Scenic Architecture Office always starts with responding to needs from body & mind, nature, and society, and tries to establish a balanced and dynamic relevance among them through ontological orders composed by space-time and tectonics. This collection includes 12 representative works in its 18 years of practice, and each work contains design concept, sketches, tectonic details, and photos. The works are categorized in “Courtyard Settlement”, “Extension of Homes”, and “Free Cell”. “Courtyard Settlement” refers to reconstruction of the spatial formtype of courtyard; “Extension of Homes”, expansion of the traditional house formtype; and “Free Cell” test of the new formtype. Through explorations of the formtype, they hope to bridge the past, present and future to make architecture a carrier of cultural memory and the times’ energy, and a balanced and dynamic connection between human, nature and society.

“I recommend to every Architect, designer and those who have a passion for New York to own this magnificent book…there is no better on the extraordinary Beaux Arts of New York.” —Lemeau, Decorator’s Insider

“This great, beautiful, glossy, polychromatic slab of a book more than does justice to an epic period in architecture when some of the world’s most luscious buildings were designed for some of the most unpleasant people in American history.” — Timothy Brittain-Catlin, World of Interiors

“New York would be little more than another faceless glass-and-steel city were it not for its Gilded Age buildings and institutions… An American Renaissance: Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York City, written by Phillip James Dodd with photography by Jonathan Wallen, is a gilded embrace of this legacy.”  — The Critic
The Gilded Age, also referred to as the American Renaissance, is an era associated with unparalleled growth, technological advancement, prosperity, and cultural change. Spanning from the 1870s to the 1930s, it marks the first time that the titans of American finance and industry had more wealth than their European counterparts. As the center of this dynamic economy, New York City attracted immigrant workers and millionaires alike. It was not enough for the self-appointed elite to just build their own grand châteaux and palazzos along Fifth Avenue—collectively they dreamed of creating a new metropolis to rival the great cultural capitals of London, Paris, and Rome. To flaunt their newly acquired wealth they needed an architecture dripping in embellishment and historical reference. Enter the Beaux-Arts.

This book, which has been painstakingly researched and beautifully photographed over many years, takes a close look at 20 of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City. While showing public exteriors, its focus is on the lavish interiors that are associated with the opulence of the Gilded Age—often providing a glimpse inside buildings not otherwise viewable to the public. While some of the buildings and monuments featured are world-renowned landmarks recognizable and accessible to all, others are obscure buildings that history has forgotten.

Set amid the magnificent achievements of an American Renaissance, this book recounts not only the fascinating stories of some of New York’s most famous and significant Beaux-Arts landmarks, it also recalls the lives of those who commissioned, designed, and built them. These are some of the most acclaimed architects, artists, and artisans of the day—Daniel Chester French, Cass Gilbert, Charles McKim, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Stanford White—and some of the most prominent millionaires in American history—Henry Clay Frick, Jay Gould, Otto Kahn, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and the ubiquitous Astor and Vanderbilt families. Names that—as Julian Fellowes (the acclaimed director of Downton Abbey) notes in the Foreword—“still reek of money.” Excerpt from the Introduction

This book is an attempt to answer the questions: What makes historic architecture awe-inspiring? How have the Indian architectural masterpieces retained their vitality even after so many centuries? What spatial qualities and organizational principles have rendered them timeless?

At the outset the author sets forth fundamental Indian philosophical and ideological tenets—the Indian notion of time, the duality of existence, the concept of a world within a world, the idea of opposites as counterpoints, the role of semiotics in providing visual clues in architecture, and the changing perception of space while in movement. The study unravels the inherent virtues of traditional Indian architecture, inferred and exemplified in a range of traditional Indian architectural examples.

Discussion of each site is illustrated with a wealth of visual materials—photographs, architectural plans with analytic overlays and volumetric constructs. Miniature-style reproductions drawn for each example reconstruct their spatial, environmental and experiential qualities and are used to demonstrate the universality of communication in Indian architecture.

Global design firm ArquitectonicaGEO is at the forefront of designing sustainable, contemporary landscaped environments that address the challenges of climate change and enhance the human experience and community wellbeing.
In Resilient Horizons: The Future of Landscape Architecture, ArquitectonicaGEO presents ten pioneering projects in Miami, Florida, a city that’s highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Ranging from urban green spaces and neighborhood precincts to large-scale developments and ecosystem restorations, the projects are driven by the same ethos and ambition, and collectively contribute to a more sustainable, liveable future.
Full-color photography, site plans, drawings, and engaging narratives showcase the innovative approaches that ArquitectonicaGEO uses to design resilient, enriching environments. Written in English and Spanish, the bilingual text reaffirms the importance of landscape architecture as a powerful tool for a greener future.

This highly anticipated monograph focuses on the architectural output of Enrique Browne, a talented and prolific Chilean architect and co-founder of Browne & Swett Arquitectos, based in Santiago. Over the last 40 years, this South American architect has been trying to reconcile natural and artificial worlds through architecture. They are one indissoluble unity. This book showcases in rich photographic detail how his innovative projects incorporate multiple environmental aspects that result in a complex, layered response to the challenges of place, form and identity in Chile.

Browne’s practice has developed architectural designs in a diverse range of scales, with emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency. This volume delves into Browne’s processes, such as developing variations of the “grapevinestructure typology” to create a “double green skin” as a green wall (or roof), to protect dwellings from the region’s strong westerly sun; or combining vegetation and its oxygenation benefits with building to counter pollution; or using both artificial and natural light as a material for illuminating spaces or volume. This book also includes commentary on the new zeitgeist surrounding modernity and the impacts of the digital and globalized world on architecture today. Highly regarded, and a prolific writer and designer, Enrique Browne has a unique way of looking at the world. Showcasing the wide range of his design, this title is sure to impress.

This new monograph celebrates the creative accomplishments of one of the world’s most influential architects, Cesar Pelli. The book surveys this extraordinary body of work in terms of the AIA’s Gold Medalist’s design, architecture, and planning, tracing Pelli’s motivation as a leading designer and teacher, and the evolution of his work over the span of half a century. More than 50 projects from around the globe – museums, theaters, offices, laboratories, airports, cultural centers, civic works, master plans – are presented in rich full color with insights from Pelli that delve into the design and construction of these landmarks from a practice that has thrived for nearly 40 years.

Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership: Public/Private presents the first monograph from the award-winning New York-based architectural firm. Covering over 40 years of work, the book – presented in a unique double-sided, two-cover format – exhibits projects in both the public and private sectors. Included in the public section is a sprawling center for entrepreneurial education, a science center built in an old turbine hall, a sky-lit synagogue, two colorful and bright public libraries, and a children’s museum inspired by Leonardo da Vinci. The private side features a serenely spatial six-story townhouse, a sublimely linear beach house, a residence and matching studios for two painters, and luxurious twin villas in Anguilla. With text by principal architect Lee Skolnick, and a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic Paul Goldberger; each chapter provides valuable insight into the extensive planning and highly intellectual process that goes into each project. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership: Public/Private celebrates the accomplishments of a firm still operating at the top of their game.

“An important document that should be included in any library of design and architecture.” – Daniella Ohad
“A masterful blend of émigré biography and architecture and design history, proving that the twentieth century fostered more than one modernism.” – Donald Albrecht

Christopher Long, author of seminal monographs on Adolf Loos, Kem Weber, and Paul T. Frankel, turns his attention to the little-known architect and designer Jock Peters, a largely forgotten figure of early Los Angeles modernism.

This visually rich study is also an intimate portrait of an architect who, like too many, struggled to establish a career during the early decades of the 20th century, years ravished by World War I and the Great Depression. Among Peters’s early works in Germany are designs for the Levantehaus and Karstadt department stores, an innovative design dated 1916 for a magnificent glass pavilion, and his work for Peter Behrens after the war, but the architect’s most accomplished and compelling work came after 1922 when he settled in Southern California. Most notable are the strikingly lavish and elegant commercial interiors Peters designed for the iconic Bullock’s Wilshire store in Los Angeles and the tragically forgotten Hollander department store in New York City; both projects brought him international recognition.

The breathtaking scope of his short-lived career includes modern film sets for Famous Players-Lasky, later Paramount Pictures, while working under the legendary art director Hans Dreier; a dynamic sales office for the trendsetting Maddux Air Lines, which later became TWA; and modern residences, including the still extant homes he built for cinematographer Alfred Gilks, who would later win an Academy Award for An American in Paris, and art gallerist and developer William Lingenbrink for whom Peters also designed stores and a vibrantly colorful sidewalk for the Silver Strand beach development north of Los Angeles. Lingenbrink, a major supporter of the burgeoning modernism, also commissioned Jock Peters, alongside Schindler, to design houses for Park Moderne, the legendary avant-garde modernist retreat for artists in Calabasas. Peters also designed the retreat’s Streamline Moderne pump house, clubhouse, and zigzag fountain, which still stands.

This important study on early modernism includes never before published material from the architect’s personal archive, still in family hands. These remarkable and inspiring images-more than 250 historic photographs, etchings, watercolors, and drawings-alongside Long’s insightful narrative, demonstrate how Peters, despite his early death, managed to leave his mark on the modernist landscape in Southern California at a time when the new style was just emerging.

Architecture Asia, as the official journal of the Architects Regional Council Asia, aims to provide a forum, not only for presenting Asian phenomena and their characteristics to the world, but also for understanding diversity and multiculturalism within Asia from a global perspective.

This issue reveals how old buildings can be updated to realize innovation through renovation, and features three essays and eleven projects that elaborate this perspective. The three essays discuss regenerative architecture in Pakistan that create contemporary examples of traditional architecture, the revitalization of old buildings in Hong Kong, China for heritage conservation—along the concept of updating the “hardware” and “software” of the building—and the sharing and regeneration of historical heritage spaces in old towns in Xiamen, China. The 11 projects, accompanied with full-color photos and text descriptions, highlight architectural works that showcase the theme of renovation and innovation across projects that include a house, library, chapel, and clinic, to reveal how these buildings embody sustainability and innovation, and re-energize cities.

At their core, both architecture and ikebana are exercises in looking, selecting and leaving out. With a minimum of elements, architects and ikebana artists shape space and give meaning to emptiness.

Ikebana meets Architecture brings these two worlds into dialog. Inspired by five visionary architects – Frank Gehry, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando and Santiago Calatrava – ikebana artists from around the world explore how architectural ideas can be translated into natural materials and spatial compositions.

Each creation is a personal interpretation of architectural principles, rather than an imitation of iconic architecture. Architecture is thus reinvented in every arrangement – transformed into a temporary, living form. Gehry’s fluid forms, Hundertwasser’s organic irregularity, Hadid’s sense of movement, Ando’s serene use of space and light, and Calatrava’s expressive structures are translated into natural materials, line, balance, rhythm and void. Together, they form an inspiring collection of ephemeral ‘architectures’, carefully captured in photography.

The Miller Ceramic Art Collection features masterpieces highlighting the artistic ideals of numerous luminaries of mid-twentieth century to early twenty-first century American ceramic art. In addition, the collection includes important examples of European and Japanese ceramic artworks of the same period. Marlin Miller’s profound understanding of materials began with ceramic engineering. His interest in brick and its role in architecture informs a keen eye for surface texture, dimension and materiality.

The publication is a comprehensive presentation of one of the world’s most distinguished private collections of contemporary studio ceramics, and an observation on the correlation between ceramics and architecture. With contributions by Meghen Jones, Sequoia Miller, Michael McKinnell and Wayne Higby.

Radiant City is a major monograph documenting a decade of figurative and geometric work by London-based British contemporary artist Lucy Williams (b. 1972, Oxford). Her mixed-media bas-relief collages depict modernist architecture and interiors, from tower blocks and municipal buildings to private residences in Palm Springs. 

All made painstakingly by hand, this is a contemporary art practice that, with the precision of an architect or a draughts person, references craft traditions, using materials including paper, Plexiglas, wood veneer, fabric, piano wire, and thread. Space, form, pattern, design, and geometry meet with color and light to form mesmerizing, detailed scenes such as tiled swimming pools with mosaic walls, the imposing facades of Brutalist buildings, and domestic interiors containing bookcases replete with books, vases and ornaments.

In addition to figurative works, the publication also features the artist’s Threaded Collages, abstract geometric pieces inspired by Bauhaus tapestries and constructivism. Williams creates repeated triangular and diamond forms, using colorful painted papers along with silk and cotton threads. 

Featuring a variety of text contributions, this, Williams’s second trade monograph, has been designed by Kristin Metho, edited by Matt Price, and produced by Hurtwood. It is published by Hurtwood with generous support from Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco.

This book is a comprehensive and in-depth study devoted to Lowbrow Art and Pop Surrealism, two artistic movements that originated in the United States and have profoundly transformed the contemporary art scene. Since the late 1960s, American artist Robert Williams has developed a radical and nonconformist style of painting, drawing inspiration from underground comics, hot rod culture, tattoo art, psychedelic posters, and carnival arts—all fields long ignored or disparaged by the fine arts world. Richly documented and generously illustrated, this book traces the history of this countercultural movement through four major periods, from 1850 to the present day, exploring its profound influences and its gradual global reach. It spotlights the movement’s pioneering figures through portraits and exclusive interviews with Robert Williams, Joe Coleman, Todd Schorr, Mark Ryden, and gallery owner Merry Karnowsky—true witnesses and participants in this artistic revolution. The book also addresses the emergence of Pop Surrealism in the 1990s—a new label that both broadened and challenged the boundaries of Lowbrow Art—before the movement went global in the 2000s, thanks in large part to Juxtapoz magazine, which by 2009 had become the most widely circulated art magazine in the United States.

“The well-judged employment of classical detail in a new home has an additional significance that cannot be underestimated. It is an expression of an informed personal choice and an evocation of the delight in the human senses. This is true of all the houses featured in this book.” Jeremy Musson
“The architects and craftsmen that Phillip has featured in this wonderful book all have a love for classical detail. The art is alive and well, as can be attested to in these pages.” David Easton
In The Art of Classical Details, Phillip James Dodd takes a close-up look at some of the finest examples of contemporary classical architecture. The book consists of two chapters: The Essays and The Projects. Starting with a foreword by renowned decorator David Easton, The Essays are written by some of today’s most sought after architects, scholars and craftsmen. Accompanied by sumptuous full page photographs and renderings that illustrate a use of fine materials, intricate detailing, and superb artisanship, these insightful texts are essential reading for anyone with an interest in the theory, practice and craft of classical design. The Projects presents an illustrated look at 25 of today’s finest classically-designed homes. Employing the theories prescribed in the writings of the first chapter, this portfolio of contemporary buildings exhibits the work of some of the most recognizable and celebrated architects in Great Britain and the United States. The work featured in within this book demonstrates the timeless beauty of classicism, and delights in the role that superbly crafted details play in creating art.

Opening with the reflections of Indian architects Rohan Varma, Charles Correa and Rahul Mehrotra on the past, present and future of architecture and planning in Mumbai, the book maintains its expert local focus through a number of interviews, made with a wide variety of local and foreign architects and planners who work in Mumbai. The ins-and-outs of practising architecture and planning in this megacity are explored through their eyes. Small but exciting firms (such as Brio Architecture) find a place beside massive commercial architecture firms (including Hafeez Contractor) and activist architects (such as PK Das and Somaya & Kalappa). Teaching architecture in Mumbai is also discussed extensively. This book features several micro-initiatives that have come up with creative solutions for making the city more liveable and beautiful. A special acknowledgment must be reserved for Bas Losekoot, whose luxurious high-quality photography covers the many faces and facets of Mumbai. In his photo essay, he projects an intriguing new light on Mumbai and its inhabitants. Learning from Mumbai will be of interest to architects, planners, architecture and planning students, and for those thinking of starting an architecture or planning firm in India, as well as for anyone interested in Mumbai and Mumbai’s built environment.

The terms ‘analogue architecture’ and ‘oldnew architecture’ are key aspects of the teaching of Miroslav Sik at the ETH Zurich. During his first period there (1983-1991), Sik worked as Senior Assistant at the Chair of Fabio Reinhart and was in effect the spokesman of an architectural movement that became renowned far beyond the borders of Switzerland and is still influential today. In 1986/1991, the compact movement presented itself to the public with a touring exhibition and an accompanying large-scale ‘Swiss Box’, including chalk perspective drawings of its projects. Miroslav Sik worked as a Full Professor at the ETH Zurich between 1999 and 2018 during his second period there. Since the 1990s, Sik’s theory and teaching have formed an important pillar of Swiss and international architectural history.

This extensive volume contains the best 90/120 works respectively by students from both periods of Miroslav Sik’s teaching, including plans, project descriptions and perspective diagrams. Some of the presented students went on to become renowned contemporary Swiss architects. This volume also includes the most important manifesto-like texts by Miroslav Sik and enlightening essays on the movement of analalogue and oldnew architecture.

Richard Manion Architecture creates distinctive residences and estates with a respect for traditional forms and historic imagery adapted to modern living. The curated selection of rarely published projects in this second volume of RMA’s work, Streamlined, demonstrates the firm’s signature classicist style, which draws upon traditional and streamlined classical, regional, and contemporary influences to reflect authentic details, proportions, and a sophisticated sense of place for the 21st century.

In this book, the firm’s focus is on the integration of modernism within an overall framework of simplicity and restraint, discretion and harmony. Academic studies of European modernism, with its visionary approach and embodiment of the machine age, have come back to inspire, but with the understanding that many of its roots can be traced back to the heritage of classical design principles. This exquisite, fully illustrated volume showcases RMA’s goal to unite ideas about tradition, history, and modernity in a synergy and explores the meaning of shared architectural imagery and heritage for our time.

Contemporary architect Ralph Johnson is one of the most prolific and awarded American architects practicing today. As Firmwide Design Director at global architecture firm Perkins&Will, which he joined in 1976, Johnson’s work has shaped communities and spanned continents—from Africa’s tallest tower to Shanghai’s landmark natural history museum. In 2015, Johnson was inducted into the National Academy of Design, and in 2022, AIA Chicago honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his lasting impact on architecture and the built environment. Architecture in a Rapidly Changing World is a comprehensive two-volume monograph celebrating Johnson’s long-spanning career and his impressive portfolio of work, both built and unbuilt, since 1971. Taken together, the volumes explore how individual expression emerges within the context of a larger architectural practice. Volume 1: Creative Journey encapsulates his career from architecture school to the present. Volume 2: Recent Work explores his latest projects in more depth. While Johnson’s approach has evolved over six decades of practice, his adherence to the core values of humanism, environmentalism, and modernism has never wavered.

This book presents innovative examples of hidden architecture: buildings that are designed to disappear into their surroundings or hide in plain sight. In the city, hidden buildings are often designed to provide the occupants with privacy and protection from the busy world outside or they can be incorporated into the streetscape to free up space for public use. In the countryside, buildings should not spoil a scenic landscape, so they can be designed to become a part of it. Buildings can be buried underground, hidden amongst trees, covered with greenery or even sunk into the sea. They can be clad in mirrors to reflect their surroundings, disappear beneath an urban plaza or be hidden from view on top of another building. Each of these imaginative solutions offers a way for architecture to blend in rather than stand out. Hidden Architecture tells the stories of projects from around the world that are cleverly disguised but still beautifully detailed and outstanding in their execution.

Architecture Asia, as the official journal of the Architects Regional Council Asia, aims to provide a forum, not only for presenting Asian phenomena and their characteristics to the world, but also for understanding diversity and multiculturalism within Asia from a global perspective.

This issue discusses the topic of globalization and locality through four essays and eleven projects. The essays attempt to observe the tension between the different forces of globalization, which is being widely debated as a distinguishing trend, and also highlight globalization’s impact on local architecture, as well as the various efforts being taken to ensure local identity and distinctive locality in architecture design. The projects, accompanied with full-color photos and text descriptions, demonstrate the many successful attempts in developing design concepts and methods to cope with the globalization trend while maintaining locality. These essays and projects are carefully selected to represent diversity in project locations, and includes locations such as Thailand, India, Japan, and China.

“In an era dominated by traditionalism on one hand and the emergence of modernity on the other, Lutyens’ work serves as a compelling testament to the brilliance of harmonizing these contrasting approaches.” — ArchEyes

Edwin Lutyens was one of the most famous architects of the 20th century. After he died in 1944, three large volumes of his drawings and photographs were commissioned and published by Country Life as a tribute.

All three volumes are in the process of being reissued. Having earned his reputation designing domestic buildings, he was soon given scope to expand his practice to the outdoors and to public projects. This second volume contains his extensive contributions to garden design and town planning, as well as the finest examples of his bridges and a selection of monumental civic constructions. These include various university buildings, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Washington Embassy and the Viceroy’s Palace in New Delhi.

The genius of Lutyens is now universally recognized. In the work featured in this book, we can now see not just the professionalism of a great architect, but also the loving care with which he set down the most minute detail, with the result that this is one of the few books in existence that can be used to provide working drawings.

Also available: The Architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens: Volume 1, Country Houses ISBN 9781788842181.

“The product of extensive archival research by members of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, these editions make newly accessible the work of the accomplished British designer.” — Architectural Record

The genius of Edwin Lutyens is now universally recognized. When the acclaimed English architect passed away in 1944, three large volumes of his drawings and photographs were commissioned from the thousands found in his office and were published by Country Life. In 2023, all three volumes will be republished by ACC Art Books.

This third and final volume showcases Lutyens’ detailed plans and elevations for the greatest examples of his townhouse renovations, memorials and public buildings, including the Cenotaph at Westminster, the Thiepval Memorial, and the colossal Midland Bank building in Manchester.

These reissues are once again bringing to the world’s attention not just the professionalism of a great architect, but also the loving care with which he set down the minutiae of his visions. They are among the few books in existence illustrated with his working drawings, as well as pristine photos of the finished masterpieces themselves. A beautiful tribute to a monumental figure in the history of modern architecture. 

Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is known as one of the most beautiful cities in the world because of its perfect blend of nature, environment, architecture and people. With almost complete preservation of architecture from all historical periods, Prague is second to none among other World Heritage cities for its richness, integrity and diversity. The city is like a European open-air museum of architectural art, and one of the indispensable destinations for architects and architecture lovers to travel in Europe.

Based on years of field and literature research by the authors, this book showcases the achievements of Prague’s thousand-year urban architectural changes and the protection of complete heritage.

Through the interpretation of 43 historic buildings from different periods, this book explores Prague’s urban characteristics and changes. Though priceless, most of these built heritages are beyond the focus of Western architectural history research, and their status and significance need to be readdressed and reassessed.

Text in English and Chinese.

(Re)discover Art Nouveau at the heart of Brussels. At the end of the 19th century, the anti-academic movement pushed Brussels’ architects towards Art Nouveau. Both Victor Horta, in an organic style, and Paul Hankar, in a more geometrical tendency, created an architecture that quickly gained an international reputation. In a little more than a decade, from 1893 on, hundreds of Art Nouveau-fashioned buildings appeared in Brussels, elaborated first by the great pioneers and later by their students and imitators who are also influenced by the Vienna Secession and other trends of European Art Nouveau. At first, this style fulfilled industrial bourgeoisie’s dreams, yearning to assert itself in the city’s structure through this new, and sometimes exuberant, architecture. This book offers nine walks to discover – in different districts – the multiple aspects of architectural Art Nouveau in Brussels. Witness the personal style of the most important architects as well as decorative methods such as sgraffito. Through interviews with owners, custodians and restorers of Art Nouveau-styled buildings, Brussels Art Nouveau describes the fundamental guardians of this remarkable heritage.