From the bestselling author of The Long Weekend: a wild, sad and sometimes hilarious tour of the English country house after the Second World War, when Swinging London collided with aristocratic values. 'Preposterously entertaining' Observer 'Brilliant' Daily Telegraph 'Rollicking' Sunday Times As the sun set slowly on the British Empire in the years after the Second World War, the nation's stately homes were in crisis. Tottering under the weight of rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in twentieth-century Britain, hundreds of ancestral piles were dismantled and demolished. Yet - perhaps surprisingly - many of these great houses survived, as dukes and duchesses clung desperately to their ancestral seats and tenants' balls gave way to rock concerts, safari parks and day trippers. From the Rolling Stones rocking Longleat to Christine Keeler rocking Cliveden, Noble Ambitions takes us on a lively tour of these crumbling halls of power. * A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year * * Longlisted for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History *

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.

ntended as a comprehensive resource, Increments of Neighborhood is a compendium of recent built work for urban neighbourhoods, encompassing the spectrum of building types financed/built by today's American real estate industry - from single family and townhouses, through 'missing middle' stacked housing, stick-built housing, large multi-family, and high-rise buildings. This publication is the only resource in the marketplace that tabulates market-rate products that fill America's cities, as well as being a comparative resource that shows how these types can be deployed in a way befitting smart-growth using sustainable principles. The only resource of its type, Increments of Neighborhood will demystify the understanding of costs and type, contribute to the public realm for the non-architectural professional, and provide a breadth and range of significant new information for experienced architects who typically specialise in a particular segment of building products such as hospitals or single-family houses, information with which they are frequently unacquainted.

In 1848, Orson Squire Fowler, published A Home for All, or a New, Cheap, Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building in which he announced that the octagon house with its eight sides enclosed more space than a square one with equal wall space. The octagonal form had been used in public buildings in the past, but now as a concept for domestic architecture it had a dedicated and convincing champion. Fowler's books, stressing the functional and stylistic advantages of the octagon house, found many readers and several hundred followers who sprinkled the landscape from New England to Wisconsin with eight-sided houses, barns, churches, schoolhouses, carriage houses, garden houses, smokehouses, and privies. Fowler's creative idea for an octagon house came to him while contemplating a design for his own home. He wondered why there had been so little advancement in architectural design, particularly given the preponderance of scientific advancements. Looking for a radical change in house style, Fowler questioned why the spherical form that is predominant in nature was not employed in architecture. The constraint of right angles for the framing of houses was the obvious reason. Fowler thought "Why not have our houses six-, eight-, 12-or 20-sided? Why not build after some mathematical figure?" The solution: the octagon. Since octagons enclose more floor space per linear foot than comparable squares or rectangles, Fowler claimed they cost less to build and reduced heat loss. He also insisted octagons allowed in more sunlight and had better ventilation than conventional houses; owners of these unusual homes found that the improved light and ventilation went into the triangular closets and pantriesthat occupied the octagons' angles.

A reprint of an 1890's catalog of a Stockholm manufacturer of wooden houses, with floor plans and perspective drawings of 86 pavilions, bathinghouses, balconies, verandas, kiosks, and dwelling houses.

The original plat of Maumee was laid out in 1817, when Easterners were just beginning to discover the economic potential of the Maumee Valley. Within a decade, entrepreneurs were flocking to the area and building "mansions," and not, as one observer noted, "insignificant huts" in the wilderness. Many of these early homes are still standing in Maumee, alongside other 19th-century structures which reflect the changing lifestyles, economic fortunes, and architectural styles that defined the era.

Cottages and Castles provides a guide to the historic architecture of Maumee, with examples and descriptions of the various styles from Greek Revival temple forms to Second Empire mansions, and the simpler middle-class cottages that proliferated after the Civil War. Some houses are included because of their distinct architectural characteristics and others because of their association with prominent people or events. Together, they provide a look back at the evolution of small town architecture in this historic northwest Ohio community.

Despite improvements in the last 30 years we still have a long way to go before all of our buildings are easy and comfortable for all of us to use. This book puts forward a powerful case for a totally new attitude towards inclusivity and accessibility. An eye-opening guide to the many factors impacting accessibility in the built environment, this essential text is packed with illustrated examples of both good and bad design. It challenges the notion that inclusive design is simply a list of "special features" to be added to a final design, or that inclusivity is only about wheelchair access. Exploring both the social and the business cases for striving for better standards, this essential resource empowers architects to have more enlightened discussions with their clients about why we should be striving for more than the bare minimum.

On the occasion of Tennessee's Bicentennial, four distinguished authors offer new insights and a broader appreciation of the classical influences that have shaped the architectural, cultural, and educational history of its capital city.

Nashville has been many things: frontier town, Civil War battleground, New South mecca, and Music City, U.S.A. It is headquarters for several religious denominations, and also the home of some of the largest insurance, healthcare, and publishing concerns in the country. Located culturally as well as geographically between North and South, East and West, Nashville is centered in a web of often-competing contradictions.

One binding image of civic identity, however, has been consistent through all of Nashville's history: the classical Greek and Roman ideals of education, art, and community participation that early on led to the city's sobriquet, "Athens of the West," and eventually, with the settling of the territory beyond the Mississippi River, the "Athens of the South."

Illustrated with nearly a hundred archival and contemporary photographs, "Classical Nashville" shows how Nashville earned that appellation through its adoption of classical metaphors in several areas: its educational and literary history, from the first academies through the establishment of the Fugitive movement at Vanderbilt; the classicism of the city's public architecture, including its Capitol and legislative buildings; the evolution of neoclassicism in homes and private buildings; and the history and current state of the Parthenon, the ultimate symbol of classical Nashville, replete with the awe-inspiring 42-foot statue of Athena by sculptor Alan LeQuire.

Perhaps Nashville author John Egerton best captures the essence of this modern city with its solid roots in the past. He places Nashville "somewhere between the 'Athens of the West' and 'Music City, U.S.A., ' between the grime of a railroad town and the glitz of Opryland, between Robert Penn Warren and Robert Altman." Nashville's classical identifications have always been forward-looking, rather than antiquarian: ambitious, democratic, entrepreneurial, and culturally substantive. "Classical Nashville" celebrates the continuation of classical ideals in present-day Nashville, ideals that serve not as monuments to a lost past, but as sources of energy, creativity, and imagination for the future of a city.

Although race - a concept of human difference that establishes hierarchies of power and domination - has played a critical role in the development of modern architectural discourse and practice since the Enlightenment, its influence on the discipline remains largely underexplored. This volume offers a welcome and long-awaited intervention for the field by shining a spotlight on constructions of race and their impact on architecture and theory in Europe and North America and across various global contexts since the eighteenth century. Challenging us to write race back into architectural history, contributors confront how racial thinking has intimately shaped some of the key concepts of modern architecture and culture over time, including freedom, revolution, character, national and indigenous style, progress, hybridity, climate, representation, and radicalism. By analyzing how architecture has intersected with histories of slavery, colonialism, and inequality - from eighteenth-century neoclassical governmental buildings to present-day housing projects for immigrants - Race and Modern Architecture challenges, complicates, and revises the standard association of modern architecture with a universal project of emancipation and progress.

From Dallas–Fort Worth to El Paso, Goodnight to Marfa to Langtry, and scores of places in between, the second of two towering volumes assembled by Gerald Moorhead and a team of dedicated authors offers readers a definitive guide to the architecture of the Lone Star State. Canvassing Spanish and Mexican buildings in the south and southwest and the influence of Anglo- and African American styles in the east and north, the latest book in the Buildings of the United States series serves both as an accessible architectural and cultural history and a practical guide. More than 1,000 building entries survey the most important and representative examples of forts, courthouses, houses, churches, commercial buildings, and works by internationally renowned artists and architects, from the Kimbell Art Museum's Louis Kahn Building to Donald Judd's art installations at La Mansana de Chinati/The Block. Brief essays highlight such topics as the history and construction of federal forts, the growth and spread of Harvey House restaurants, and the birth of Conrad Hilton's hotel empire. Enlivened by 350 illustrations and 45 maps, Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West affords local and out-of-state visitors, as well as more distant readers, a compelling journey filled with countless discoveries.

Mass housing in Germany, Russia, and Ukraine represents an enormous volume of housing today and therefore a huge resource for the future development of cities. But transformation of these districts is needed due to the functional, societal, and technical problems and challenges they face. How can sustainable, socially compatible, ecological responsible, and economically efficient development be achieved? The book summarises the results of a three-year research project. Based on the selected case studies, it points out the qualities and values as well as the problems and potentials involved in spatially transforming prefabricated housing estates from the 1960s and 1970s. The specific features and characteristics of the socialist city are evaluated with respect to their potentials and difficulties, and with regard to the requirements placed on future district planning and development. Hence this book contributes to the on-going discussion and serves as a valuable basis for developing planning strategies.

Filled with beautiful full-color photographs and detailed illustrations, an irresistible collection profiling 150 of the latest trends in contemporary loft design. The ultimate resource for designing and decorating loft spaces, 150 Best of the Best Loft Ideas presents 150 stunning lofts constructed and designed by notable architects and designers from around the world. Made popular in the nineteen fifties and sixties in New York City, lofts-synonymous with a modern, avant-garde lifestyle-continue to maintain their wide appeal. While loft living once meant converting old industrial warehouses into a warm and inviting living environment, today the style has evolved into an airy, open approach for any modern living space. This compilation highlights the diversity of current trends in loft design and is a source of creative inspiration for architects, designers, and home owners interested in staying current with the latest in contemporary residential architecture.

Between 1750 and 1840, the home took on unprecedented social and emotional significance. Focusing on the design, decoration, and reception of a range of elite and middling class homes from this period, Domestic Space in Britain, 1750-1840 demonstrates that the material culture of domestic life was central to how this function of the home was experienced, expressed, and understood at this time. Examining craft production and collection, gift exchange and written description, inheritance and loss, it carefully unpacks the material processes that made the home a focus for contemporaries’ social and emotional lives. The first book on its subject, Domestic Space in Britain, 1750-1840 employs methodologies from both art history and material culture studies to examine previously unpublished interiors, spaces, texts, images, and objects. Utilising extensive archival research; visual, material, and textual analysis; and histories of emotion, sociability, and materiality, it sheds light on the decoration and reception of a broad array of domestic spaces. In so doing, it writes a new history of late 18th- and early 19th-century domestic space, establishing the materiality of the home as a crucial site for identity formation, social interaction, and emotional expression.

An illustrated tour of the elegant entrances to New York City's most celebrated apartment houses. This handsome, oversized book introduces us to the grandest entrances of New York City's residential buildings. These posh portals come in an array of forms and styles, such as the porte cochere, with a passage to admit carriages or motor cars; the classic awning, originally meant to be retracted in good weather; and Neoclassical, Romanesque, and Gothic revivals. Architectural historian Andrew Alpern highlights approximately 140 entrances, from the 19th century to the present, including those of the Dakota, the first true luxury apartment house in New York; San Remo, one of Central Park West's most impressive apartment houses; and the Ansonia, at one time the largest hotel in the world. Each entrance is accompanied by a description of its signal features and the history of the building that surrounds it. All are represented in splendid colour photographs, and many by charming watercolour drawings. These ornate entrances offer a glimpse into New York's past, as well as its future - for today, once again, entryways have begun to feature heavily in the marketing of residential buildings. Posh Portals: Elegant Entrances and Ingratiating Ingresses to Apartments for the Affluent in New York City will be an inspiration for architects and a delight for city dwellers.

Activism at Home offers a unique study of architects’ own dwellings purposely designed to express social, political, economic, and cultural critiques. Through thirty case studies by architectural scholars, this book highlights different forms of　activism at home　from the early twentieth century to today. The architect-led experiments in activist living discussed in this book include the dwellings of Ralph Erskine, Paulo Mendes Da Rocha, Charles Moore, Flora Ruchat-Roncati, and Kiyoshi Seike, as well as many others.　
 Offering candid appraisals of alternative living solutions that formulate a response to rising real estate prices, economic inequality, social alienation, and mounting environmental and cultural challenges, Activism at Home is more than a historical study; it is an appeal to architects to use the discipline’s tools to their full potential, and a plea to scholars to continue to bring into focus architecture’s activist practices—whether at home or elsewhere.

Anthony Poon's passion for music inspires a vibrant architecture that engages its users and the environment. Affordability and sustainability are hallmarks of Poon's designs, which fuse quality and innovation. His success explodes the myth that architect-designed houses are more expensive and challenging than generic solutions and raises the bar for developers and architects alike. This monograph explores three fields in which Poon Design have excelled: housing, schools, and restaurants. It explains how they enrich the experience of living, learning, and eating, and promote social interaction. Readers can track the creative process from concept sketch to model, plan to completion.

Enter the world of fairy-tale towers, whimsical stairways, crow's nests, zip lines, and suspended rope bridges. Take pleasure in the details of hand-split oak shingles, thatched roofs, and cedar tongue-and-groove interiors. Made of sustainably sourced materials, Blue Forest's magical sanctuaries fit snugly between trees and branches-often incorporating them into the building itself-and sit lightly on the land. From a child's tree house inside a secret garden to party venues for teenagers and adults, this book details 28 imaginative tree houses, some of them accompanied by site plans and drawings. Whether the dwellings on each page are simple or designed to house a spa or home theatre, this beautiful book will inspire readers to reconsider their own garden's possibilities for relaxation and play.

Homelessness is a growing global problem that requires local discussions and solutions. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, it has noticeably become a collective concern. However, in recent years, the official political discourse in many countries around the world implies that poverty is a personal fault, and that if people experience homelessness, it is because they have not tried hard enough to secure shelter and livelihood.   Although architecture alone cannot solve the problem of homelessness, the question arises: What and which roles can it play? Or, to be more precise, how can architecture collaborate with other disciplines in developing ways to permanently house those who do not have a home? Who’s Next? Homelessness, Architecture, and Cities seeks to explore and understand a reality that involves the expertise of national, regional, and city agencies, non-governmental organizations, health-care fields, and academic disciplines.  Through scholarly essays, interviews, analyses of architectural case studies, and research on the historical and current situation in Los Angeles, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, São Paulo, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Tokyo, this book unfolds different entry points toward understanding homelessness and some of the many related problems.  The book is a polyphonic attempt to break down this topic into as many parts as needed, so that the specificities and complexities of one of the most urgent crises of our time rise to the fore.