-Family Home explains how a small group of architects started the Architects' Small House Service Bureau in 1919 and changed the course of twentieth-century residential design for the better. Concepts and principles they developed related to public spaces, private spaces, and service spaces for living; details about the books they published to promote good design; as well as new essays from contemporary practitioners will inspire your own designs. More than 200 black and white images.

Winner of the 2021 ARCC Book Award Complex Housing introduces an architectural type called complex housing, common to the Netherlands and found in other Northern European countries. Eight fully illustrated case studies show successful approaches to designing for density, which reflect values such as long-term planning, a right to housing, and access to light and air. The case studies demonstrate a wide range of applications including a mixture of urban and suburban sites, various numbers of dwelling units, low- to high-density approaches, different architectural styles, and organizational strategies that can be adopted in projects elsewhere. More than 350 color images.

To respond to the unique opportunities of each client and site, Bates Masi + Architects has developed an approach, rather than a devotion to a particular style. Careful study of the needs of the site and owners uncovers a guiding concept particular to each project. It may be derived from the owner s interests, the site's parameters, or the character of the place. That concept is distilled to its essence, just a few words, such that it can inform the design at all scales, from massing, to materials, to details. The consistency of the concept is evident in the finished product. It imbues even small details and simple materials with meaning, thus making the mundane memorable. The result is an architecture that is cohesive, innovative, contextual, and full of details that delight.

In the search for sustainable architecture, there is growing interest in the relationship between nature and design. In this vital new book, the termbioclimatic 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.

What does living in the city mean today? Urban centres promise diversity and agglomeration – they are the motors for changes in society. By means of 26 townhouses, urban multi-storey residential buildings and residential quarters for families, couples, flat/house shares and singles, this book presents a range of current lifestyle and living models. From organisation of the floor plan to construction details, various urban design and social aspects are presented. What decisions are made with regard to the degree of openness to and delimitation from the surrounding environment, which materials are used, how much private and communal space is planned? It is also considered how extensions, conversions and renovations can help to meet economic and ecological living requirements in the city.

75 unique designs for attractive, efficient, environmentally friendly homes.
Now available in paperback, this collection of 75 plans for small homes offers more than 500 usable blueprints and other illustrations for a variety of living spaces suitable for every environment and style, from a New England farmhouse to a sophisticated townhouse in the city to a Santa Fe ranch.
The designs include site drawings, floor plans, elevation drawings, section drawings, perspective drawings, and exploded views. A brief introduction to each home describes its setting, the philosophy behind the design and its intended use, materials used, recommended landscaping, and more. Many of the homes come with money-saving and environmentally sound features such as solar panels and water heaters, wood stoves, ceiling fans, airlock entries, wind power alternatives, and natural gas heaters.

Through 12 case studies from Australia, Bangladesh, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the USA, this book focuses on the housing reconstruction process after an earthquake, tsunami, cyclone, flood or fire. Design of post-disaster housing is not simply replacing the destroyed house but, as these case studies highlight, a means to not only build a safer house but also a more resilient community; not to simply return to the same condition as before the disaster, but an opportunity for building back better. The book explores two main themes: Housing reconstruction is most successful when involving the users in the design and construction process Housing reconstruction is most effective when it is integrated with community infrastructure, services and the means to create real livelihoods. The case studies included in this book highlight work completed by different agencies and built environment professionals in diverse disaster-affected contexts. With a global acceleration of natural disasters, often linked to accelerating climate change, there is a critical demand for robust housing solutions for vulnerable communities. This book provides professionals, policy makers and community stakeholders working in the international development and disaster risk management sectors, with an evidence-based exploration of how to add real value through the design process in housing reconstruction. Herein then, the knowledge we need to build, an approach to improve our processes, a window to understanding the complex domain of post-disaster housing reconstruction.

This book is structured in four parts: First, it analyzes the sustainability objectives established for the building stock and the importance of thermal comfort in this aspect. Second, the existing adaptive thermal comfort models and the main energy-saving measures associated with these models are analyzed. Third, the energy savings obtained with these measures are analyzed in several case studies, comparing the results obtained with other energy conservation measures, such as the improvement of the facade. The analysis is carried out from an energy and economic perspective. Finally, a decision-making process based on fuzzy logic is established. As an expected result, the content of the book contributes to assist architects in designing more efficient buildings from the perspective of user behavior.

Illustrated with 200 barn sketches, diagrams, and maps, this book takes you on a journey through the St Croix River Valley. It grounds you in the geography, geology and biology of the region and introduces you to its original inhabitants, the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples, European explorers, fur traders and loggers and the settlers that followed them. It is a celebration of regional diversity and architectural expression through a single type of building - the barn.

"Welcome to the world of ultra-glamorous architecture as featured in new coffee table book Archiphantasy (The Images Publishing Group), penned by prolific architect Alexander Wong. The weighty, lavish tome showcases more than 30 cinemas, private homes, shops and hotels that have been designed by his visionary Hong-Kong-based firm Alexander Wong Architects." - Daily Mail In this highly-anticipated monograph, Alexander Wong presents a selection of incisive essays on contemporary architecture and design concepts, along with a wide range of magnificently photographed works, including dynamic retail spaces, glamorous and unique residential interiors, futuristic cinema design, office spaces of the future, and so much more. Each project highlights how Wong combines the best of what Asia-Pacific has to offer in superior design with an abstract aesthetic, yet high attention to detail.