What "really constitutes an architectural atmosphere," Peter Zumthor says, is "this singular density and mood, this feeling of presence, well-being, harmony, beauty ... under whose spell I experience what I otherwise would not experience in precisely this way." Zumthor’s passion is the creation of buildings that produce this kind of effect, but how can one actually set out to achieve it? In nine short, illustrated chapters framed as a process of self-observation, Peter Zumthor describes what he has on his mind as he sets about creating the atmosphere of his houses. Images of spaces and buildings that affect him are every bit as important as particular pieces of music or books that inspire him. From the composition and "presence" of the materials to the handling of proportions and the effect of light, this poetics of architecture enables the reader to recapitulate what really matters in the process of house design.

Over the past years, Dhaka-based architect Kashef Chowdhury has become renowned for a body of work that responds with great sensitivity to places, local circumstances, and the demands of a building's users. At the 2016 International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Chowdhury presented four recent projects his firm URBANA has realised in Bangladesh in a fascinating exhibition which he has designed with equal sensitivity and care. The labyrinth is an age-old space of intrigue, discovery and accident, which has fascinated architects throughout history. For his installation in Venice, Chowdhury challenged spatial perceptions by a simple turn: the labyrinth - which hides and blocks - is suddenly made transparent. Notwithstanding the obvious reference to Venetian glass, the labyrinth retains, or even accentuates, a sense of spatial disorientation. The installation was conceived not merely as a hyper-maze but rather as an expression of the anxiety that the artist experiences in his work due to a myriad of uncertainties. From design to construction, funding to maintenance, the part of the world where URBANA chiefly works presents itself with challenges at every turn, and it is in this milieu that an architect must operate with firm resolve. Chowdhury's Glass Labyrinth in Venice seems to explicate the notion that, although an architect has a clear vision of what he wants to do, the path to achieving that in the environment in which he operates, is laden with perplexing barriers. This new book explores and documents Kashef Chowdhury's intriguing installation in Venice with beautiful photographs by Eric Chenal and an illuminating text by Robert McCarter.

The definitive volume on Gaetano Pesce's incomparable life and career, as told in the iconoclastic artist-designer's own words. In a category all his own, Gaetano Pesce is widely considered one of the most important, and elusive, creative figures of the last half century. Bridging numerous key art and design movements, while never truly belonging to any of them, Pesce's singular practice has remained steadfastly provocative, defying widely held notions of convention, utility, and good taste. Yet as New York magazine demonstrated in its feature on the 'Pope of Gloop' upon the opening of his recent solo show at acclaimed gallery Salon 94, the world has arguably caught up to Gaetano Pesce. Now in his eighth decade, Pesce recounts his life and career to renowned design curator and critic Glenn Adamson, generating discussion conducted over several years that is as informative as it is surprising. Discussing his incomparable decades-long career which includes the creation of the classic articles of his UP series, the effusively postmodern design for Chiat/Day's headquarters, and countless works of furniture and design objects in his signature poured resin - Pesce shares his wide-ranging thoughts on art, design, and architecture. Always forward-looking, Pesce's process of reinterpreting and transforming the premises of modern design to create idiosyncratic and deeply personal works beat a path for multidisciplinary design practice seen everywhere today. Particularly in his exploration of introducing imperfections, if not 'defects' into the traditionally uniform systems of mass fabrication, Pesce turns out to be much more of a prophet of modern design than a curious detractor. Gaetano Pesce: The Complete Incoherence is the long overdue summary of an irreverent, wildly inventive career that should inspire practitioners across all creative disciplines.

The KingsHaven Design team is skilled at transforming timeworn interiors and exteriors into breathtaking spaces for inspired living by sharing with their clients the spectacular work of artisans and artworks from around the world, and by developing strong fair-trade relationships with artists that benefit them, their families, and their communities. Be it working with a stonemason to salvage the granite facade of a historic estate, collaborating with blacksmiths on a lighting fixture or custom piece of furniture, meeting with artisans who create gorgeous handcrafted baskets in the designs of their tribal ancestors, or searching hidden markets in Europe and South America for art pottery, antique mirrors, prints, and textiles, Lauren Wylonis and the studio's objective is to reclaim, restore, and revitalise their client's residential interiors and exteriors. In many senses of clever design, they create spaces that reflect a sharp and sophisticated twenty-first-century aesthetic for today's energetic lifestyles, yet never lose sight of the past. Rejuvenation of character, charm and architectural significance combined with the creation of cutting-edge luxury and style are the hallmarks of the design studio's ethos, which also can be seen in the handcrafted light fixtures, furnishings, and accessories found at Wylonis's irresistible retail showroom in Paoli, PA, just outside Philadelphia. The pages of this book are resplendent with luscious photography and insightful texts that together showcase Wylonis's unique practice and meticulous attention to detail in designing lighting, furniture, and home decor that takes each space to a higher level in art, architecture, beauty, and function. The useful tips for use in a new home or renovation are diverse and range from mindful design to achieving authenticity in an older home renovation. A must-have book for a connoisseur of interiors and design, or anyone looking to build or renovate a home or space.

With his artistic works, the sculptor Winfried Baumann (* 1956) evokes questions of social responsibility and the perception of contemporary social forms. His subjects are highly topical both as regards content with respect to social and urban-planning visions, and also formally as they cross the borders between fine art and applied design. For over thirty years the sculptor Winfried Baumann has focused his attention in the ecological problems which are increasingly advancing to become a question of survival for civilised society. Refuse, slag from the burning of refuse, waste oil and other waste products from our consumer society are materials which he has been using since the mid-1980s for his three-dimensional works and large-scale installations. In his very extensive group of works "Cathedrals" Winfried Baumann examines, for example, waste-disposal plants for large urban spaces, with the protection and marking of nuclear contaminated sites, waste-disposal facilities for large urban spaces and intermediate urban spaces and with the subject of urban mining.

In 2011, Zurich-based architect Fawad Kazi submitted the winning proposal for the rebuilding and extension of a hospital complex in the Swiss city of St Gallen. Over a period of ten years, a number of existing structures will undergo vast rebuilding and new ones will be added, transforming a park with individual buildings into a single continuous complex. This new, eventually five-part monograph, documents this project in full detail. It highlights the significance of St Gallen's urban design as well as the specific demands on architectural design and construction and on the hospital's operations. Volume I features the project's genesis and the initial new building, a pavilion structure housing a restaurant and, in the basement, an electrical substation. Text in English and German.

"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.

His name summons up our earliest images of the beloved books we read as children. His illustrations for Scribner's Illustrated Classics (Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Last of the Mohicans, The Yearling) are etched into the collective memory of generations of readers. He was hailed as the greatest American illustrator of his day. For forty-three years, starting in 1902, N.C. Wyeth painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and murals, as well as illustrations for a long shelf of world literature. Yet despite worldwide acclaim, he judged himself a failure, believing that illustration was of no importance.

David Michaelis tells the story of Wyeth's family through four generations -- a saga that begins and ends with tragedy -- and brings to life the huge-spirited, deeply complicated man, and an America that was quickly vanishing.

Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-present), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge – history, politics and media – in the making of postmodern architectural discourse. It explores how Portoghesi’s personal “postmodern project� is based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi’s most significant architectural projects – including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975–95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) – and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.

Since 1987, Eileen Joy Liebman and Fernando Villavecchia have produced a series of diverse projects from their studio in Barcelona, Spain, with an emphasis on residential architecture and the renovation of historic buildings in a range of rural and urban contexts. Over the years, they have gradually developed an oeuvre with a special "reserve" and with particular and measured attention to spatial expression. Projects include the careful restoration and adaptation of the 1958 Casa Coderch Mila in Cadaques (2017) and the Casa Sant Llorenc (2014) in the mountains of Lerida. Text in English and German.

Andreas Schluter (1659-1714) was a well-known Baroque sculptor and the architect behind some of Berlin's most famous buildings, from the legendary Amber Room to the City Palace--which is in the midst of a major rebuilding effort. In his role as court sculptor and court architect, Schluter worked under the direction of Frederick I of Prussia, who hoped to position the city through ambitious new art and architectural projects alongside Paris and Rome as a chief artistic center of Europe. The perfect companion for those planning a trip to the city or interested in this particularly rich period of its architectural history, Schluter In Berlin: A City Guide takes readers through all of the architect's most famous works with illustrations and convenient city maps. Each sculpture or building is accompanied by a concise description and a longer essay on the broader historical background of the period. Schluter is the artistic force behind what is now known as Baroque Berlin, and Schluter in Berlin is the first book to offer English-language readers a look at his many contributions to the city.

A classic of utopian literature, more urgent than ever: Buckminster Fuller's provocative blueprint for the future Composed of lectures given by Buckminster Fuller throughout the world in the 1960s, Utopia or Oblivion presents the thesis that humanity, for the first time in its history, has the opportunity to create a world where the needs of 100% of humanity are met. Fuller's grandson, in the introduction, refers to this selection as "hardcore Bucky," as these essays display Fuller's investigations into mathematics, geometry and how they intersect with the arts, music and world peace. In Fuller's words, "This is what man tends to call utopia. It's a fairly small word, but inadequate to describe the extraordinary new freedom of man in a new relationship to universe--the alternative of which is oblivion. First published in 1969 and then reprinted by Lars Muller in 2008, Utopia or Oblivion also includes one of the earliest published discussions of Fuller's World Game, a revolutionary "game" that set as the goal for players, that the world "works" for 100% of humanity to nobody's disadvantage. It challenged players to overlook traditional world units such as nations, states and other political and economic divisions.

Sigfried Giedion's small but vocal manifesto Befreites Wohnen (1929) is an early manifestation of modernist housing ideology and as such is key to the broader understanding of the ambitions of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) and the debate on the industrialization of construction processes and its impact on public housing at the beginning of the twentieth century. An important step in Giedion's rise as one of the foremost propagators of modern architecture, this manifesto is based on the argumentative power of visual comparisons, and is the only book the art historian both authored and designed. Along a facsimile edition in German, Giedion's Befreites Wohnen is presented here for the first time in English translation (by Reto Geiser and Rachel Julia Engler). It is completed with annotations and a scholarly essay that anchors the work in the context of its time and suggests the book's relevance for contemporary architectural discourse.

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.

The multi-award-winning Ahmedabad-based practice matharoo associates was founded in 1992 by Gurjit Singh Matharoo, whose architectural lineage stretches back to his great-grandfather. Focused on highly refined aesthetics that are married with functional yet playful interpretations of design (for instance, the House with Balls or Curtain Door), the firm's holistic approach is well regarded, and ranges across architecture and structural design, interiors and product design, creating public, private, commercial, and institutional works. This splendid volume provides an in-depth look into the creativity and insight of a very contemporary Indian practice.

"Building in Lebanon is my way of taking a position with regard to the war." This statement by the French-Lebanese architect Youssef Tohme is key to getting into and grasping Intensive Beirut. This illustrated essay blends reflections on the urban development of the Lebanese capital with the experience gained on the projects of this architect-contractor, engaged in the effort to reopen the debate on architecture in his country. In a place where every situation is never more than a temporary state, the analysis of space is fundamental. The first part of the book examines Youssef Tohme's ideas, illustrated with 25 photos by Ziad Antar, a Lebanese visual artist-photographer. Equipped with a Holga and a Rollefleix, Antar has captured the architect's key projects - St. Joseph University in Beirut (designed with the office of 109 architects), the Villa T and the Villa M in Kornet Chehouane, and the Villa SC in Akoura. The second part, authored by Karine Dana, facilitated exchanges of ideas between Youssef Tohme and important figures of the Lebanese cultural scene such as the architect Tony Chakar, the artist Ziad Abilama and the singer Ahmed de Maschrou. Text in English and French.

What "really constitutes an architectural atmosphere," Peter Zumthor says, is "this singular density and mood, this feeling of presence, well-being, harmony, beauty ... under whose spell I experience what I otherwise would not experience in precisely this way." Zumthor's passion is the creation of buildings that produce this kind of effect, but how can one actually set out to achieve it? In nine short, illustrated chapters framed as a process of self-observation, Peter Zumthor describes what he has on his mind as he sets about creating the atmosphere of his houses. Images of spaces and buildings that affect him are every bit as important as particular pieces of music or books that inspire him. From the composition and "presence" of the materials to the handling of proportions and the effect of light, this poetics of architecture enables the reader to recapitulate what really matters in the process of house design.

Until now, Emil Jauch (1911-1962) has been a little-known protagonist of Swiss post-war architecture. Shaped by the Scandinavian Modernity of the 1930s, his buildings are characterised by a remarkable sensitivity. This book demonstrates the Lucerne architect's empathetic design method by presenting his constructed school buildings. The publication describes the architect's life and work in three chapters, recognising his achievements in school building and classifying them within the European context of a humanising functionalism.

Providing a new insight into twentieth-century architecture, this is the first book in English on the work of French architect Fernand Pouillon (1912-1986). It includes Jacques Lucan's analysis of his post-war urbanism and its critique of mainstream modernism, a description of material construction by Adam Caruso, and Pouillon himself inspired by Aix-en-Provence and reflecting on the contemporary architect's position in a cultural continuum. At the book's heart lie survey drawings and photographs of Pouillon's key Parisian housing projects. This book is first in a series on 'The Limits of Modernism - a Forgotten Generation of European Architects'.

O'Gorman discusses the individual and collective achievement of the recognized trinity of American architecture: Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-86), Louis Sullivan (1856-1924), and Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). He traces the evolution of forms created during these architects' careers, emphasizing the interrelationships among them and focusing on the designs and executed buildings that demonstrate those interrelationships. O'Gorman also shows how each envisioned the building types demanded by the growth of nineteenth-century cities and suburbs--the downtown skyscraper and the single-family home.
[A] brilliant analysis . . . a major contribution to our understanding of the beginnings of modern American architecture."--David Hamilton Eddy, "Times Higher Education Supplement,"