This book guides you systematically through the whole processof designing and building your own house. It offers practicalassistance from the moment you begin thinking about the kind ofhouse you want. It helps you focus your ideas and translate theminto working plans. It shows you how to estimate costs. Then, stepby step, it shows you how to construct the house -- explaining andillustrating every step systematically so that you can proceedconfidently from beginning to end. Here are complete, clear instructions on everything you need toknow, including: -- How to decide what you want the house to be like -- inside andoutside, and in relation to the environment and neighborhood -- How to translate your ideas and decisions into workingdrawings -- How to deal with all the components of a house: structural(roof, floor, walls, columns, foundations), mechanical (plumbingand heating), electrical, interior and exterior finishingmaterials -- How to establish the exact dimensions of e

Growing numbers of us work not only from home, but from anywhere; job flexibility has become a key requirement for employers and workers alike. This, in turn, has created new challenges for architects and designers many of whom themselves start out working from home who are tackling demand head on with innovative solutions that allow clients to transform their spaces to suit a wide range of needs, from multifunctional studios to homes that seamlessly combine work and family life. Divided into five thematic sections, this book explores the exciting variety of ways that the workplace can be integrated into the domestic environment. From stand-alone multifunctional furniture to mobile room dividers and dynamic solutions that fold out or pop up to create new work areas, each design addresses the unique needs of the space, client and working practices for which it was required, and tackles new questions about the rapidly evolving relationship between work and domestic life in the 21st century. This es

In this engaging and thought-provoking book, Colin Davies subjects the canonical architecture of the twentieth century to a thorough reassessment. Rather than repeating the standard wisdom, Davies questions the values and judgements that are so often the mainstay of architectural surveys, and in doing so asks: what is the importance of the style we know as Modernism? Combining a fascinating, well-researched, and, above all, readable text with photographs and drawings, this history is a must for students and lovers of modern architecture alike.,

Virginia Woolf was right. Women–and men, it turns out–yearnfor a room of their own. But instead of a little nook beneath the eaves, that room is nowa shed. Today’s sheds, however, are not dusty shelters for plantsand tools. Lace curtains have replaced cobwebs, charming antiquesstand where shovels and rakes once rusted, and instead ofcorrugated walls, you will find cedar shingles and window boxes.Sheds are stylish and elegant and offer a hassle-free andaffordable way to create more space without undergoing a majorrenovation. They function as artists’ studios, writers’ retreats,yoga dens, entertaining pavilions, children’s playhouses, gardenrooms, or serene hideaways for any personal pursuit. In Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, Debra Prinzing andWilliam Wright showcase twenty-eight innovative and beautifullyimagined spaces from New York City to East Hampton, from Seattle toSan Diego, and from Atlanta to Austin to Santa Cruz. Some areelaborate and luxurious; others are delightf

From the Ferris wheel to the integrated circuit, feats ofengineering have changed our environment in countless ways, big andsmall. In Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering, DukeUniversity's Henry Petroski focuses on the big: Malaysia's1,482-foot Petronas Towers as well as the Panama Canal, a cutthrough the continental divide that required the excavation of 311million cubic yards of earth. Remaking the World tells the stories behind the man-made wondersof the world, from squabbles over the naming of the Hoover Dam tothe effects the Titanic disaster had on the engineering communityof 1912. Here, too, are the stories of the personalities behind the wonders, from the jaunty IsambardKingdom Brunel, designer of nineteenth-century transatlanticsteamships, to Charles Steinmetz, oddball genius of the GeneralElectric Company, whose office of preference was a batteredtwelve-foot canoe. Spirited and absorbing, Remaking the World is acelebration of the creative instinct and of the men and women

The Case Study House program (1945 1966) was an exceptional, innovative event in the history of American architecture and remains to this day unique. The program, which concentrated on the Los Angeles area and oversaw the design of 36 prototype homes, sought to make available plans for modern residences that could be easily and cheaply constructed during the postwar building boom. Highly experimental, the program generated houses that were designed to redefine the modern home, and thus had a pronounced influence on architecture American and international both during the program's existence and even to this day. This compact guide includes all projects featured in our XL version, with over 150 photos and plans and a map of where all houses are (or were) located.

Today it is no longer a matter of taste as to how and whichcoffee we drink, as it is even more important where we enjoy it. Amultitude of new cafés, coffee shops and coffee houses around theworld honor a centuries old tradition, setting thereby new designtrends. The task is to create communicative and inspiring locationsand spaces, which at the same time measure up to the functionaldemands. The design solutions are as varied as the concepts, thetransitions to lounge, club or restaurant are flowing. After aninformative introduction, Coffee Time presents current projectsthat show the exciting conceptual and stylistic breadth of cafédesigns today.

Warm, inviting, embracing the indoor-outdoor lifestyle with a touch of the exotic, tropical modern homes are a dream of paradise realized. Contemporary tropical residential architecture has risen from a geographically specific homegrown aesthetic to a source of inspiration for the world s great modern architects and designers. Set in exotic locales, with pools, lush foliage, colorful gardens, these homes define a way of life. Frequently elegant and uncluttered, the houses serve as models of smart and beautiful design with lots of ideas for homeowners who do not necessarily live in a tropical or subtropical climate, but who wish to have something of that appeal and sensitivity in their own home. This book presents some of the most innovative interpretations of the genre from the past five years by internationally recognized architects and interior decorators, such as Tadao Ando, as well the work of young up-and-comers of great talent, including German-born, Bali-based Alexis Dornier, and Mexico s Roof