What happens when an architect sets out to design the extraordinary, and by doing so challenges the established norms of the industry? A riot of inventive and ingenious residential structures to delight the eye and gladden the soul. This book decodes a wide selection of stunning experimental designs. By shaking off any limitations and seeking to challenge established design conventions, and using architectural ingenuity and modern technical aspiration, these carefully selected architects show how they develop bold and striking designs that will serve as inspiration for years to come, creating home designs that are both out of left field and can take residential ingenuity to the next level. This edition is lavishly illustrated with crisp and evocative full-colour images of the architecture, with insight from the architect detailing their inspiration and the challenges encountered through the designing and building processes. Whether it be a uniquely challenging location, the decision to use materials in innovative ways, or simply experimenting with a new design shape, the works featured within these pages challenge the everyday notions of what a residence should be. Through these pages, the reader is drawn into a beautiful journey through a diverse range of truly beautiful homes as imagined—and realised—by some of the best architectural visionaries of our time.

Shells are exoskeletons of living creatures and have fascinated humans for millennia. Interesting Shells presents portraits of beautiful specimens from the Natural History Museum's vast collections, each accompanied by a caption explaining their unique characteristics - whether biological, historical or geographical.

Between early 2020 and spring 2021, Oxford - like the rest of the UK - was subject to a series of restrictions to combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. After initial hesitation, the government stipulated that face masks should be worn in certain contexts to reduce transmission. These masks soon became obligatory but also a matter of personal choice in terms of how they looked and what they signified. Over a year, Oxford-based photographer Martin Stott recorded hundreds of images of masked individuals in the city, revealing the extraordinary diversity and individuality at play in a public health measure that was previously unfamiliar to most people. Politics, identity, fashion, subversion and resilience are all colourfully expressed in Stott's subjects who were photographed in a range of everyday contexts. This book presents 56 of these photographs. Wear a Mask!, echoing Anthony Fauci's memorable plea for collective action, provides a striking visual record of how Oxford's population reacted to an unprecedented public health crisis and turned face masks into a powerful expression of identity