Designed in 2018 by Nina Edwards Anker, acclaimed architect and interior designer and founder of nea studio, the Cocoon House is a feat of sustainable design. Located in Long Island, New York, the completely unique, LEED-certified home, gets its name from the curved walls which form its cocoon-like shape. The building, which is half exposed and half opaque, also boosts beautiful skylights inspired by Goethe's colour theory, which provide sunlight-hued illuminations throughout. Cocoon House, a book that records every step of this ambitious project with stunning photography and insightful text, will appeal to a wide range of readers: those interested in sustainable design or the progression of solar technology in building, as well as those who are simply drawn to nature inspired statement houses, crafted with the utmost ingenuity. The carefully considered theories that served as inspiration to the house are discussed in depth, making Cocoon House a crucial reference book to anyone studying sustainable architecture as a whole.

The Robie House in Chicago is one of the world's most famous houses, a masterpiece from the end of Frank Lloyd Wright's early period and a classic example of the Prairie House. This book is intended as a companion for the visitor to the house, but it also probes beneath the surface to see how the design took shape in the mind of the architect. Wright's own writings, rare working drawings from the period, and previously unpublished photographs of the house in construction help the reader look over the shoulder of the architect at work. Beautiful new photographs of the Robie House and related Wright houses have been specially taken to illustrate the author's points, and a bibliography on Wright is provided.

Florian Nagler's work is a veritable "recherche patiente", as his buildings have an experimental character. For instance the "research buildings" in Bad Aibling are exercises on what building with wood, plastered brick and concrete can each mean. The Wohnen am Dantebad housing development reinterprets the traditional pergola. Text in English and German.

As treasure troves of creativity, the homes of artists reflect the intellectual worlds of their creators. Starting with the Villa Stuck in Munich-the aesthetic, conceptual cosmos and life's work of the aristocratic artist Franz von Stuck-this unique volume integrates the artist's house as a category into the international context and is the first to assign these buildings the status of major works. About twenty examples bring to life the fascination that these artistic fantasies hold for art lovers, including both existing projects and some which, although they have been lost, were of unique importance in their day and still retain their charisma. Along with paintings, sculptures, and photographs closely related to the houses, plans and models convey the correlation between art and life as well as the kind of harmony of the arts expressed in Richard Wagner's historical concept of the total work of art. Houses featured (selection): Sir John Soane's Museum, London; William Morris Red House, Bexleyheath; Louis Comfort Tiffany's Tiffany House, New York City; Mortimer Menpes's flat, London; the Fernand Khnopff Villa, Brussels; Jacques Majorelle's villa and garden, Marrakesh; Kurt Schwitters' MERZbau, Hannover; Max Ernst's house, Arizona

Taking the Soviet Union Apart Room by Room investigates what happens to domestic spaces, architecture, and the lives of urbanites during a socioeconomic upheaval. Kateryna Malaia analyzes how Soviet and post-Soviet city dwellers, navigating a crisis of inadequate housing and extreme social disruption between the late 1980s and 2000s, transformed their dwellings as their countries transformed around them. Soviet infrastructure remained but, in their domestic spaces, urbanites transitioned to post-Soviet citizens. The two decades after the collapse of the USSR witnessed a major urban apartment remodeling boom. Malaia shows how, in the context of limited residential mobility, those remodeling and modifying their homes formed new lifestyles defined by increased spatial privacy. Remodeled interiors served as a material expression of a social identity above the poverty line, in place of the outdated Soviet signifiers of well-being. Connecting home improvement, self-reinvention, the end of state socialism, and the lived experience of change, Malaia puts together a comprehensive portrait of the era. Malaia shows both the stubborn continuities and the dramatic changes that accompanied the collapse of the USSR. Making the case for similarities throughout the former Soviet empire, this study is based on interviews and fieldwork done primarily in Kyiv and Lviv, Ukraine. Many of the buildings described are similar to those damaged or destroyed by Russian bombings or artillery fire following the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. A book about major historic events written through the lens of everyday life, Taking Soviet Union Apart is also about the meaning of home in a dramatically changing world.

Powerful, memorable architecture in response to diverse conditions and briefs, conceived and developed by the Geneva architectural couple Kristina Sylla Widmann and Marc Widmann: this volume presents five school buildings and facilities with a high architectural quality, as well as several outstanding residential and administrative buildings. Text in English and German.

The two Bern architects Bernhard Aebi and Pascal Vincent have designed an impressive portfolio of works since 1996, including renovations of historical buildings such as the Bundeshaus in Bern, but also many residential and administrative buildings, mostly following competition successes and always achieving great architectural qualities. Text in English and German.

RESIDENSITY: A Carbon Analysis of Residential Typologies is the culmination of a seven-year study analysing nine building typologies to understand the relationships between building densities and the amount of land and infrastructure required to support them. The book investigates how much embodied and consumed carbon is used in each typology and how it affects density and open space from the viewpoint of sustainability, carbon emissions, and carbon sequestration. The study determines which building typology is the most sustainable on a comparative basis. Nine prototypical buildings were designed - Megatall, Supertall, High-Rise, Mid-Rise, Low-rise, Courtyard, Three-Flat, Urban Single-Family, and Suburban Single-Family - set within nine prototypical communities. The study designates an archetypal residential community of 2,000 units with an average unit size of 150 sm as a reasonable and representative cross section of different housing typologies.

Peter Baumberger and Karin Stegmeier are young architects who have produced high-quality Zurich housing in recent years. In addition to their highly refined residential architecture, they have designed inspired buildings such as the extension to the Dietlikon village school or the extension to the primary school centre in Laufen. Text in English and German.

The farmhouse gained a contemporary freshness while respecting existing elements and using only a few external measures. Inside, a surprisingly multifaceted world has been created that impresses with its high-quality finishing, humour and consistency. The conversion thrives on surprising moments: the tension created by differently proportioned rooms, the varied interior furbishing and the direct nature of specific solutions that pick up on original uses. Text in English and German.

From the Introduction: "In Tinos, dovecotes can be seen everywhere. The most beautiful can be found isolated in gardens, near a village or a little further away or near a spring that irrigates a garden. Others, in the middle of a field, amidst the fig and olive groves, are often associated with a wine-press or a threshing floor for wheat. [ . . .] Usually however, the dovecote is far from the village and almost always includes a room on the ground floor where the owner can store his tools and the harvest, and possibly spend the night. [. . .] the dovecotes of Tinos are undoubtedly the most beautiful and the most numerous in the Cyclades." n 1955, a young student of the Geneva School of Architecture, Manuel Baud-Bovy, visited Tinos (an island in the Greek Cyclades archipelago) for the first time, staying in a cottage on the sandy beach of Kiona. While exploring the island, Manuel came across some unusual buildings: dovecotes, scattered right across the island. Manuel Baud-Bovy, deeply impressed, decided to compile a systematic list of the dovecotes. He walked all over the island, sometimes sleeping in a village, sometimes under the stars or on a threshing floor, in a chapel, or even in an abandoned dovecote. He discovered about eight hundred of them, which he recorded in four large albums with detailed plans, theories and thoughts, which he submitted to the Geneva School of Architecture for his doctoral dissertation. After 60 and more years, a selection of this rare and valuable material becomes a book, enriched with introductory texts and many photographic documents that capture the dovecotes as they were preserved in 1955. English language edition

The overall aim of the first chapter is to improve the knowledge about the simulation of thermal indoor climate for buildings in different climate conditions and its application for computer-based simulations. The work is done in order to simplify the use of CFD as a powerful tool in order to model the temperature distribution within the building envelope in two real cases in Switzerland, and promote a comfortable indoor environment with a maximum reduction of energy consumption. High energy materials like cement, glass, brick and steel are typically used in building construction. However, it is possible to reduce the environmental impact of any structure through the use of alternative, low-energy materials such as Silica aerogels (aerogel-based plasters), Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), Polyurethane foams (PU), and Mineral wool (Stone or Glass). Increased interest has focused on the development of advanced sustainable construction materials (Nano thermal insulation materials, aerogels, etc.) with adequate mechanical properties and durability performance. The most convenient way to get the most out of their investment in a building is to use energy modeling software. The second chapter will be primarily concerned with the choice of materials, then the suitability of insulation exterior facades. Geothermal is the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly method of heating and cooling buildings. The design of borehole thermal energy, as a common type of geothermal energy, is presented in Chapter Three. The calculation is based on heat transfer principles, including a case study of a BHE for a one-story house with all the properties related to analyze the BHE, e.g., to calculate the changes in the temperature of the circulating fluid. Economic analysis of implementing renewable energy technologies in buildings is especially important for a transition away from the greenhouse emitting energies since a great majority of the current capital stock and infrastructure of today's economic systems are adjusted based on fossil-fuel energies. Chapter Four presents a diverse collection of examples with economic analysis of costs and paybacks covering warm vs cold, social complexes vs private houses, and new vs historical buildings. Solar energy has various uses besides more energy production and it can be incorporated in applications with cooling, heating and desalination processes. The main objectives of Chapter Five are to assess the degree of energy reduction using solar energy in buildings and to establish the requirements for energy-efficient design of buildings in cold/hot regions. Payback period analysis that evaluates the cost savings resulting from energy efficiency improvements is also addressed.

A master of his genre, Scott Mitchell is celebrated for his warm approach to connecting the built and natural environment. Sought after for their minimalist, material-driven aesthetic, Mitchell's houses are studies in space, materiality, and light. Emphasizing an elegant spatial order, his projects respond to the natural appeal of their locations, be they bucolic retreats on Long Island or resplendent beach houses overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The first volume on his work, Scott Mitchell Houses is a sublime exploration of the architectural designer's impressive portfolio of projects. Dynamic compositions of light and shadow with a masterful use of concrete, Mitchell's monolithic forms draw on the surrounding environment via floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto vistas so cinematic that Tom Ford utilized one of Mitchell's homes in his neo-noir film Nocturnal Animals. Through previously unpublished photographs, readers are given an exclusive view into eight pivotal projects that span the globe from the Hamptons to Melbourne, featuring images by Ross Bleckner, Scott Frances, Trevor Mein, and Steve Shaw. Sure to appeal to fans of architecture and interiors, this book is an ode to a becalming modern luxury.