The twentieth century has produced some of the most innovative and memorable designs for private houses, which have become architectural icons worldwide.
In the 1920s and 1930s, houses were the means by which architects established the early modern movement as more than an intellectual pursuit--private clients looked more favourably on commissioning the avant garde than, with few exceptions, large corporations or the state. Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, for example, created houses in that period which made clear statements on how the new architecture could be expressed.
Private houses today have once more entered the architectural mainstream. After a sustained period of economic boom, private clients have returned to architects to express their new-found wealth and status. The result is a decade of houses that reveal some of the real concerns of world-famous architects better known for their celebrated museums, and the talents of younger architects keen to establish their reputations.
This book examines in detail 30 contemporary houses from around the world, choosing those designed by an original and wide-ranging selection of architects which includes Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Glenn Murcutt, John Pawson and Claudio Silvestrin.
