The story of the Stuart dynasty is a breathless soap opera played out in just a hundred years in an array of buildings that span Europe from Scotland, via Denmark, Holland and Spain to England. Life in the court of the House of Stuart has been shrouded in mystery: the first half of the century overshadowed by the fall and execution of Charles I, the second half in the complete collapse of the House itself. Lost to time is the extraordinary contribution the Stuarts made to the fabric of sovereignty. Every palace they built, painting they commissioned, or artwork they acquired was a direct reflection of the lives that they led and the way that they thought. Palaces of Revolution explores this rich history in graphic detail, giving a unique insight into the lives of this famous dynasty. It takes us from Royston and Newmarket, where James I appropriated most of the town centre as a sort of rough-and-ready royal housing estate, to the steamy Turkish baths at Whitehall where Charles II seduced his mistresses. We see the intimate private lives of the monarchs, presented through the buildings in which they lived and the objects they commissioned, creating an entirely new narrative of the Stuart century. Palaces of Revolution traces this extraordinary period across the places and palaces on which the action played out, giving us a thrilling new history of this remarkable dynasty.

Building with prefab usually means spending less for a better quality home. And it also means building greener; all the houses featured are highly energy efficient and sustainable. Prefabulous Small Houses explores the beauty, variety, design and environmentally positive benefits of prefab construction through the wide variety of prefabrication methods in use today with prefabulous examples.

Photographer Paul Clemence celebrates a revered icon of modern architecture, the Farnsworth House, located near Plano, Illinois, and designed in 1951 by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Striking architetural details are captured in 20 eye-catching B & W postcards. Whether mailing or framing the stunning images, this book is a must-have for devotees of architecture, design, Modernism, the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe, and photography.

Houses are more than a shelter from the elements: they also offer an unparalleled insight into the beliefs, ideas and experiences of the people who built and lived in them.

In this engaging book, Matthew Johnson looks at the traditional houses that still exist throughout the English countryside and examines the lives of the ordinary people who once occupied them. His wide-ranging narrative takes in the medieval hall and the community it framed; the rebuilding and 'improvement'of houses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and the rise of the Georgian Order in both architecture and eighteenth century culture.

This passionate book is animated by the conviction that old houses are much more than just pretty tableaux of an idyllic, unchanging rural England. Vernacular houses are compared to their larger, 'polite' counterparts, and English houses are placed in the wider context of the British Isles and the Atlantic world beyond. The result is a dynamic, compelling account of the development of houses in the English countryside and through this, a portrait of changing patterns of social life from medieval to modern times.

Richly illustrated throughout with photographs and drawings, this book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the significance of our built heritage and the historic landscape.

In the West, the Japanese house has reached iconic status in its architecture, decoration and style. Is this neat, carefully constructed version of Japanese life in fact a myth? Inge Daniels goes behind the doors of real Japanese homes to find out how highly private domestic lives are lived in Japan. The book examines every aspect of the home and daily life-from decoration, display, furniture and the tatami mat, to eating, sleeping, gift-giving, recycling and worship. For students and researchers in anthropology and architecture, The Japanese House re-evaluates contemporary Japanese life through an ethnographic lens, examining key topics of consumption, domesticity and the family. Highly illustrated throughout, the book will appeal to all who those are interested Japanese culture, and in how and why people live the way they do in modern Japan.

This book examines the social role of castles in late-medieval and early modern Ireland. It uses a multidisciplinary methodology to uncover the lived experience of this historic culture, demonstrating the interconnectedness of society, economics and the environment. Of particular interest is the revelation of how concerned pre-modern people were with participation in the economy and the exploitation of the natural environment for economic gain. Material culture can shed light on how individuals shaped spaces around themselves, and tower houses, thanks to their pervasiveness in medieval and modern landscapes, represent a unique resource. Castles are the definitive building of the European Middle Ages, meaning that this book will be of great interest to scholars of both history and archaeology. -- .

Michael Zaretsky 's Precedents in Zero-Energy Design is such an important book it will help readers recognize that design comes before technology and renewable energy systems alone can t solve the problems we face John D. Quale, Assistant Professor of Architecture and ecoMOD Project Director, University of Virginia

The world is currently facing an environmental crisis and as anyone interested in sustainable or zero-energy design knows the design and building industries have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the globe.

The Solar Decathlon is an international event in which universities from around the world compete in the design and construction of a one-bedroom, zero-energy house. This book provides an in-depth, yet accessible analysis of the architecture and passive design strategies of the houses in the 2007 Solar Decathlon. These houses are the result of thousands of hours of research and development from twenty universities around the world. Divided into three parts, the book provides:

• an initial section investigating the architecture, passive design and systems layout of the twenty houses;
• a diagrammatic comparison of the architecture and passive design characteristics of each of the twenty houses in order of ranking by the Architecture, Comfort Zone and overall scores received in the competition;
• a deep analysis of the relationship between architecture, passive design and mechanical systems design as compared to the rankings received in the various contests. This analysis considers the decisions made by the competing teams and highlights the success of the design strategies employed.

Students, educators, practitioners and researchers of architecture, design and engineering will find this an informative and inspirational book. It examines the relationship between design and environmental principles and provides invaluable insight into some of the most innovative, off-the-grid and zero-energy houses in the world.

With a Foreword by John D. Quale, Assistant Professor of Architecture and ecoMOD Project Director, University of Virginia

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing’s magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world’s largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor. Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle’s palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle’s sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time. Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts.

This book addresses the need for an in-depth study into design quality in new housing. The wider implications of policy and design are examined through a series of case studies of new housing projects in the UK and the Netherlands.

Dutch interdisciplinary design and modern methods of construction are widely considered to be of the highest quality from which much can be learned and understood. This new guide offers architects the best practice for the design, policy and construction of new homes. The author considers proposals for the Thames Gateway and government incentives to create better quality housing, including the A60,000 house and design reviews. The wider implications of skills and training of architects, planners, design professionals and those parties involved in housing are also addressed.

From the 150 Best series, a gorgeous collection of inspiring design ideas for transforming tiny interiors into beautiful and inviting living spaces. Over the past decade, tiny spaces have grown in popularity thanks to skyrocketing real estate costs, increased awareness of climate change, and a return to urban living. But a smaller living space doesn't mean sacrificing sophistication or comfort. 150 Best Tiny Interior Ideas showcases the latest ideas of internationally renowned architects and designers who have devised beautiful, practical, and eco-friendly solutions adapted to the specific needs and tastes of their clients. All of the projects featured in 150 Best Tiny Interior Ideas are under 1,100 square feet and show off the latest innovations in small space design from around the world. Discover how to live practically and beautifully in a 3D-printed concrete cabin in Ithaca, New York, a 240 square-foot aux box in Parksville, British Columbia, or a flat with a flexible layout in Hong Kong. Packed with hundreds of full-color photographs, and covering current trends, 150 Best Tiny Interior Ideas is an essential resource for designers, interior decorators, architects, and students, as well as an inspirational sourcebook for homeowners and apartment dwellers interested in downsizing or who've made the move, offering ideas for maximizing space while creating warm and inviting homes.

Interest in living off the grid, i.e. self-sufficiently without relying on public services such as the municipal water supply, electricity, or local sewage and gas systems, has come on the scene as a greener, cheaper, and more independent way of life. Homes that are off-grid generally allow for a smaller carbon footprint, and a sense of freedom and self-sufficiency. Living Off-Grid sets you free from depending on a company, either using solar panels, wind turbines, a micro water system, or a combination of these technologies. Other times, an Off-Grid system can work as an energy backup or be complemented by the grid when renewable technologies cannot produce all the energy needed. We have gathered different examples of nature-powered homes, which are partially or completely off-grid, to focus on the importance of these homes, which put sustainability first.

Scholarly and innovative with visually stunning line drawings and photographs, this volume provides readers with a compelling record of the unbroken pattern of reciprocal use and exchange between the countryside and the walled city of Florence, from the thirteenth century up to the present day. Defying the traditional and idealized interpretation of the Florentine Villa, the author: analyzes the economic factors that powered the investment in and building of country houses and estates from the early Renaissance times onwards, as well as the ideology and the architectural and literary models that promoted the Florentine villa explores the area between Florence and Sesto in its history, morphology and representation looks at the villas existing in the area. A contribution to the protection of the important cultural heritage of the landscape in the Florentine area and of its historic buildings, villas and gardens, this study makes engaging reading, not only for scholars and students in architecture, landscape design and social history, but also for the well informed reader interested in art, architecture and gardens.

UPDATED EDITION As a nation we are obsessed with property: prices, interior design and restoration, and the creation of a home. Now there is another avenue to explore: the history of your house. In this updated second edition, Britain's leading house historian uncovers the hidden stories and secrets of ordinary and extraordinary homes across the country. Gain a unique insight into our social and architectural history through a wide range of houses, including new stories for this edition, from workers' cottages to aristocratic mansions. Tudor farmhouses, Georgian mansions and twentieth-century modernist designs all have a tale to tell. From homes once occupied by famous figures such as H.G. Wells and Benjamin Disraeli to details of the everyday lives of people living in railway and fishermen's cottages, House Histories takes the reader through the centuries of change experienced by each house. As well as providing a rich insight into the ever-changing past of dwellings up and down the country, House Histories helps readers get started on revealing the heritage of their own homes by outlining the main research sources available, how to use them and providing ample case studies as examples.

This book provides a reassessment of the theory of magnificence in light of the related social virtue of splendour. Author James Lindow highlights how magnificence, when applied to private palaces, extended beyond the exterior to include the interior as a series of splendid spaces where virtuous expenditure could and should be displayed. Examining the fifteenth-century Florentine palazzo from a new perspective, Lindow's groundbreaking study considers these buildings comprehensively as complete entities, from the exterior through to the interior. This book highlights the ways in which classical theory and Renaissance practice intersected in quattrocento Florence. Using unpublished inventories, private documents and surviving domestic objects, The Renaissance Palace in Florence offers a more nuanced understanding of the early modern urban palace.

The first world atlas ever compiled on vernacular architecture, this comprehensive work illustrates the variety and ingenuity of the world s vernacular building traditions from a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and comparative approach, using over sixty world and regional maps.

Mapping such diverse aspects as materials and resources, technologies, structural systems, symbolism, forms and service systems on a cross-cultural and comparative basis, the Atlas of Vernacular Architecture of the World reveals the distribution, diversity and relationships of the world s vernacular building traditions. Indicating geographical patterns, developments, lacunae and anomalies, it gives rise to new insights and understandings, stimulating new hypotheses, questions and research efforts.

Augmenting the award-winning Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, the Atlas of Vernacular Architecture of the World constitutes a unique and unparalleled resource for anyone involved in the growing field of vernacular architecture studies, including architects, geographers, art historians, planners, folklorists, conservationists, builders, and anthropologists as well as being of use to all those working in the fields of heritage conservation, architecture, regeneration, energy efficient building, resources management, development and sustainability."

While the Edwardian castles of Conwy, Beaumaris, Harlech and Caernarfon are rightly hailed as outstanding examples of castle architecture, the castles of the native Welsh princes are far more enigmatic. Where some dominate their surroundings as completely as any castle of Edward I, others are concealed in the depths of forests, or tucked away in the corners of valleys, their relationship with the landscape of which they are a part far more difficult to discern than their English counterparts. This ground-breaking book seeks to analyse the castle-building activities of the native princes of Wales in the thirteenth century. Whereas early castles were built to delimit territory and as an expression of Llywelyn I ab Iorwerth’s will to power following his violent assumption of the throne of Gwynedd in the 1190s, by the time of his grandson Llywelyn II ap Gruffudd’s later reign in the 1260s and 1270s, the castles’ prestige value had been superseded in importance by an understanding of the need to make the polity he created - the Principality of Wales - defensible. Employing a probing analysis of the topographical settings and defensive dispositions of almost a dozen native Welsh masonry castles, Craig Owen Jones interrogates the long-held theory that the native princes’ approach to castle-building in medieval Wales was characterised by ignorance of basic architectural principles, disregard for the castle’s relationship to the landscape, and whimsy, in order to arrive at a new understanding of the castles’ significance in Welsh society. Previous interpretations argue that the native Welsh castles were created as part of a single defensive policy, but close inspection of the documentary and architectural evidence reveals that this policy varied considerably from prince to prince, and even within a prince’s reign. Taking advantage of recent ground-breaking archaeological investigations at several important castle sites, Jones offers a timely corrective to perceptions of these castles as poorly sited and weakly defended: theories of construction and siting appropriate to Anglo-Norman castles are not applicable to the native Welsh example without some major revisions. Princely Ambition also advances a timeline that synthesises various strands of evidence to arrive at a chronology of native Welsh castle-building. This exciting new account fills a crucial gap in scholarship on Wales’ built heritage prior to the Edwardian conquest and establishes a nuanced understanding of important military sites in the context of native Welsh politics.

Here is a new, larger edition of a classic reference. From its origins on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the seventeenth century, this charming and practical style of house has been transplanted and modified to accommodate varying life styles from as far away as Hawai`i. Stanley Schuler has brought together the architectural history of the Cape Cod House with many floor-plans and photographs to be studied and enjoyed by all who live in, restore, or want to build their own Cape Cod House. Examples range from the tiny single style to double, triple, modified and "modern" interpretations--all of which were practical at the time they were built.

The doors are wide open and you're welcome to wander through. Don't worry about the carpets as you enter through stately doorways, cozy up to colossal fireplaces, and climb poetic staircases. For those who love the old homes of the New England area, this is a chance to enter and inspect the window sills and cupboards up close. This excellent new third edition features more than 400 photographs and illustrations, along with helpful tips provided to guide the remodeller of Jacobean, Colonial, Georgian, and Federal homes toward duplicating these antique architectural features. There are also architectural drawings from the Library of Congress and by Asher Benjamin, one of the leading New England builders and most influential designers of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The world's most iconic chateau has welcomed tourists the world over, yet this handsome slipcased volume offers up the charm of a thousand and one hidden places in the chateau, its gardens, and pavilions. All were designed to surprise and delight the eye and all the senses at every turn, their exquisite decoration forming an integral part of the elite lifestyle of the eighteenth-century. This comprehensive volume captures the exquisite setting and inimitable ambiance of Versailles and its gardens, from its intimate private spaces usually closed to the general public to the charming Petit Trianon and dairy farm created for the pure pleasure of Marie-Antoinette. Concise, informative, and evocative texts describe the practical, social, and aesthetic considerations that informed the creation of the home to three kings, while newly commissioned photography features the chateau's architecture, gardens, paintings, drawings, and decorative arts that bring to life the beauty and the daily routines of this golden age of French culture. This jewel of a volume is a rich homage to Versailles and the perfect souvenir for visitors and armchair travelers alike who, while turning these pages, will embark on a private tour of the lavish chateau and grounds.

Shelter II is the second in a series of books about people building their own homes in different parts of the world. The principles outlined in Shelter, published almost 40 years ago, seem even more important today: relearning the still-usable skills of the past and doing more hand work in providing life's necessities.

This book is a concise and comprehensive guide to building defects and building inspection. Whether, as a practitioner you are employed in buying, selling, managing or maintaining houses or whether, or as a layperson, you are buying a property to invest or live in, this book will help you make sound decisions and avoid costly mistakes. Written by two highly experienced authors, House Inspector is a general and accessible book which describes how and why house construction has changed, identifies some of the more common defects, and provides a series of elemental check lists. Essential reading for trainees and general practice surveyors, maintenance inspectors, housing managers, estate agents, planners, and even private purchasers and investors. This book will improve your knowledge and understanding of potential problems and provide a simple framework for a competent building inspection.

Over three-quarters of the world's population live in cities where the need for affordable urban housing of good design is vital to the quality of urban living. Zhou and Colquhoun look at a wide variety of solutions to this urban design problem showing that understanding of the important design principles is a basic requirement of sustainable housing in the future.The authors discuss the whole range of different housing types, from an international perspective, approaching both 'concave' housing, such courtyard design, and 'convex' housing including tower blocks.They discuss the famous argument at the beginning of the 20th century between P. Berlage and Le Corbusier that focused on open environment and closed environment. Zhou classifies living environment into two types, "concave" and "convex." In concave housing layouts, dwellings are grouped around closed, secure environments such as courtyards. This form of layout is most successful with inward looking living space. Convex forms of housing look out to an open environment, as do tower blocks.