In this book, which was originally published in 2005, Amanda Lillie challenges the urban bias in Renaissance art and architectural history by investigating the architecture and patronage strategies, particularly those of the Strozzi and the Sassetti clans, in the Florentine countryside during the fifteenth century. Based entirely on archival material that remained unpublished at the time of publication, her book examines a number of villas from this period and reconstructs the value systems that emerge from these sources, which defy the traditional, idealized interpretation of the 'renaissance villa'. Here, the house is studied in relation to the families who lived in them and to the land that surrounded them. The villa emerges as a functional, utilitarian farming unit upon whose success families depended, and where dynastic and patrimonial values could be nurtured.

This book is an introduction to the vernacular or 'minor' architecture of the villages of the Venetian lagoon, excluding the historic centre of the city itself. This 1989 study provides an authoritative account of their architectural style and development and a companion volume to Dr Goy's Chioggia and the Villages of the Venetian Lagoon (1985). In a broadly based and fully illustrated discussion, the author aims to show how certain, often palatial, architectural forms found in the Venetian metropolis were modified when transferred to the outlying, 'suburban' communities of the lagoon, which were constructed in far more trying conditions when materials and skilled labour were both in short supply. The book offers an encyclopaedic guide to almost all aspects of the building process, paying particular attention to materials, motifs, decoration and the organisation of labour, and also gives valuable English translations of such primary sources as Sansovino and Palladio.

For the past decade, the Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan has designed multiunit housing in a city known for its proliferation of single-family residences. Working with the Skid Row Housing Trust, these projects advance new forms of supportive housing that address the services and infrastructures needed for their particular populations of inhabitants. For Maltzan, housing manifests an incredibly complex set of spatial problems-social, economic, political, typological, aesthetic, and urban-that recast architecture's role in framing the social relationships and individual challenges of everyday urban life. Social Transparency includes a recent lecture by Maltzan at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, as well as reflections from fellow practitioners on this sustained engagement with housing and the city.

The setting might be a sparkling lakefront, a cool clearing in the woods, a breathtaking mountaintop, or an expansive beach, but the dream of a modest retreat from everyday life often includes a simple little cabin. In cabin getaways of the imagination, the cares of the world recede, time slows down, and the day s pace is set by leisure and quiet activities.
"Compact Cabins" presents 62 design interpretations of the getaway dream, with something to please every taste. Best of all, these small footprint designs are affordable and energy efficient without skimping on comfort and style. The cabins range in size from a cozy 100 square feet to a more spacious but still economical 1,000 square feet, and all include sleeping accommodations, kitchen and bath facilities, and a heat source. Complete chapters on low-maintenance building materials, utilities and appliances, and alternative energy sources supply readers with the options for living efficiently in small spaces.
For every design, readers will find floor plans with detailed suggestions for designing the space for optimal use. These plans are flexible; many feature modular elements that can be mixed and matched to accommodate a particular owner s needs or hobbies. Features such as an outdoor fireplace, covered porch, or external storage locker might work nicely in several cabin designs. It s all about enhancing and maximizing small spaces to suit individual needs and preferences.
Build small. In this time of uncertain energy costs, global warming, and tighter budgets, building small is a theme that resonates with second-home owners. Gerald Rowan shows readers how to achieve their cabin dreams on a small footprint."

Sean Godsell, an award-winning pioneer of 'Australian bush minimalism', has established himself as an influence on the global architecture scene. This survey of his residential architecture features twelve houses and dwellings across Australia, each illustrated with full-colour photography and the architect's hand-drawn plans and exploratory sketches, which illuminate how each house connects to its surrounding landscape. Featuring an essay by Godsell about the influences of Australia's particular landscapes and culture, this survey also includes an introduction by leading critic and commentator Philip Goad about the achievements of Godsell's career, and the global importance of his visionary designs. With a complete illustrated chronology.

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.

Examines a diverse range of house types in an effort to understand how people imagined and articulated their place in the Roman world, from Britain to Syria. Shelly Hales considers the nature and role of domestic decoration and its role in promoting social identities. From the Egyptian themes of imperial residences in Italy, to the viticultural designs found in the rock-cut homes in Petra, this decoration consistently appeals to fantasies beyond the immediate realities of their inhabitants. Hales contends that fantasy served a key role in allowing individuals and communities to meet expectations and indulge aspirations, to confirm and to compete within the diverse empire. Employing a wide range of approaches to the study of the house and acculturation in the Roman Empire, her book serves as the first synthesis of Roman domestic architecture and offers new insights into the complexities and contradictions of being Roman.

This book explores the socio-cultural and the tectonic aspects of Kerala's wooden architecture, which is deeply rooted in religious and secular customs and shaped by geo-climatic forces. e author's multi-disciplinary approach links the various ethnic groups residing in Kerala, and the mutual adoption and adaptation of construction systems within migrant groups. Despite being a living tradition serving millions of people, vernacular architecture in India has not received the academic and analytical attention it deserves. is volume attempts to ll this research gap, a need made more urgent by the fact that the built environment is changing and the traditional ways of building may get replaced by the modern much faster than we can imagine.

Throughout the world, Passive House is now recognised as the best method to create comfortable, healthy, low energy buildings and it is a key component of the 21st century's green economic revolution.

Written by one of the UK's leading passive house architects, this book contains essays that reveal the technical and creative secrets of Passive House design, as well as containing case studies of some of the world's best examples of beautiful, technically excellent buildings that still feel great even when the power supply is turned down to almost nothing.

Whether you are an architect, client, student or construction professional, this book is an enlightening introduction to Passive House and a valuable source of inspiration.

When much of our existing housing stock was built, lifestyles were very different. This means that a large portion of architects' work has been adapting these older buildings, rather than building afresh. The challenge, then, is to adapt our old buildings to our new ways of living, without destroying what we value about these older homes. Adapting often mean adding more space, such as extensions, roofs, or even basements, while maintaining the original facade. This book is about the challenge of adapting our old buildings to our new lifestyles in lots of different and creative ways.

Nomos is an association of architects based in Geneva, Lisbon and Madrid. They collaborate on projects of all scales, from furniture to master plans, with a special focus on the cultural context and the environment. Primarily using drawing to shape their ideas, they explore new ways of creating community through buildings that seek to transform constraints into opportunities. They approach each project with enthusiasm, care and curiosity, always striving for sustainable beauty. Text in English and German.

From a huge former cold storage plant located in a remote corner of Chile and a sugar refinery in rural China to a hundred-year-old belt factory in Chicago, the book profiles over 25 truly exceptional hotels and boutique boltholes around the world, all of which are situated in refurbished industrial buildings. These are destinations for design enthusiasts. Each hotel demonstrates the exciting potential of old industrial buildings for modern day accommodation and provides decorative inspiration that can be taken and applied at home. Hotel To Home is an invaluable travel companion when selecting hotels that offer truly memorable escapes, detailing the fascinating histories, the architectural quirks and amenities that establish these hotels as some of the world's most unique places to stay.

This beautifully produced book celebrates the work of Robert Adam, the great eighteenth-century architect who influenced generations by stamping his distinctive neoclassical aesthetic vision on the English country house interior. Lavish new photography provides a deeply visual exploration of Adam s most important surviving country houses, to which the author and photographer gained unparalleled access. Included are magnificent country houses such as Syon House and Harewood House styled and inspired by the ideal of the neoclassical as well as Adam s castle-style Mellerstain and town houses such as Home House all captured in splendid detail. Original Adam design drawings, from Sir John Soane s Museum, illustrate the boldness of planning, color, and creative interpretation of Adam s domestic interiors. A biographical and contextual account of Adam s life and work describes his unique design process, his patrons, and the legacy of his design achievement. This richly illustrated volume will appeal to designers and homeowners as well as traditional architecture enthusiasts, promising to become an important addition to any architecture and interior design library.

How can we adequately provide housing when disaster strikes, whether that disaster is weather related, like hurricanes, floods, and droughts, happens in a matter of minutes from an earthquake or tsunami, through a slow process like rising sea levels, or is the result of civil disorder or poverty? There is an urgent need for safe, sustainable housing designs that are cheap to build, environmentally friendly, and hardy enough to withstand severe environmental conditions. Not only is there climate change to contend with, but there are millions of people, right now, who do not have safe or adequate housing.

In Urgent Architecture Bridgette Meinhold showcases 40 successful emergency and long-term housing projects from repurposed shipping containers to sandbag homes. She surveys successful structures as well as highlighting promising projects that are still being developed. Every one is quickly deployable, affordable, and sustainable. This book is an essential resource for those who are interested in green building, sustainable design, eco-friendly materials, affordable housing, material reuse, and humanitarian relief."

From the late 1930s to the early 1970s, two brothers, Burton G. Tremaine and Warren D. Tremaine, and their respective wives, Emily Hall Tremaine and Katharine Williams Tremaine, commissioned approximately thirty architecture and design projects. Richard Neutra and Oscar Niemeyer designed the best-known Tremaine houses; Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright also created designs and buildings for the family that achieved iconic status in the modern movement. Focusing on the Tremaines’ houses and other projects, such as a visitor center at a meteor crater in Arizona, this volume explores the Tremaines’ architectural patronage in terms of the family’s motivations and values, exposing patterns in what may appear as an eclectic collection of modern architecture. Architectural historian Volker M. Welter argues that the Tremaines’ patronage was not driven by any single factor; rather, it stemmed from a network of motives comprising the clients’ practical requirements, their private and public lives, and their ideas about architecture and art.

Decoding Homes and Houses uses a computer-based method of analysis to explore the relation between the design and layout of traditional, vernacular, speculative and architect-designed houses and people's evolving tastes, lifestyles, habits and domestic routines. Its purpose is to show how it is possible to explore the relation between house form and culture by looking at the social information that is crystallized in the layouts of the houses themselves (as opposed to asking people how they respond to them).

In a world that fetishises aesthetic frivolity and iconographic bombast at the expense of substance and nuance, the critically acclaimed work of Johnsen Schmaling Architects stands out for its conceptual rigor, profound simplicity, and quiet repose. Formally restrained and informed by innovative tectonic and material experimentations, Johnsen Schmaling's precisely crafted architecture creates poetic atmospheres of enduring clarity. Johnsen Schmaling: On Rigor is the firm's first monograph and provides an in-depth look at thirteen seminal residential and commercial projects. The book reveals how the architects' unique reading of context and cultural memory translates into an abstract palette of architectural operations that guide the entire design process, from initial concepts to intricate, meticulously detailed material assemblies.The crisply designed book features beautiful photography and delightful graphics that Illustrate how the projects came to life.

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.

An easy-to-use illustrated guide to building codes for residential structures

As the construction industry moves to a single set of international building codes, architects and construction professionals need an interpretive guide to understand how the building code affects the early design of specific projects. This newest addition to Wiley's series of focused guides familiarizes code users with the 2009 International Residential Code(R) (IRC) as it applies to residential buildings. The book provides architects, engineers, and other related building professionals with an understanding of how the International Residential Code was developed, and how it is likely to be interpreted when applied to the design and construction of residential buildings.- User-friendly visual format that makes finding the information you need quick and easy- The book's organization follows the 2009 International Residential Code itself - Nearly 900 illustrations, by architectural illustrator Steven Juroszek in the style of noted illustrator and author Frank Ching, visualize and explain the codes- Text written by experienced experts who have been instrumental in gaining acceptance for the new unified building code

This book is an essential companion to the IRC for both emerging practitioners and experienced practitioners needing to understand the new IRC.

In this book the author explores the sociological foundations of domestic design in eighteenth-century France, the acknowledged leader of domestic architecture in this period. Focusing on the Place Vendôme, which was developed by the financiers of Paris, she examines the representational strategies and dilemmas of French elites, which were crucial to the formation of a French mode of design. Through analyses of social distinctions and ambitions, Ziskin explores the manner in which the dwellings of the Place Vendôme embodied beliefs about the nature of society and the appropriate relations among social groups.