Modern House Three - Softcover

Barreneche, Raul A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714846287 ISBN 13: 9780714846286

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 2006

Synopsis

Modern House 3 is an overview of the most innovative houses built around the world in recent years, following the successful publication of Phaidon's Modern House (1993) and Modern House 2 (2000). This book presents 33 houses in 15 countries, by both distinguished architects and up-and-coming young designers, including David Adjaye (London), Tadao Ando (Japan), Carlos Ferrater (Spain), Sean Godsell (Australia), Kengo Kuma (China), Richard Meier (United States), Julie Snow (Canada), and Werner Sobek (Germany), among others.
The houses are organized in three thematic sections that address integrating architecture and landscape, negotiating unusual programs and client needs, and building with new materials and energy-saving technologies. Each house exemplifies a unique approach to contemporary living and design.

About this title

Review

Whether you are planning to build a contemporary-style home or are simply intrigued by the extraordinary innovation of domestic architecture today, Modern House Three, by Raul A. Barrenche, offers a brilliant survey of the best of the best. Third in a series initiated in 1993, the current volume offers stunning photographs and elegant descriptions of 33 houses in 15 countries. Some of these projects are by big-name architects (Tadao Ando, Richard Meier, Glenn Murcutt, John Hejduk); most are by designers you may never have heard of. The book is organized in three sections that focus on three distinct issues— the integration of architecture with landscape, re-imagining the way people live in their homes, and new materials and energy-saving technologies. Among the book's discoveries is the Carter Tucker House by Sean Godsell Architects, a weekend retreat in Australia, discretely clad with cedar wood battens that rise up like awnings to reveal a transparent facade of sliding glass doors. And the Koehler House by Julie Snow Architects, two bold horizontal planes with huge expanses of glass that are dramatically anchored to a rocky outcropping in eastern Canada. While most of the domiciles are expansive, Small House was designed by Kazuyo Sejima for a tiny plot in Tokyo. Perched on a 646-square-foot plot, this glass-and-metal capsule accommodates a family of three by limiting each of the four floors to a single function. The variety and inventiveness exhibited in this book is extraordinary. There are houses that reveal the extraordinary effects of natural light, employ unusual materials and pioneer new ways of organizing domestic space. A straw bale house in London by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects uses recycled concrete wall fragments and metal coils to absorb the vibrations from passing trains. A house by Kengo Kuma & Associates for a site near the Great Wall of China has been crafted inside and out with delicate stalks of bamboo. For browsing, dreaming or active research, Modern House Three is tangible proof that contemporary architects are infusing new technologies and innovative uses of space with an equal emphasis on sheer beauty. --Cathy Curtis

About the Author

Raul A Barreneche, a New York-based editor and critic, has been writing about architecture and design for more than a 10 years. A former executive editor at Architecture, he writes regularly for The New York Times. He is currently a contributing editor to Metropolitan Home, Travel + Leisure, and Architectural Record, and has written for Dwell, House Beautiful, i-D, ELLE Decor, Interior Design, Wallpaper*, and other publications. Barreneche is co-author of House: American Houses for the New Century (2001), and author of Tropical Modern (2003).

Edition details

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0714846287
• ISBN 13: 9780714846286
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240