Sibylle Kramer

The Baltic Sea has gained rapidly in importance as a travel destination in recent years. More and more people appreciate the diversity found among urban designer hubs, sleepy and cozy villages, and ever-changing coastal strips. The new volume in the series on design retreats shows destinations away from mass tourism with a focus around the Great Belt. Both an architectural and a travel guide, this volume offers inspiration and promises to fulfill the longing for peace, solitude and variety - for holidays spent at a farmstead on the dyke, above the sea on a crane, or in a fancy loft in Copenhagen. The common denominators among all accommodations presented here are a convincing design and a special location by the Baltic Sea.

Exclusive living retreats set against the backdrop of majestic peaks, steep slopes and picturesque valleys The chalet is a building style that enjoys lasting popularity all over the world. Dating back to the herdsman’s hut in the Alpine region, it became a longed-for destination and the most preferred holiday domicile in the 19th century with the emerging fascination with the Alps. Today, architects and designers are primarily inspired by the constantly redefined interplay of sublime nature, traditional architecture, regional building typologies, individual design, and modern formal language that pushes them to reach magnificent creative peaks. The projects selected for this volume are diverse and remarkably multifaceted: From a traditional construction with a flat gable roof, wide roof overhang, and robust timber façade, to contemporary, thoroughly idiosyncratic interpretations with clear lines, creative choice of materials, and fine details. However, the artful staging of the imposing mountain world in the interior design plays a decisive role among all presented chalets.

Design reduced to the absolute essential - the shipping container. Invented in the 1950s by Malcom McLean, these plain steel boxes with corrugated profiles revolutionized the worldwide trade sector. These huge receptacles for storing and transporting cargo have found their way into architecture to become an essential part of global building culture. Ever more astonishing architectural applications and design experiments are based on these standardized, strictly geometrically conceived units. Their imaginatively designed shells are just as versatile as their use: sometimes with original, rough surfaces with traces of use that tell a story, sometimes with a curtain facade made of wood and largescale glazing, or even as a purist composition with a sophisticated light installation. In an everchanging world with its hybrid forms of living and working, this book presents a collection of remarkable container buildings.