Houses Modern Natural Natural Modern

An authoritative volume on the most innovative and environmentally sensitive new residential design. This carefully curated presentation of new and recent houses represents the vanguard of architects creating innovative structures that maintain a sensitive relationship to their natural contexts. Ron Broadhurst has selected projects on five continents demonstrating the inexhaustible potential of the modern house to enter into a dialogue with nature, either as an extraordinary object within the landscape or as an essay in environmental sustainability, or both. Featured here is work by such design luminaries as Kengo Kuma in China, Sean Godsell in Australia, and Allied Works Architecture in the United States. With exceptional color photography, the book presents houses created with sustainability and carbon footprint in mind, as well as houses constructed on spectacular sites. Some houses incorporate the cutting edge of environmentally sensitive design; some radically rethink the use of "traditional" materials such as wood and stone. A comprehensive collection, Houses: Modern Natural/Natural Modern demonstrates uniquely of-the-moment architecture and interiors and offers a vision of how we will think of the relationship between houses and the natural landscape in the decades to come.

An awe-inspiring collection of contemporary homes designed to foster a connection with the essential elements of landscape Living in Nature showcases a selection of architect-designed houses that have something fundamental in common: a special relationship with the natural world. Each of the book's 50 homes is carefully chosen for its stunning location, whether cocooned within the earth itself or soaring high amongst treetops, surrounded by cooling waters, or resisting the desert heat. With a wealth of photographs showcasing each house inside and out, Living in Nature offers inspiration -- and tranquillity.

The most forward-looking spaces designed for rustic living in the twenty-first century. Across the globe, architects are creating innovative houses for country living, reimagining the way we escape into the natural world. Some combine industrial materials like metal and concrete with traditional wood. Others create sophisticated essays in off-grid living, employing the most technologically ambitious green-living strategies. Still others place discreet structures on remote, almost-unbuildable locations. This unique volume profiles new and recent projects that illustrate the inexhaustible potential of the modern house to enter into a dialogue with nature in sustainable yet stylish ways. The collection spans the globe, from the Pacific Northwest to the forests of Japan. Today’s architectural vanguard is represented, as well as established architects working at the forefront of twenty-first-century design, including Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Rick Joy, Olson Kundig, and Marcio Kogan. These rustic retreats—with comfortable and appealing modern interiors—will resonate with readers of shelter magazines, while the cutting-edge reputations of their architects will interest professionals and students.

Gathers ideas and advice on building, decorating, furnishing, and living with a toxin-free home built from natural materials.

Inspirational houses from around the world: how architects and home owners can achieve harmony between dwellings and nature. Our houses can be seen as living, breathing entities, extensions of ourselves and our families. This carefully considered publication provides the design inspiration to build and live in domestic spaces in a balanced, natural, sustainable way. With the demands of all contemporary dwellings in mind—whether they’re found in the city, suburbs, or country—Dominic Bradbury considers the design basics one must follow in order to coexist with the planet’s resources. Five chapters present successful projects from different parts of the globe, all specially photographed by Richard Powers. • Design and Build: where and how to create a modern natural home • Let There Be Light: manipulating the elements to improve lifestyle and interaction with nature • The Material World: using natural products to establish healthier relationships with the environment • Indoor/Outdoor Living: ideas for encouraging symbiotic relationships with the landscape, whether in the city or the country • Sustainable Footprints: how to naturally reduce domestic energy use The book includes case studies and plans, a directory of architects, and a listing of featured houses, materials, and useful products.

60 stunning works of contemporary architecture, all of which have a special relationship with the natural landscape Elemental Living presents 60 works of architecture from across the 20th and 21st centuries that have a special relationship with the natural world. The book includes a visually breathtaking selection of architect-created houses that have been designed to create unparalleled views of a wide variety of natural landscapes; designed to be almost indistinguishable from the natural landscape; or designed using materials and forms found in the natural landscape. Each house demonstrates a deep concern with the creation of unique living spaces that connect their inhabitants with the forests, mountains, lakes, deserts, and oceans that have attracted humanity for millennia.

For Arthur Andersson and Chris Wise, the fundamental elements that give buildings meaning are found in nature.Imbuing day-to-day activities with poetry and awe, their designs address both pragmatic needs and the psychological yearning for refuge and contemplation, centering and escape, joy and comfort. Their work is best experienced through the senses. Tactility, expressed through an eloquence of craft, the use of textured materials, and the logical design of structural systems, gives their buildings a rightness within the landscape. In their hands, daylight becomes a building material. Small wall apertures, three-sided dormers, clerestories, and other details grab, bend, and thread sunlight from one end of their houses to the other. Full of light and atmosphere, the houses are the physical embodiment of the great Charles Moore's influential tenet that architecture is about enhancing a sense of place. Natural Houses presents seven of the Austin, Texas-based firm's exquisitely crafted projects. Precise and cool, with forms often derived from the American vernacular of barns and cottages, these are painstakingly crafted houses made from regionally appropriate and aesthetically timeless materials. Natural Houses presents a range of sites and residences—from a small cabin in the woods to a multibuilding camp. Sited on a cliff, the House Above Lake Austin uses terraces to descend its steeply hilly site. The building's simple materials celebrate thesite and climate not by drawing attention to themselves, but by blending in. The stone foundation is similarly tied to the natural stone of the mountain. Smooth plaster walls above the stone foundation appear to have been chiseled from the rock itself. In a deceptively simple boathouse the walls fold down to become impromptu diving platforms. Exceptional photography captures the light and atmosphere of each project setting and illustrates how the firm rigorously expresses the design concept through detailing and construction. An introduction by Rick Sundberg of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects and essays by Jen Renzi and Frederick Steiner chart the firm's evolution and influences.

Natural Stone Houses show current and modern architectural examples for the use of natural stone, earth, and concrete.