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Architecture Stuff
is about a way of looking at architecture. It examines 7 seminal projects and shows how they might have been conceived with or without the design architect’s awareness. More a working method than a theory, the book deals with questions pertinent to designers as well as to critics of buildings. More Stuff then illustrates how the same sensibility and working method can be used in the design of buildings as a tool for creating architecture.

The 7 buildings featured are chosen for their breadth of styles and approaches to architecture, demonstrating that this approach to architecture can be applied to any building. Presented in reverse chronological order, the first project, Grace Farms, is a building by SANAA. Noted for its meandering river form and minimalist detailing, it is seen to be – among other things – a juxtaposition of orthogonal and sinuous forms. The second project is Villa Dall Ava by Rem Koolhaas/OMA. Located in the suburbs, the house is a transition from city to country. The third project is the Neue Staatsgalerie by James Stirling. The analysis shows how the ‘bad boy’ of architecture subverts conventional architectural tropes. Robert Venturi’s Mother’s House is shown to be a compressed stately manor and an architect’s conceit. The Kimbell Art Museum by Louis Kahn can be understood as simple repetitive forms with elaborated elements that organize a diverse collection of spaces. Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre is much more than types of transparency and mechanisation. One of its major themes is the use of ‘L’ shaped spaces. Finally, St George’s Bloomsbury by Nicholas Hawksmoor is a parish church swallowed by a classical temple. The critique exposes how the architect used that idea to juxtapose the clerical and the civic to develop all of the details in the building.

These are not singular idea buildings and, as a way of seeing architecture, there are overlapping themes in this collection. The history of architecture of specific periods is a common theme, as is architecture’s stasis with spaces expanding or contracting. A dry sense of humour is always appreciated. What separates these buildings from any other building is the density of ideas presented.

More Stuff accounts for the same working methods as a way to make architecture. Here the author illustrates eleven projects across the span of his career. Though often done in collaboration with others, in all cases the author generated the design ideas. One of the key aspects of architecture stuff is that it is unpretentious and accessible and these projects are meant to illustrate that quality. Architecture can be serious and playful at the same time.

McInturff Architects are renowned for their innovative and creative zeal and have been awarded hundreds of awards for their beautiful, stylish houses plus other projects. For this book, McInturff’s fourth with IMAGES, this award-winning firm takes us on a journey through nearly 50 works, which include dozens of stunning new homes and interiors, incredible renovations of residences, and innovative and modern commercial and cultural centres, hotels, stores, and much more. Complete with beautiful photographs and detailed plans and diagrams, the architects walk us through this significant selection of works, celebrating craft, light, and site. Looking back and looking forward, this book summarises many lessons learned over more than 35 years of a very successful architectural journey.

The work of the Dutch jewellery-maker Robert Smit. The book involves the reader in the sensuous qualities of his work and sets a new standard in documentation and book design.

Our contemporary condition, governed by the abstract apparatus of the capitalist market, demands a critical reading of the distribution, ownership, and use of common resources such as land. This is especially true in Britain with its long history of privatisation stemming from land enclosure. The latest research campaign of Laboratory Basel (laba), a satellite studio of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, investigated the English manor house and how it can serve as a testing ground to reassess Britain’s complex and ongoing relationship with the countryside.

The south-west of England, the most rural region of one of the more densely populated countries in Europe, reflects all the absurdities of a globalised country under pressure to develop economically, physically and environmentally. Highly protected landscapes, both natural and composed, form the backdrop to historic seats of political power and wealth, whilst sites of intense modern productivity are neatly concealed behind natural veils.

Manor Lessons: Commons Revisited, the concluding volume of laba’s Teaching and Research in Architecture series, explores the lessons that can be learned from the compound history of the Manorial System, whose forgotten feudalistic origins were once rooted in the idea of the land, not as private property but as common ground.

Chinese furniture design had been improved through the centuries, maturing during the 14th century. The Qing furniture developed from Ming style furniture; it was attractive with ornate novel decorative elements. In the olden days of China, those who had resources could afford to live in a gracious residence such as the four-closed courtyard house (siheyuan). The four-closed courtyard house is the Chinese art of enclosing space to create an ideal environment for habitation. The multifunctional Chinese classical furniture facilitates the indoor and outdoor activities of its inhabitants. Siheyuan is divided into chambers such as the Hall, female chamber etc.

This book provides details on which pieces of furniture should be displayed in each chamber, as well as full-colour illustrations and diagrams of how each piece was made and assembled. This includes three-dimensional drawings by Philip Mak and perspective views of the interior of various rooms. The author guides the readers through them, narrating the placement of furniture with inherent social implications. For easy reference, each piece is numbered and a more detailed description available in the catalogue section of this book.

Text in English and Chinese.

The architecture work of Brazil-based Raul di Pace is guided by creativity and innovation. The firm’s focus always comes with the awareness that it is providing a service to its customer. The firm’s ideas happen naturally, and relate to the needs of the residents and their dreams for the place where they will live. A house is a place that must adapt to fit in with the time for which it is designed, and then it must continue to be a living environment as time and generations evolve. Before, cities had no running water and electricity—today most things are automated. To follow time is to adapt to new technologies, new materials, new habits and demands. We cannot imagine something as unchangeable, untouchable. A contemporary house cannot be simply a sanctuary. It should primarily be a pleasant space that provides adequate housing that serves the residents before anything else; it is up to the architect to remake, adapt, orient and reorient—all the while fulfilling this overall mission. Since the beginning, Raul di Pace’s architecture is about the search to reinvent oneself, to propose new solutions, built to suit specific purposes. Heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, which was a process of reinvention from start to finish, this highly anticipated volume shows how Raul di Pace continues to reinvent its language based on the same premise: make less, splurge less, seek the essential.

Text in English and Portuguese.

“When you land on this book, if you do not yet have an appreciation of butterflies or Chan’s workmanship, after reading, it will leave you in awe of both.”—Beth Bernstein, Forbes
“When I was a young boy, butterflies were flying colours – I knew not their name. Then butterflies became the Butterfly Lovers: a tragedy, a love story, a symbol of eternal love. As I grew older, I found them to embody the words of a great philosopher: life is but a dream; only we need to decide whether we want it to be the dream of a man, or the dream of a butterfly. I could not decide, and so I became The Butterfly Man.”
– Wallace Chan

Father of The Wallace Cut – an illusionary three-dimensional gemstone carving technique – and The Wallace Chan Porcelain – a ground-breaking material five times stronger than steel – Wallace Chan is a guiding light in the world of jewellery design. Always innovating, always testing boundaries with his materials and technique, Chan’s creations are as stunning as they are intricate. Compiled by jewellery experts, this book explores the cultural and personal significance of Wallace Chan’s most famous emblem: the butterfly.

Winged Beauty: The Butterfly Jewellery Art of Wallace Chan features approximately 30 of his finest pieces. Enter a butterfly house of colourful gems, with brooches and necklaces so delicate they might have flown down and alighted on the page.

World-renowned architectural writer and critic Philip Jodidio delves into his selection of the Top Twenty-six of the most contemporary and current house designs from around the world, showcasing the most innovative and influential designs from Europe, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South and Central America, India, and Asia. He provides an incisive analysis of the site-specific elements, key environmental factors of the landscape design, the use of spatial visualisations, light, sustainability, and materials, and other critical design features of each home. He expertly articulates and examines the relationships between the architecture and the intentions of the design for the people who live there, taking into account how the architecture affects human behaviour, what enhances the success of the design of each home in this collection, with an overview of current industry trends, and where to next for residential design innovation. This beautifully presented book, filled with stunning photographs and detailed plans and diagrams, celebrates residential luxury, inspirational style and design innovation from around the globe.

The studio and residential building at Wuhrstrasse 8/10 in Zurich is a unique place: Commissioned by the Painters & Sculptors Cooperative Zurich, founded in 1948, eminent Swiss architect Ernst Gisel (1922–2021) designed this ensemble of buildings comprising 8 apartments and twelve artist studios in 1953. Thus, a utopia of self-organised working and living space became reality. Since then, 54 artists have left their mark on the artistic and cultural life of Zurich and Switzerland from their home on Wuhrstrasse 8/10.

This book recounts the history of this extraordinary structure, illustrated with archival plans and documents as well as new and historic photographs. It also examines the political and social dimension of the Wuhrstrasse model and its international impact. Further essays explore how the lives and works of the resident artists are interwoven with contemporary events, and address the artist studio as both an idealised myth and as a real place of work. In inserts created especially for the book, eleven Zurich-based artists, all members of the cooperative themselves, respond to the exemplary model that is the “Atelierhaus.”

“Who better to supply us with our first comprehensive historical survey than the wine writer with the magic pen, Hugh Johnson?” – Jancis Robinson MW

Hugh Johnson has led the literature of wine in many new directions over a 60-year career. His classic The Story of Wine is his most enthralling and enduring work, winner of every wine award in the UK and USA. It tells with wit, scholarship and humour how wine became the global phenomenon it is today, varying from mass-produced plonk to rare bottles fetching many thousands. It ranges from Noah to Napa, Pompeii to Prohibition to Pomerol, gripping, anecdotal, personal, controversial and fun. This new edition includes Hugh’s view on the changes wine has seen in the past 30 years.

In his Foreword the celebrated historian Andrew Roberts writes: “The genius of The Story of Wine derives from the fact that it is emphatically not a dry-as-dust academic history – there are dozens of those – but an adventure story, full of mysteries, art and culture.’

“Veteran wine books are by modern standards short on facts.” — Decanter Magazine

“This is an inspirational book well worth your time.” — Eric Asimov on Instagram

“If you want to learn about wine, switch off your phone, buy these two books and enjoy them with a nice glass of something.” — The Critic

“This is a don’t-miss book for people who plan their travels around vineyards.” — Washington Post

“This is one of the best books on wine ever written.” — Sommelier India

In this unique approach to understanding wine, Hugh Johnson, the world’s best-loved wine author, weaves the story of his own epic wine journey with an embracing view of everything he has discovered along the way. Almost without realising it, the reader is drawn into a fascinating world; with each page turned, knowledge is gained and wine wisdom absorbed. Hugh takes us from the teetering ledges of the Mosel and majestic châteaux of the Médoc to the sylvan slopes of Windsor Great Park with a spring in his step and a tasting glass at the ready.

No one writes so infectiously on every aspect of wine, whether human or cultural, technical or historical. This book is peppered with anecdotes and personal recollections, infused with the sheer delight Hugh finds in his subject. It is a book with a story to tell and a mastery of wine to impart.

Previously published as Wine, A Life Uncorked 2005, now updated with new chapters.

In this lavishly produced volume, authors Virginia and Lee McAlester explore outstanding landmark houses that exemplify America’s major architectural and interior design styles from Colonial times to the mid-20th century. These 25 houses are illustrated with more than 350 specially commissioned full-colour photographs of interior and exterior views, 125 black-and-white line drawings and floor plans, historical paintings, and vintage photographs.

The text not only discusses the houses architectural innovations and design elements but also profiles the architects and their clients. The featured houses were built by many of the country’s leading architects – from Alexander Jackson Davis, Richard Morris Hunt, Henry Hobson Richardson, and McKim, Mead and White to Frank Lloyd Wright, the Greene brothers, and Walter Gropius – and owned by some of its most celebrated citizens, including Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Jay Gould, the Guggenheim’s, the Phippses’, and the Vanderbilt’s. As a result, the book is as much a cultural history as it is an architectural study. The authors also include an informative discussion of each style as it can be seen in vernacular versions around the country.

Located all over the United States, most of the featured houses are open to the public, and the book provides their addresses and other helpful information for visitors. Great American Houses and Their Architectural Styles will be irresistible to all house lovers, architects, and designers, and will give readers a deeper understanding and appreciation of our rich architectural heritage

Designer and interior decorator Dorothy Draper’s colour-filled life story is one of high society, money, gossip, and throughout it all, reinvention. Carleton Varney has owned and directed Dorothy Draper & Company, Inc., for almost 60 years. He worked with Mrs. Draper at the end of her illustrious career, and wrote the only biography of her life, The Draper Touch: The High Life and High Style of Dorothy Draper, in 1988. In the book, Varney sets the scene and defines the milieu that Draper was born into in 1889 and from which she escaped to become one of America’s leaders in design — a true visionary entrepreneur. Thirty-three years later, Shannongrove Press is releasing this deluxe edition of The Draper Touch. With a new foreword by Varney, newly found photographs, recently discovered historical documents from a private collection, and archival ephemera from Draper’s family, this beautiful tome reveals Draper’s fascinating journey and the real stories behind her ground-breaking work.

‘I was born in a konak (old house), which once was the harem of a pasha,” writes Alev Lytle Croutier.’ People around me often whispered things about harems; my own grandmother and her sister had been brought up in one.” Drawing on a host of first-hand accounts and memoirs, as well as her own family history, Croutier explores life in the world’s harems, from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, focusing on the fabled Seraglio of Topkapi Palace as a paradigm for them all. We enter the slave markets and the lavish boudoirs of the sultanas; we witness the daily routines of the odalisques, and of the eunuchs who guarded the harem. Here, too, we learn of the labyrinthine political scheming among the sultan’s wives, his favourites, and the valide sultana-the sultan’s mother-whose power could eclipse that of the sultan himself. There were the harems of the sultans and the pashas, but there were also ‘middle-class’ harems, the households in which ordinary men and women lived out ordinary-albeit polygamous-lives. Croutier reveals their marital customs, child-rearing practices, and superstitions. Finally, she shows how this Eastern institution invaded the European imagination-in the form of decoration, costume, and art-and how Western ideas, in turn, finally eroded a system that had seemed eternal. Juxtaposing a rich array of illustrations-Western paintings, Turkish and Persian miniatures, family photographs, and even film stills-Croutier demystifies the Western erotic fantasy of’the world behind the veil.” This revised and updated 25th anniversary edition of Harem includes a new introduction by the author.

Only few architecture firms in Europe have addressed the villa as a building type as consistently and with such formal rigor as Stuttgart-based Alexander Brenner Architects. The firm is widely known for designs characterised by plastic-geometric facades often resembling constructivist tableaux. What all of Alexander Brenner’s designs have in common is a truly holistic approach to the task. A house’s interior, kitchen, cupboards and other built-in furniture, is attended to with the same care for detail as its exterior. Corresponding gardens with curved sensual forms surround, and contrast, Brenner’s bright white cubic architectural sculptures.

This new monograph follows-up on two successful previous volumes published in 2011 and 2015, and features five buildings realised between 2015 and 2021, including the architect’s own home in Stuttgart, the Brenner Research House. They are all documented in rich detail through striking photography, standardised plans and visualisations, as well as concise texts. An essay by Alexander Brenner rounds out this volume that serves again as a source of inspiration for anyone with an interest in residential architecture.

Text in English and German.

Source Books in Architecture No. 15: Johnston Marklee includes conversations with the architects and documentation of a range of built and unbuilt works. As the Baumer Visiting Professors at The Ohio State University, Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee engage with students at the school in conversations that range from developing a critical practice to idea formation with respect to projects to the pragmatics of working in the field or architecture today. Documentation of work includes drawings, diagrams, photos, and models.

Source Books in Architecture is a product of the Herbert Baumer seminars, a series of interactions between students and seminal practitioners at the Knowlton School at The Ohio State University. Following a significant amount of research, students lead discussions that encourage the architects to reveal their architectural motivations and techniques.

In this refreshing new study, Wright scholar Kathryn Smith does just that, exploring the grace and beauty found in all facets of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work: from office desks and chairs to his first residential commissions, from magazine cover designs to major public buildings. The concise text and brilliant colour photographs chart Wright’s entire career, beginning with his apprenticeship to Adler and Sullivan before the turn of the century. Readers witness the Prairie period, Wright’s years in Japan and California, his major designs of the late 1920s and 1930s, his Usonian houses, and the monumental late works of his last decades. Smith shows examples of Wright’s drawings, furniture, and decorative arts, too, supplementing our understanding of Wright’s aesthetic. The book concludes with a glimpse at the architect’s seldom-seen collection of Asian art, which once comprised tens of thousands of pieces – a source of much inspiration and edification for the architect and his students, and a key to understanding Wright’s views on art and nature.

Here is a broad portrait of the master builder who sought the title “greatest architect of all time.” Although it may never be possible to fully assess Wright’s legacy, Kathryn Smith’s authoritative book is a fitting testament to his lasting genius.

Kykuit-the country home of John D. Rockefeller Sr., John D. Rockefeller Jr., Nelson A. Rockefeller, and their families-stands majestically atop a hill overlooking the Hudson River. Built between 1906 and 1913 by architects Delano and Aldrich, it has just recently been opened to the public. But visitors will never see the estate in as intimate a way as it is presented in this volume. To preserve the memory of what Kykuit was like when it was a private home, photographer Mary Louise Pierson, granddaughter of Nelson Rockefeller, spent years photographing the estate: the Big House-as family members call the main residence-and its interiors, designed by the renowned Ogden Codman; the outbuildings, including the Coach Barn, which now houses an impressive collection of horse-drawn carriages and an equally noteworthy collection of vintage cars, the orangery, and the Playhouse, a Tudor-style mansion containing an indoor swimming pool, tennis court, fully equipped gym, and bowling alley; and the magnificent gardens, from the formal gardens designed by William Welles Bosworth to the golf course to the Japanese garden, and all the sculptures that three generations of Rockefellers installed on the grounds.

The text, by Ann Rockefeller Roberts, Governor Rockefeller’s daughter, recounts the history of the magnificent estate, from its founding early in the century through its recent transfer to the National Trust, focusing on how each successive generation left its stamp on the decor, the gardens, and the painting and sculpture collections. Illustrated with dozens of historical photos, ranging from the construction of the house to snapshots of family members, the text includes never before published reminiscences of five generations of Rockefellers. Complete with a family tree, a map of the gardens, and visitor information, Kykuit: The Rockefeller Family Home offers a deeply personal look at the country residence of one of America’s most distinguished families.

In Room Without Roof, the archetypal gabled form of a house takes on a twist to envelop both interior and exterior spaces. In A Tale of Two Courts, a semi-detached house shuts itself from the street but reveals on the inside a thoroughly tropical, open environment. These are but two examples of HYLA Architects’ rigorous and sensitive methods of creating liveable and comfortable homes through new expressions and creative datum. Key to the firm’s approach is found in the title The Space Between. It defines architecture as the space between the user and the environment and speaks of the architect’s important role in modulating this relationship according to context and climate. The 25 case studies in the book also reflect the five key values the works are designed upon: honesty, simplicity, clarity, strength, and dynamism. Derek Swalwell, Masano Kawana and Daniel Koh contribute to the visual compendium through photographs that capture the beauty of form, space, light, texture, and nature. Architectural writer Luo Jingmei provides thoughtful descriptions that take the reader through the homes and the ideas that ground them.

In this book you will rediscover the beloved ‘Country Style,’ which can be applied in so many different ways in a variety of interiors. From modern villas to old fermettes, country design finds its place everywhere. With an emphasis on natural elements, muted colours and an eccentric accent here and there, you’ll learn from these homes how to get started in your own interiors, too. Photographer Brent Darby and author Wink Colville guide you through these more than 20 dream interiors.

“It’s surely the ultimate coffee-table book…. “ — Daily Mail
“This exciting collection lends itself to significant discussion and interest, given coffee is such a large part of our daily culture around the globe.”
 — Travel by Entree

“… another brilliant document of an exciting epoch in coffee culture.” — We Heart
“Do you love coffee, traveling and design? Then this is a must-have for you! The addresses of 39 cafes, café clubs and coffee roasteries in 26 cities in different parts of the world can be found in a unique book and album in one “Café Cool: feel-good inspiring designs”. The author, Robert Schneider, presents an amazing collection of modern, designer places, designed to turn the coffee experience into an art.”
 — AD Poland

“This book is a homage to his belief that, particularly given the recent global pandemic, it is vital that we continue to support and appreciate quality coffee in cafes and coffee shops that exhibit great feel-good inspiring designs.” — Coffee T&I
Café Cool: feel-good inspiring designs
is the much-anticipated third book in the series by Robert Schneider, and features 39 cafés and coffee shops and roasteries in 26 cities around the world, richly illustrated with full-colour images. The curated selection shares a focus on modern contemporary designs, showcasing independent, local coffee hubs that sit at the heart of communities and are designed to foster a fantastic coffee experience. Insightful commentary by the owners and designers capture the feel and personality of each project. Schneider has once again served up an engaging and inspiring collection of modern cafés and coffee shops for lovers of coffee and good design. This book is a homage to his belief that, particularly given the recent global pandemic, it is vital that we continue to support and appreciate quality coffee in cafes and coffee shops that exhibit great feel-good inspiring designs.

A collection of critical essays on abiding and compelling topics in architecture and the culture of architecture. Range of topics are diverse: an architectural phenomenology of water, architecture and landscape rethought, ancient Greece to India, The Buddha’s house to the modern house in India, the architecture and landscapes of Louis Kahn. Le Corbusier in India, the architecture of Balkrishna Doshi, and other original topics such as the destruction of buildings as a ritual necessity.

“Reading and pondering over Kazi’s writings, I am reminded of my personal journeys and learnings… Architecture is not merely a static dumb built form but is a cosmos in itself. Not merely produced theoretically but created through varied moods and activities of life, place, space, and ecosystems. Theoretically — arguably and rationally — functions or activities or appearances are organisms, but not if not seen holistically. Hence, Vastu is not only an environment and not merely an object but has an all-pervading soul, and this is what Kazi conveys through his travels and experiences.” – Balkrishna Doshi on The Mother Tongue of Architecture

Now more than ever, the kitchen continues to be the epicentre of the home. To serve its multiple purposes, the design must be functional, comfortable, and chic. Enter Kitchen Conversations: the friend you want in your corner. Whether you are working on a budget, sparing no expense, or trying to find a nice balance, this book will guide you to make crucial decisions on details large and small, and be your companion on the journey of imagining, planning, designing and then building the kitchen of your dreams. While feasting on full-colour photography and real kitchen plans, you can also savour the input from kitchen designers and other industry professionals; personal stories of kitchen builds, remodels and cosmetic changes from many homeowners; useful checklists from homeowners and industry sources, and valuable tips for managing contractors throughout the entire process. There may be challenges along the way but being aware of what lies ahead will allow you to manage them well.

“… In fact, my entire journey through Amsterdam’s vibrant house museums was one great historical sensation in a variety of contexts. I followed in the footsteps of Dutch East India Company directors, workers, orphans, writers, artists, architects, and many others, seeing how they lived and worked. How they ate in poverty-stricken 19th-century slums or at lavishly laid tables in canal-side mansions of Van Loon or Bartolotti. How they prayed in secret with Father Parmentier in a clandestine attic church. I am not longer just an Amsterdammer: now I’m an Amsterdammer with a past.” – Froukje Wattel.

Text in English and Dutch.