Search results for ""author michael webb""

Thirty of the world’s leading architects, including Norman Foster, Thom Mayne, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, talk about the houses they designed for themselves over the past decade. What inspired them, what were the constraints, how did their concepts take shape? Michael Webb explores the creative process and traces the influence of architects’ houses over the past two hundred years, from Jefferson’s Monticello to the creations of Charles and Ray Eames, Toyo Ito and Frank Gehry. Texts, images, sketches and plans are interwoven to illustrate houses that differ widely, in size, material, character and location. There are urban infills, rustic retreats, experiments, and fusions of new and old. They all make a statement, modest or ambitious, and each reflects the personality and tastes of its owner. These architects have accepted the challenge of doing something out of the ordinary, turning constraints to advantage. They give different answers to a crucial question: how can a house enrich lives and its surroundings? Spacious or frugal, refined or rough-edged, daring or reductive, these adventurous dwellings will inspire other architects and everyone who would like to design or commission a house that is one-of-a-kind.

Read more less

California Houses brings together thirty-six houses completed over the past ten years that capture the spirit of California in distinctive ways and respond creatively to context and the environment. They engage forests and deserts, the ocean and city streets. Large or small, they demonstrate the extraordinary range of invention emerging from the offices of established and younger architects. This is a celebration of the best talent as well as clients with the imagination and means to commission houses that are one-of-a-kind and advance the art of architecture. California is a hotbed of sustainable construction, as mandated by state legislation, and all of these houses employ active and passive strategies to reduce their carbon footprint. There's a strong emphasis on natural light and ventilation, thermal insulation and solar panels. Rainwater is harvested for irrigation. These are homes constructed to conserve energy, withstand earthquakes and, often, to resist wildfires, but witho

Read more less

This is the first English language biography of Ottorino Respighi, the most performed Italian composer of the twentieth century. Best known for his so-called Roman trilogy, (Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome and Roman Festivals), this book documents the story of his rise to fame and offers a fascinating insight into the active lifestyle of an internationally renowned musician, who made an important contribution to the revival of interest in early music. It also takes a closer look at Respighi’s associations with eminent figures such as Arturo Toscanini, Serge Diaghilev, Gabriele D’Annunzio and even Albert Einstein which make his story deeply engaging and take us beyond the realms of music into a world of Russian émigrés, wealthy patrons and Nobel Prize winners, while also documenting some of the early effects of fascism on art and culture.

Read more less

Offers an overview ot Italian music of the modern era - deals with the composers and the music they wrote.

Read more less

Building Community is an in-depth, wide-ranging survey of contemporary apartment buildings, not as raw canvases for interior decoration but as a building type of growing significance. An introduction presents the history of multiple-occupancy housing through its most innovative 20th-century exemplars, from the urbane blocks of Auguste Perret and Henri Sauvage in Paris, to the landscaped housing estates of Weimar Germany and the visionary schemes of Le Corbusier. The heart of the book features 39 recent or ongoing projects, designed by leading international studios and rising talents. Buildings range from social housing and micro apartments to urban villages, megastructures and innovative high-rises. Each project is considered for the way in which it enriches the lives of residents and the city, and is shown through drawings and photographs, taken from the street and within. The book also includes interviews with such contemporary masters of apartment design as Michael Maltzan, Lorcan O’Herlihy, Édouard François and Bjarke Ingels. As our cities grow more crowded, it is critical that we produce creative buildings that enhance the lives of their inhabitants, their surroundings and the urban environment as a whole. Building Community offers dozens of proven successes to designers and apartment-dwellers.With 348 illustrations in colour

Read more less

From the ruins of Palmyra in the Syrian desert to the ghost town of Bodie, the painted churches of Sucevita in Romania, and a fire festival in a Japanese village: Michael Webb has ventured far afield in search of the rare and beautiful. He recalls memorable experiences of people and places over eight decades of travel around the world, and some of the buildings and landscapes that have left a lasting impression. It's getting harder to find places that have not been commercialised and overwhelmed by mass tourism, but they can still be found, even in the most popular destinations. Webb's recommendations should inspire you to get off the beaten track and make your own discoveries.

Read more less

Hollywood s most sought-after architects are synonymous with the quintessential California lifestyle.

Read more less

For this Los Angeles firm, modernism is not a matter of style or ideology, but rather a commonsense approach to contemporary living. Their goal is to create a composite portrait of each client and their own response to the site and the benign climate of southern California. A few materials, impeccably crafted, provide a serene backdrop for living and entertaining. Photographs, plans, and sketches illustrate ten exemplary houses in great detail, and the text illuminates the creative process and the ways in which it has enriched the lives of fortunate owners.

Read more less

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, the oldest museum dedicated to the Holocaust in the United States, recently opened its newly designed building to the public. Designed by award-winning architect Hagy Belzberg, explore the history, conceptual development, process, and viewer experience through this provocative and moving visual journey. This book contains text by acclaimed architectural writer Michael Webb with principal photography by world renowned architectural photographers Iwan Bann and Benny Chan. The Belzberg Architects designed Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is one of the largest intensive green roofs in California and has been awarded LEED Gold Certification for excellence in sustainability. As recent winners of the 2011 Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission Architecture Award, American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Design Award, American Institute of Architects California Council Design Award, Interior Design Magazine Best of the Year Award: Institutional, and Architect Magazine Annual Design Review Award, this new cultural landmark showcases a successful merger of "green" design practices with iconic architecture.

Read more less

Anthony Poon's passion for music inspires a vibrant architecture that engages its users and the environment. Affordability and sustainability are hallmarks of Poon's designs, which fuse quality and innovation. His success explodes the myth that architect-designed houses are more expensive and challenging than generic solutions and raises the bar for developers and architects alike. This monograph explores three fields in which Poon Design have excelled: housing, schools, and restaurants. It explains how they enrich the experience of living, learning, and eating, and promote social interaction. Readers can track the creative process from concept sketch to model, plan to completion.

Read more less

From artworks and chairs to architecture, landscaping and interior design, Michael Boyd’s devotion to the principles of modernism is comprehensive. An artist and musician, he acquired his expertise as a collector, surrounding himself with rare and beautiful finds. His immersion in the philosophy and creativity of the masters inspired him to restore a succession of classic modern houses, curate exhibitions, create a versatile range of furniture and rugs, and design sculptural gardens. Millennium Modern: Living in Design details his work across the first two decades of the new millennium and reflects his belief that the tenets of modernism – honesty and simplicity - developed more than a century ago, are equally relevant to our pluralistic age. In contrast to the pioneers who wanted to do away with the past, his creations are deeply rooted in the history of design. Essays by Boyd and architectural writer Michael Webb, along with comments from collaborators and critics, explore each facet of his residential design. This beautifully illustrated volume reveals Boyd’s holistic design practice from his discovery of design classics in flea markets, to his own furniture designs, which feature in residential interiors, hotels and museums, through to his sensitive restoration of the houses by Paul Rudolph and Oscar Niemeyer, Richard Neutra and Craig Ellwood, and the sculptural landscapes he designed to enhance these residences, as well as masterpieces by John Lautner.

Read more less

The American architectural firm of Sparano + Mooney in Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, CA, stands for sustainable and innovative buildings that are harmoniously embedded in spectacular mountain landscapes. In this volume, architectural critic Michael Webb presents ten projects with the aid of photographs, drawings, sketches and texts, visualizing the process by which architectural ideas are conceived and realized. The architects respond in their plans to the overwhelming natural surroundings with restrained forms and the innovative detailing of materials. The firm's models, sketches, conceptual drafts and fully executed buildings offer thoughtful perspective on developing architecture that thrives on the relationship between concept and place. Accompanying essays relate the buildings to their regional contexts and also highlight analogies to Land Art.

Read more less