The Tropical Modern House

An elegant and colorful tour of some of the most ambitious examples of residential design, in some of the most breathtaking settings in the world. Raul A. Barreneche has searched the globe—including such spectacular locales as Hawaii, St. Barts, the British Virgin Islands, Brazil, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and India—to bring together a collection of luxurious modern homes designed by such luminaries as Isay Weinfeld, Marcio Kogan, Kerry Hill, and Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku, among many others. These architects experiment with combining modern technology and exotic local materials to produce rich designs of teak, metal, stucco, concrete, and glass. Spectacular swimming pools and breezy outdoor rooms figure prominently; "green" eco-conscious features are a seamless response to the tropical settings of many of the featured houses. These houses embrace the tropical lifestyle with open-air rooms, shady courtyards, sunny patios, and cool stucco walls. With bold architectural forms, crisp and inviting interiors, and stunning natural landscapes, The Tropical Modern House offers the new styles of these alluring venues in the sun.

Raul A. Barreneche, a New York–based designer and journalist, is the author of Rizzoli’s Pacific Modern and Tropical Modern and coauthor of Universe’s House: American Houses for a New Century. A former executive editor of Architecture, he is a contributing editor to Travel + Leisure and writes for major publications including Interior Design, Elle Décor, Departures, and the New York Times. He holds a professional architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University.