Anna Yudina

As the definition of designer expands and architects today create everything from jewelry to urban masterplans, a new wave of objects ranging from furniture to small-scale architectural inventions is transforming our interior spaces. Boosted by digital design and manufacturing possibilities, a rising global group of independent makers is making this crossover of furniture and architecture one of the hottest and most innovative fields of design. Furnitecture presents some two hundred examples of this new design typology, by renowned architects and designers from around the globe, including Danish studio KiBiSis design for a reconfigurable bookshelf system, Japanese architect Shigeru Bans moving boxes within rooms, Dutch designers Makkink & Beys conversational Ear Chairs and French atelier 37.2s series of self-standing cubes.

How far can we expand the concept of `urban nature'? How would it make us feel? And how is it going to transform our cities - and, eventually, ourselves? Garden City captures the growing global movement among contemporary architects for biodesigning buildings less as skin and bodies - structure and facade - and more as living entities, capable of being ecologically autonomous, horticulturally productive and ultimately pleasing to our day-to-day lifestyles. It presents more than 100 (mostly completed) projects, a life-affirming range of buildings and design ideas that can be applied to new buildings and those needing rehabilitation. From office buildings that incorporate urban farms and exchange the CO2 produced by humans for food and oxygen produced by plants, to lightweight systems for growing gardens on vertical surfaces; from `tree houses' the size of city blocks to civic buildings that are `plugged into' existing water-management systems - there are rich and often unexpected ideas for every inquiring designer. The future of our urban architecture is biologically alert, naturally self-sustaining and alive. Garden City is this future's first manifesto.

Growing numbers of us work not only from home, but from anywhere; job flexibility has become a key requirement for employers and workers alike. This, in turn, has created new challenges for architects and designers – many of whom themselves start out working from home – who are tackling demand head on with innovative solutions that allow clients to transform their spaces to suit a wide range of needs, from multifunctional studios to homes that seamlessly combine work and family life. Divided into five thematic sections, this book explores the exciting variety of ways that the workplace can be integrated into the domestic environment. From stand-alone multifunctional furniture to mobile room dividers and dynamic solutions that fold out or pop up to create new work areas, each design addresses the unique needs of the space, client and working practices for which it was required, and tackles new questions about the rapidly evolving relationship between work and domestic life in the 21st century. This essential and timely resource for homeworkers and practitioners offers fresh ideas for how to strike the perfect balance between living and working at home.