The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum houses an extraordinary collection of ‘prisoners’ objects’. These were made by prison inmates and presented to the ICRC delegates who visited them, as provided for by the Geneva Conventions. For over a century, these objects have borne mute witness to the numerous violent episodes that continue to ravage our planet, from Chile, Vietnam, Algeria and Yugoslavia, to Rwanda and Afghanistan. Made from simple materials – whatever comes to hand in a prison – these objects express the need to escape the world of the jailbird. As a Lebanese inmate puts it, ‘Creating is a way of acquiring freedom of expression, it gives us a means to say what we think while everything we see around urges us to keep quiet and to forget who we are.’ While some of these works touch us through their simplicity, others astonish us with their beauty or ingeniousness. Each bears the imprint of a personal story loaded with emotion, inviting us on a journey through time and collective history.

“Haute-à-Porter demonstrates that fantasy can be found at both ends of the fashion spectrum, and it proves that nothing in this field is ever static.” – Vogue.com “Haute-à-Porter features an outstanding selection of garments by high-end designers and fashion houses from the past 30 years, completed with photography, film and art.” – Metal Magazine Haute couture often dazzles us with its precision, craftsmanship and the extravaganza inherent in it. Clothing items are made out of proportion; unique materials are used and everything is hand-finished. But, the Prêt-à-porter collections of today comply with the classic principles of Haute Couture. The items shown on the catwalk should theoretically be wearable, but often in reality this is not entirely the case. Haute-à-Porter examines the relationship between Haute Couture and prêt-à-porter collections and shows the evolution in their relationship over the past 25 years. Includes conversations with Angelo Flaccavento, Antonio Mancinelli, Alexander Fury, Colin McDowell, Farida Khelfa, Irene Silvagni, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, Nicole Phelps, Pierre Hardy, Robin Schulié, Rick Owens, Stephen Jones, Thom Browne, Tim Blanks, Vivienne Westwood, Yohji Yamamoto, Zandra Rhodes, Viktor & Rolf and many more Photographs and artworks by Ali Mahdavi, Anthony Maule, Brian Griffin, Daniel Jackson, Erik Madigan Heck, Fabien Baron, François Berthoud, Giampaolo Sgura, Jackie Nickerson, Kevin Tachman, Luigi & Iango, Michal Pudelka, Mikael Jansson, Miles Aldridge, Peter Lindbergh, Rene Habermacher, Txema Yeste, Sebastian Kim, Sheila Metzner and others. Text in English and Dutch.

Architectural legibility requires both visual clarity of a building’s appearance such that its formal, spatial, and material compositions can be comprehended, as well as a certain clarity of the its social, cultural, and political histories. While the term legibility carries a connotation of conclusiveness or objective qualifications, legibility in architecture is most often inconclusive and unresolved. Such unresolved legibility is particularly visible in houses, which are the source of inquiry in this project. This project proposes new understandings and interpretations of American residential architecture by investigating and graphically illustrating the forms, spaces, and histories of ten residential types.

Perhaps no genre of architecture has been written about more than ‘the house’. As long-standing subjects of architectural discourse, cultural reflection, and experimentation, houses represent a confluence of architectural and broader cultural phenomena. The house is not only susceptible to, but in fact requires renewal and re-imagination; as an architectural type it reflects shifting societal values and the constant reconstruction of meaning that this shifting entails. Such social, cultural, political and contextual circumstances can best be evaluated under the rubric of legibility. While this might at first seem like an objective undertaking, legibility in architecture is indeterminate and unresolved, revealing the intertwining of architectural expressions with broader cultural circumstances.

Sensitively balancing historic preservation with contemporary innovation, Ahearn’s timeless houses feel deeply connected to the stylistic character of their locales, even as their programs and plans celebrate how we live now. In these pages, Ahearn takes us on a journey through the award-winning private residences and public environments that he has created over his 45-year career. He entertainingly explains how his uniquely urbanistic point of view and novel, narrative-driven process help clients live out their dreams, in homes that recall the past, engage with the present, and look to the future.

As the modern world changes and evolves, so does the modern lifestyle. Our levels of home comfort, desires, and overall life satisfactions are being defined in new ways, often contrasting with notions of the ‘traditional’ house design. We aim to live simpler lives yet somehow manage to have more material possessions than before; and we opt to reside in open-plan homes that provide a sense of freedom. All too often traditionally designed homes are no longer able to satisfy our contemporary living needs. The restoration of living spaces is usually to restore existing buildings that may have become impractical over time, if not outdated. These days, the challenge is how to adapt and transform these existing buildings to modern standards, all the while maintaining what may still be useful, special features or design characteristics, or what we like most about the space. This book showcases a selection of examples of how people from around the world have ingeniously refurbished an old house to meet their needs for a modern lifestyle. With vivid descriptions, detailed drawings and rich photography (including befores and afters), this book provides designers and architects, as well as owner-builders of old houses several excellent strategies on how to approach their restoration, and how to convey a modern life concept, revitalizing, and refreshing the houses for the next generation.

Regarded by critics to be one of the most progressive American firms to be seen in the last 30 years, Hariri & Hariri Architecture was established in 1986 by Iranian-born Cornell-educated sisters, Gisue Hariri and Mojgan Hariri. Their work imbues their own unique brand of modernism across conceptual, residential, commercial and institutional works. The practice has a voice that is distinctly its own. The firm’s work has often been described in the language of poetry or art. What differentiates its work is the firm’s insistence that it approaches all projects, small or large, in a ‘holistic’ manner. While this approach integrates multiple dimensions and considerations, there are two overriding imperatives that transcend others to define its design narrative: ‘nature and identity.’ These key principles are celebrated in this visually stunning book. A significant addition to IMAGES’ growing list of titles in its global-reaching Leading Architects series, this beautifully photographed book showcases an enormous body of work by a firm led by two multi-disciplinary practitioners.

We recognise Mario Botta’s buildings for their strong presence. His architecture is not ephemeral. It shapes the mass firmly and precisely. It touches the ground with self-reliance. A building by Mario Botta is an autonomous object. It comprises an ordered world of its own make. It is standing in dialogue with the urban tissue, but it establishes its own order as if it aims at differentiation instead of integration. Architectural order represents the core of his personal idiom. It is a well structured, compositional order which organises everything into a whole, as an underlying thread that connects and brings together houses on the mountains to museums and churches, banks and commercial buildings to buildings on the ground and buildings underground, different buildings at different places in time. The themes that underlie Mario Botta’s architecture are ties that connect and spines that support, common threads that bind one building to the next. His architecture is one of mass. It is then of no surprise that mass is the first thing to be defined and ordered, in his creative process. The volume of his buildings is mostly composed by one or more primary solids. Volume is thus an a-priori for Botta. It is conceived beforehand, the starting point to the adventure of architectural design. From the Introduction, Thoughts on architectural creativity By Dr. Irena Sakellaridou

Forget the Texas you thought you once knew, put aside those cattle ropin’ preconceptions and make way for Texas Modern, a close look into the Lone Star State’s innovative contemporary architecture and design scenes. Showcasing a stunning range of modern homes, this book will inspire best-design practice and spur on lifestyle dreams. Set out with beautiful full-colour photography and laden with intricate plans and drawings, Texas Modern delves into the finer details of trending architectural styles. The exquisite kitchens, glorious living spaces, sumptuous bedrooms, luxurious bathrooms, spectacular outdoor entertaining areas, and other delightful spaces, including a private yoga studio, will have you seriously reconsidering any notion of architectural convention across this larger-than-life and totally unique American state.

Robert Konieczny, founder and principal of KWK Promes, in Poland, specialises in projects renowned for ingenious concepts and unique design. His works examine closely the nature and interpretations of spatial journeys for the viewer or those who inhabit the space, be it for residential works, public buildings, or international cultural festivals and exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale. The firm’s work especially with kinetic architecture fuses seamless design principles with inventive concepts, namely movable structures that both catch light and create a uniquely experiential environment. A leader in industry innovation, Konieczny and KWK Promes was awarded the World Architecture Festival Award for the best building in 2016.

“Our designs are shaped by logic. Inside these pages we showcase a unique and detailed précis that narrates the story of the concepts behind our buildings.” — Robert Konieczny
“The ideas expressed by Robert Konieczny are quite radical and surprising—his forms are unexpected, and often closed or heavy at first sight. Though the Polish context, in terms of climate, history, and sociology may imply such solutions, KWK has laid out a series of concepts that could readily be applied to other places, surely generating other types of buildings. This is not a style so much as it is an intellectual construct.” — Philip Jodidio

When Antje Freiesleben and Johannes Modersohn opened their own Berlin-based firm Modersohn & Freiesleben Architekten in 1994, the city, which had been divided until 1989, needed to be repaired and re-united. The Potsdamer Platz train station and the office block in the Beisheim Centre in Ebertstrasse, close to this central and now revitalised location, are two significant projects that were designed by the firm in the prevalent spirit of urban renewal of those years.

After the millennium, the architects further honed their approach: whether in the city or the countryside, Modersohn & Freiesleben consistently develop the character of their projects in terms of the site, the materials, the construction, and the lives of their clients. Their deliberate engagement with the given environment while simultaneously aiming at an inventive individuality has created an architecture that ensures their houses are functional objects that combine sustainability with aesthetics.

This new monograph features 12 built houses alongside other projects from the last two decades. They are located in Berlin, Brandenburg, Sweden, and Canada.

Text in English and German.

The green architecture movement is a worldwide phenomenon that addresses sustainability and a parallel awareness of how the built world is enriched by nature. This lavishly illustrated book presents the most beautiful and innovative buildings from around the world and explores how they incorporate plants and architecture in both interior design and construction. With inspiring projects and practical tips for both the professional and the enthusiast, the author explores the best of what’s green in houses large and small, apartment buildings, and offices.

Architecture as Art: The Work of Stephen M. Sullivan illustrates the author’s residential architectural practice based in the Pacific Northwest. It also describes his personal design philosophy founded both in the classics of western architecture and in his experience and appreciation of the architecture and craft traditions of Japan.

The book tells the story of Sullivan’s development as an artist using architecture as his medium. It includes essays on his views of architectural design, which have been shaped by his personal history in the landscapes and the architecture of New England and Japan. Sullivan’s training as a potter informs his architecture in its interpretation of houses as “vessels of experience” and in his work’s focus on materiality and the craft of construction.

Thematic essays address topics such as the importance of intuition in the design process and the interplay of analysis with nonrational ways of thinking. The influence of the site and its natural energies, the role of ordering principles, and the narrative capacity of architectural design influence Sullivan’s process of integration, forming unique design responses to diverse clients and settings. These themes address specific facets of his design method and introduce a selection of projects, which are illustrated with photographs and drawings. The projects display the author’s belief in generating an architectural language unique to a design’s client and its context, creating an architecture specifically tuned to its circumstances in time and place.      

Following a selection of primary projects, a section on small houses, and a section on historic projects, a catalogue of Sullivan’s selected projects executed between 1985 and 2020 is included.   

Emerging from the vivid landscape of California’s Central Valley, architect Maria Ogrydziak’s iconic, light-filled houses reflect a region where growth abounds, rich soil runs deep, and blue sky goes on and on. She designs for a new California dream, outside the hustle of the big cities, far from the deep turquoise of the Pacific.

Framing the Valley follows eight case study houses where everyday people find extraordinary lives through architecture. Written in an approachable style by Maria, it is full of design wisdom from over 40 years of 400 built projects.

Projects include Art Barn, a steel horse barn transformed into an art gallery, overlooking picturesque fields dotted with California poppies; Flight house, a budget-friendly remote-work homestead just outside town; two remodels of California’s classic ranch-style and mid-century modern tract homes; and a 15,000-square-foot luxury homestead clad completely in iridescent glass.  

From Art Nouveau to today’s creations, via post‐war functionalism, this exhibition explores, among other things, the work of designers and the production of Belgian companies and publishing houses. Among these designers and producers are: Gustave Serrurier‐Bovy, Huib Hoste, Jacques Dupuis, Willy Van Der Meeren, Jules Wabbes, Maarten Van Severen, Meurop, Alain Gilles, Christophe Gevers.

Text in English, French and Dutch.

Belgium has all the assets to become a true whisky country. The knowledge required to make whisky is readily available, thanks in part to our centuries-old culture of beer and jenever. A number of Belgian jenever distilleries and breweries have been experimenting with whisky for quite some time, but the concept of ‘Belgian whisky’ only really took off in the recent past. Every year new initiatives arise and time after time the announced releases are sold out in no time. Belgian whisky is appreciated, has become a sought-after collector’s item and regularly wins gold and silver at international competitions. For the first time, an overview of Belgian whiskies and whisky houses is published in book form. An indispensable reference work for collectors and whisky lovers alike.

Text in English, Dutch and French.

“It’s a great way to spark interesting conversations with friends and perfect entertainment if you’re coffee-ing solo.” — Real Homes

“Fascinating new book reveals homes in vertigo-inducing locations, from a house clinging to a cliff to a gravity-defying mountain hideout.”  — Daily Mail
In Living on the Edge, the author goes in search of the most amazing and seemingly unfeasible buildings which are situated at the edge of deep chasms and on steep cliffs. These houses are the work of architects who approach complexity and difficult conditions with imagination and a talent for thinking outside of the box. This book shows how, with the help of innovative techniques, fear of heights-inducing homes have been built at the most challenging locations all over the world. Living on the Edge is a book for architecture lovers without fear of heights!

For the past 15 years, Michael L. Horowitz has been photographing the interiors of Manhattan’s historic churches and synagogues. Though their exteriors are often unassuming and overlooked by passers-by, their interiors are spectacular, uplifting worshippers and architectural devotees alike. In this book, Horowitz takes us from Lower to Upper Manhattan, from the colourful wall paintings of Bialystocker Synagogue, to the jewel-like stained glass windows of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, to the awe-inspiring wooden ceiling of the Holy Name of Jesus and Saint Gregory the Great Parish. A lively and informative text by Elizabeth Anne Hartman tells the stories behind each of the 65 houses of worship featured. These sacred edifices reflect the hopes and aspirations of the many different communities that helped build the metropolis, expressed in numerous architectural and artistic styles. And many of these interiors bear the imprint of notable personalities in Big Apple history, from Clement Moore of The Night before Christmas to pioneering Black philanthropist Pierre Toussaint. This handsome volume, nourishing to the eyes and soul, offers a new perspective on the city to New York residents and visitors alike.

Yangzhou, an historically important site in the Jiangsu province, is one of the most affluent cities in China. This book explores the historical background of Yangzhou gardens and traditional houses in detail, through architectural surveys that offer targeted research and analysis of garden and residential projects. From early on, Yangzhou underwent several economic booms and the rich material base provided great opportunities for its development in art and culture. The unique characteristics of Yangzhou gardens and houses are presented through a wealth of archival images, in addition to a text by the renowned Chinese academic Chen Congzhou.

Text in English and Chinese.

This is the second book in a series (after Barcelona Interiors 9789401485586) that presents the most inspiring interiors in the most beautiful cities in the world. London Interiors showcases famous and classic homes, converted industrial buildings, and historic mansions. This book takes you through the front door of homes in the bustling metropolis, and surprises you time and time again with eclectic, elegant, and creative interiors. A must-have for all architecture and interior design lovers. 

The fifth edition of this bestseller celebrates 40 of the most beautiful houses and apartments from all over the world, containing exclusive new projects from renowned architects, interior designers, garden and landscape architects, and experienced professionals.

Published to coincide with Contemporary Living Yearbook 2023 is Timeless Living Yearbook 2023, which emphasises classic and more traditional forms, the integration of antique building materials, wood and natural stone, exclusive fabrics and objects, the restoration of homes and farms.

Both Yearbooks complement each other perfectly and together offer a selection of dozens of recently finished villas, country houses, townhouses and apartments.

Text in English, French, Dutch.