"Ever since Thomas Jefferson built Monticello, American architects have used their own houses as laboratories, testing new ideas and putting a fresh spin on the old. To select the best of our own era, Michael Webb traveled coast to coast, talking with 150 architects, and looking for houses and apartments that respond creatively to the challenge of site, context, and budget. He chose 41 recent examples, and six modern classics. Together they demonstrate how rich is the idea of "house."" "Pioneers like Schindler, Neutra, Wright, Gropius, Charles and Ray Eames, and Philip Johnson explored new ways of enclosing space and relating buildings to nature. They shocked their contemporaries and inspired their successors. The latest work shown here ranges even more widely - from a tree house in Berkeley to a playful weekend cottage on Lake Michigan, from a cluster of wooden towers in a Florida palm grove to a Toronto house that fuses craft and technology. Sophisticated New York apartments, daring hillside houses in Los Angeles, and witty variations on the New England vernacular reflect America's regional diversity. Houses are grouped by type. Over 200 color and vintage black and white photos, plans, and sections are woven together with lively descriptions of what each architect built - and why." "These architectural adventures offer new ways of satisfying practical and emotional needs, and write another chapter in the history of the American house. They demonstrate the timeless virtues of light and space, openness and privacy, fine craftsmanship and economical construction. Everyone who has dreamed of building a unique house or is planning piecemeal improvements can find inspiration is this eclectic anthology."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

What does an architect's dream house look like? Explore the homes of thirty of the world's most talented architects. Inventive and imaginative homes in 17 different countries. Spacious or frugal, ambitious or modest, refined or rough-edged, daring or reductive, the inspiring buildings in Architects' Houses are unique in design concepts, details, and materials, and how they interact with their landscape. A treasure trove of ideas for homeowners, practitioners, and interior designers. Architects' Houses is richly illustrated with photographs, sketches, and plans. Learn how established architects design their own homes' design. Explore the creative process and influence of architects' houses over the past two hundred years. From Jefferson's Monticello to the creations of Charles and Ray Eames, Toyo Ito to Frank Gehry. This generously illustrated book brims with ideas and inspiration as these architects' houses show different answers to the question: how can a house enrich lives and its natural surroundings?

Provides a review of social trends and their effect on architecture and design.

Have you ever found yourself asking, “Is this all there is to life?” Or wondering if this bigger life you have created is actually a better life? And do you wonder how it all got so out of control? In her groundbreaking bestseller The Not So Big House, architect Sarah Susanka showed us a new way to inhabit our houses by creating homes that were better–not bigger. Now, in The Not So Big Life, Susanka takes her revolutionary philosophy to another dimension by showing us a new way to inhabit our lives. Most of us have lives that are as cluttered with unwanted obligations as our attics are cluttered with things. The bigger-is-better idea that triggered the explosion of McMansions has spilled over to give us McLives. For many of us, our ability to find the time to do what we want to do has come to a grinding halt. Now we barely have time to take a breath before making the next call on our cell phone, while at the same time messaging someone else on our Blackberry. Our schedules are chaotic and overcommitted, leaving us so stressed that we are numb, yet we wonder why we cannot fall asleep at night. In The Not So Big Life, Susanka shows us that it is possible to take our finger off the fast-forward button, and to our surprise we find how effortless and rewarding this change can be. We do not have to lead a monastic life or give up the things we love. In fact, the real joy of leading a not so big life is discovering that the life we love has been there the entire time. Through simple exercises and inspiring stories, Susanka shows us that all we need to do is make small shifts in our day–subtle movements that open our minds as if we were finally opening the windows to let in fresh air. The Not So Big Life reveals that form and function serve not only architectural aims but life goals as well. Just as we can tear down interior walls to reveal space, we can tear down our fears and assumptions to open up new possibilities. The result is that we quickly discover we have all the space and time we need for the things in our lives that really matter. But perhaps the greatest reward is the discovery that small changes can yield enormous results. In her elegant, clear style, Susanka convinces us that less truly is more–much more.