Author Lynn Barnes admits she's known all along that she'd been a little different in ways she can't explain. In her memoir, The Last Exit before the Toll, she examines her life and tries to make sense of who and what she is and how her being affects her existence.

She reflects on growing up as an only child and her life now as a single, surrealist artist and Poe aficionado. Barnes recalls the events that have greatly impacted her, including the deaths of her mother and father and the suicide of her best friend, Marc. But it was the discovery that she has undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome that helped piece together the puzzle that has been her life and allowed her to come to terms with the troubling personality traits she has experienced all her life.

An insightful and creative look at Barnes's life, The Last Exit before the Toll provides a glimpse into the sometimes frustrating and unknown world of someone who lives with Asperger's syndrome.

The materials are mostly unpublished, and Renzo Piano comments on them with sketches made for this special publication. The story of the project evolves from the origins to the first conceptual ideas, revealing the hard research process through sketches, drawings, study and presentation models, but also scientific experiments on light, sound and materials, to finally arrive to the construction site, the architecture built and the space lived. Few brief comment captions and some phrases by Renzo Piano bring a deeper understanding of the project stages, extracted from the story of the architect's adventure. A text at the end of the book provides the reader with a "behind the scene" view, from the relationship with the curators and the client to the choice of the materials, to the research of the most suitable solution for that museum and the specific context in which it was build. A conception of the museum that starts from the work of art to arrive at the architectural project. A journey that takes the reader through time and space during its realisation.

A presentation of all of Gaudi's works: from his earliest projects until the end of his life. Featuring drawings of the buildings and a visual chronology of the architect's life. Joan Bassegoda explains each architectural monument.

They ate garlic and didn't always bathe; they listened to Wagner and worshiped Diaghilev; they sent their children to coeducational schools, explored homosexuality and free love, vegetarianism and Post-impressionism. They were often drunk and broke, sometimes hungry, but they were of a rebellious spirit. Inhabiting the same England with Philistines and Puritans, this parallel minority of moral pioneers lived in a world of faulty fireplaces, bounced checks, blocked drains, whooping cough, and incontinent cats.

They were the bohemians.

Virginia Nicholson -- the granddaughter of painter Vanessa Bell and the great-niece of Virginia Woolf -- explores the subversive, eccentric, and flamboyant artistic community of the early twentieth century in this "wonderfully researched and colorful composite portrait of an enigmatic world whose members, because they lived by no rules, are difficult to characterize" (San Francisco Chronicle).

American Brad Washburn's impact on his proteges and imitators was as profound as that of any other adventurer in the twentieth century. Unquestionably regarded as the greatest mountaineer in Alaskan history and as one of the finest mountain photographers of all time, Washburn transformed American attitudes toward wilderness and revolutionized the art of mountaineering and exploration in the great ranges. In The Last of His Kind, National Geographic Adventure contributing editor David Roberts goes beyond conventional biography to reveal the essence of this man through the prism of his extraordinary exploits from New England to Chamonix, and from the Himalayas to the Yukon. An exciting narrative of mountain climbing in the twentieth century, The Last of His Kind brings into focus Washburn's deeds in the context of the history of mountaineering, and provides a fascinating look at an amazing culture and the influential icon who shaped it.

From the towering Sagrada Familia to the shimmering, textured facade of Casa Batllo and the enchanting landscape of Park Guell, it's easy to see why Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) gained the epithet "God's architect." With fluid forms and mathematical precision, his work extols the wonder of natural creation: columns soar like tree trunks, window frames curve like flowering branches, and ceramic tiling shimmers like scaly, reptilian skin. With this outstanding attention to natural detail, his inspirations from both neo-Gothic and Orientalist aesthetics, and a lifelong commitment to Catalan identity, Gaudi created a unique brand of the Modernista movement which transformed, and defines, Barcelona's cityscape. With seven of Gaudi's projects listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, this book introduces the architect's extraordinary vision and unique legacy, exploring the influences and the details which allow his buildings to impress, inspire, and amaze, one century after their construction. 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)

From the first idea to the opening day, the project is followed step by step through a long picture-report. Phrases by Renzo Piano serve as comments for the pictures and guide the reader though this journey. The main text, that can be found at the end of the book, is the testimony of Renzo Piano himself, recorded for this special occasion. Moreover, some sketches have been made especially for this book. The choice not to use any caption for the pictures, but to leave Renzo Piano's voice as a guide for the reader, has the aim to transmit the sense of gradual discovery that is experienced when entering the museum. Our objective is to create a collection of "unique" books, that allow the reader to share with us at every stage of the project, this extraordinary adventure that is "building".

The Architect & Sculptor RAs photographed in their workplaces with examples of their sculpture or buildings accompanied by a brief biography.

The buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright are not immune to the social and environmental forces that affect all architecture. Because of the popular recognition and historical significance of his work, however, the stakes are unusually high when his buildings are modified in any way. Any additions or changes must meet the highest standards; how exactly this can be achieved is the debate that fuels this compelling new book. The essays collected here are authored by many of the top professionals in the fields of architecture and preservation. Some of the contributors worked directly on the buildings discussed and provide invaluable firsthand accounts of these projects. This is the most thorough discussion of modifying Wright's works published to date and a fascinating commentary on preserving our architectural legacy.

Contributors:

Richard Longstreth on additions to historic buildings - de Teel Patterson Tiller on design in historic districts - Sidney K. Robinson on Taliesin - Anne Biebel and Mary Keiran Murphy on the Hillside School - Mark Hertzberg on the S. C. Johnson Administration Building - Dale Allen Gyure on Florida Southern College - Neil Levine on the Guggenheim Museum - Scott W. Perkins on the Price Tower - Tom Kubala on the First Unitarian Meeting House - Eric Jackson-Forsberg on the Darwin Martin House - Lynda S. Waggoner on Fallingwater - Patrick J. Mahoney on Graycliff - Thomas Templeton Taylor on the Westcott House

This social history and community study documents the events surrounding the attempt by community members, activists, and VISTA architects to resist the planned construction of a community college in the neighborhood of Uptown. The planner and architect are seldom envisioned as advocates for the urban poor. However, during the 1960s, New Left planners and architects began working with marginalized groups in cities to design alternatives to urban renewal projects. This was part of a national advocacy planning movement that was taking shape in urban areas like Chicago. Inspired by critics of the Rational-comprehensive model of planning, advocacy planners opposed the imposition of projects on neighborhoods often with no collaboration from residents. One example of this resistance was Hank Williams Village-a multi-purpose housing and commercial redevelopment project modeled after a southern town. The Village was an attempt to prevent the displacement of thousands of southern whites by the planned construction of a community college in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. While the plan for the Village failed to win support of the local urban renewal board, the work performed by the young VISTA architects became instrumental in their subsequent career trajectories and thus served as formative personal and professional experience.

The story of the project evolves from the first visit to the site at the inauguration, through sketches, drawings, models, notes and memories of Renzo Piano. It becomes a sort of travel journal, immediate and powerful. The story of Renzo Piano and the testimonials of scientists and engineers have been recorded and faithfully transcribed, so that the reader can live the adventure of this project, accompanied by the voice of the protagonists. A text at the end of the book provides the reader with a "behind the scene" view, from the relationship with the scientists to the choice of the materials, to the research of the most suitable solutions for that museum and the specific context in which it was built. It is a story of a museum of sciences which becomes itself the subject of naturalistic studies, the container and the content; according to Renzo's opinion "this century has led to the awareness of the fragility of the Earth, and it is up to us architects, here and now, to find a new language that celebrates sustainability". The research that has been done for this project led to the conquest of a Platinum level in LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Soon after 1900 in both North America and Europe the evolution from the tradition of Mediterranean and Gallic architectural styles to modernism began. This phenomenon was due, in part, to American industrial architecture and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright's building and architectural treatises of 1898-1908, with the additional help of Dutch propaganda on his behalf, significantly influenced European practitioners and theorists. European architecture within and outside of Holland reflects an adaptation of Wright's theories along with the structural determinism of American industrial buildings. With new evidence and fresh analysis culled from Dutch and American archives, personal correspondence, and professional material, this study examines the weight of Wright's works and words and those of the Dutchmen H.P. Berlage, Theo van Doesburg, Jan Wils, J.J.P. Oud, William Dudok, and Hendrik Theodor Wijdeveld.

This new insight on the effects of Wright's architectural theories and designs, coupled with an extensive guide for further research, will attract art and architecture scholars and historians on both sides of the Atlantic and will also be of interest to social historians, artists, and architects. Events and new theories, including the assertion that Hendrik Theodor Wijdeveld was the catalytic source behind Wright's Taliesin Fellowship established in 1932, are presented in clear accessible language. Tied to the text are numerous visual presentations of significant designs and buildings.

Edward Schroder Prior designed the cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement (St Andrew's Church, Roker), perfected the popular butterfly plan in his houses, and published what is still the seminal work on medieval gothic art in England in 1900. Highly regarded by critics such as Ian Nairn, Prior is sometimes considered to have narrowly missed out on a place in the architectural pantheon of his age, alongside contemporaries such as Charles Voysey and William Lethaby. The result of extensive archival and field research, Edward Prior - Arts and Crafts Architect sheds new light on Prior's architecture, life and scholarship. Extensively illustrated, it showcases Prior's work in colour, including many of his architectural drawings and photographs of most of his extant buildings. Prior is the missing link of the Arts and Crafts Movement, in both a theoretical and a practical sense, as he was possibly the only practitioner who genuinely translated the artistic theories of Ruskin and Morris into architectural reality. He went on to found the School of Architecture at the University of Cambridge in 1912.

Vast interior spaces have become ubiquitous in the contemporary city. The soaring atriums and concourses of mega-hotels, shopping malls and transport interchanges define an increasingly normal experience of being 'inside' in a city. Yet such spaces are also subject to intense criticism and claims that they can destroy the quality of a city's authentic life 'on the outside'. Interior Urbanism explores the roots of this contemporary tension between inside and outside, identifying and analysing the concept of interior urbanism and tracing its history back to the works of John Portman and Associates in 1960s and 70s America. Portman - increasingly recognised as an influential yet understudied figure - was responsible for projects such as Peachtree Center in Atlanta and the Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel, developments that employed vast internal atriums to define a world of possibilities not just for hotels and commercial spaces, but for the future of the American downtown amid the upheavals of the 1960s and 70s. The book analyses Portman's architecture in order to reconsider major contexts of debate in architecture and urbanism in this period, including the massive expansion of a commercial imperative in architecture, shifts in the governance and development of cities amid social and economic instability, the rise of postmodernism and critical urban studies, and the defence of the street and public space amid the continual upheavals of urban development. In this way the book reconsiders the American city at a crucial time in its development, identifying lessons for how we consider the forces at work, and the spaces produced, in cities in the present.

A fascinating new take on the architecture of Adjaye, exploring his approach to five building materials through his projects David Adjaye is one of the most in-demand architects today, known for his thoughtful interpretation of public spaces. In order to understand him as an architect, you must look at his projects through the lens of material - a crucial consideration in his practice. Organized into five sections - Stone/Concrete, Wood, Metal, Glass, and Rammed Earth - Alchemy reimagines the traditional architect monograph by examining the importance of material in architecture, a study vital to Adjaye and his design process. In 2021, David Adjaye was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal, and he was among seven global leaders to receive a TIME100 Impact Award in 2022. The book features over 30 public, commercial, and residential projects around the world, from his 2001 Concrete Garden in London to the Amoako Boafo Gallery in Accra, Ghana, built with rammed earth and completed in 2022.