Outhouses By Famous Architects

Outhouses have been much ridiculed and maligned structures, thought worthy of only the lowliest of humor and virtually ignored by architectural critics as inconsequential blips in the development of building design. And yet--as architect Steve Schaecher so poignantly reveals in this collection of renderings--architects of genius from time immemorial have used their considerable talents to enhance the beauty and function of the outhouse. His extensive research has uncovered a wealth of stunning outdoor bathroom designs that say much about the history of architecture. Although Schaecher's friends and family have worried about his obsession with bathroom drawings, it is clear that with the publication of this tome, his seat in the annals of architectural history will never be put down.Here are reproductions of stylish (dare we say perfectionist?) renderings of Thronehenge, Wright's Flushing Water, the Odor Dame Cathedral, the Taj Ma-stall, Jefferson's Johnicello, Sullivan's Merchants First National Outhouse, Le Corbusier's Bidet Savoye, Fuller's Geodesic Throne, the Hancock's John Building, the Centre Pompidoodoo-the unmistakable outhouse for that weird-looking French museum-and many others. Each is accompanied by insightful historical and analytical text, depending on your definitions of insightful and analytical. The preface, by architectural critic I.P. Daley, will leave you in no doubt of the importance of this completely nonsensical book.

Following architect Steve Schaecher's groundbreaking Outhouses by Famous Architects and Mobile Homes by Famous Architects (Pomegranate, 2000 and 2002), we present his new array of historical inquiries. In deft ink-and-watercolor illustrations and knowledgeable prose, Schaecher informs each of his twenty-nine booths with the sensibility of the architect who supposedly designed it.Schaecher's books are not mere parodies. While he envisions humorous applications for the talents of Palladio, Le Corbusier, Wright, and other giants, his watercolors are true reflections of the architects' styles; e.g., Erik Gunnar Asplund's phone booth, the Stockholm Dialibrary, clearly exemplifies Asplund's design precepts, and the concise text explores the Swede's architectural principles—as well as the assertion that music by the Swedish 1970s supergroup Abba is piped into the Dialibrary to ease the pain of being on hold.Schaecher brings a generous sense of humor to analyses of building styles from classical Egypt through Renaissance mastery, Enlightenment engineering, and Modern uplift before arriving among the competing theories of today. His past performance has won accolades from the likes of Robert Venturi, and Phone Booths keeps up the good work.

Practicing architect Schaefer whimsically combines the mobile home with the history of architecture, presenting 29 drawings from Egyptian obilisks being toted by bearers (the mobilisk) to a version of Frank Gehry's most famous building on wheels (Guggenheim Cruise-Seum). Accompanying text combin

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Photographer Thomas Harding, armed only with his pinhole camera and a keen eye for the unusual, traveled thousands of miles of backroads and lanes to record the remnants of a vanishing genre of folk architecture--the outhouse. Harding boldly stepped where others might fear to tread. He followed the elusive drain from the Bible (Deuteronomy 23:12-13), to the Romans (indoor facilities over streams of water), to the lowly rural American outhouse. The intrepid Harding traced a little-known pipe-dream ....

The first in a series that uses computer technology to literally lift the lid from the work of famous architects and show their buildings in great detail. The greatest American architect is the subject of the first book, with five of his signature private houses covered: the Robie house--greatest of his Prairie houses; the Ennis House--one of West Coast textile-block houses; the Usonian Fallingwater, possibly his greatest creation; the second house he built for Herbert Jacobs, one of his earth-bermed solar hemicycles; and finally, part of Wright's dream for affordable, mass-produced housing--one of his Erdman Prefabricated dwellings.