Phyllis Richardson

Drawing on the success of XS series, Nano House presents 43 examples the most innovative, most ingenious and most responsible designs for small-scale (less than 75m2) houses set in a variety of contexts. Each house, shown in texts, photographs and pl ans, is an object lesson in domestic design. Using digital tools, sustainable materials and new prefabrication technologies, all these projects offer exciting and realistic solutions for houses where space is at a premium, nature must be preserved or accommodation created for those who need it most.

Understanding modern as much more than modernist, Living Modern is all about clean lines, elegant colour combinations, maximizing indoor-outdoor relationships, showcasing great design objects and creating open areas for lounging, cooking and dining. Hundreds of photographs have been drawn from stylish residences around the world, particularly from places where easy modern living has achieved its best expression, such as Brazil, California, Scandinavia and Australia, but also from places where streamlined forms have been fused with vernacular styles. From desert to jungle, from city to country, modern has a wide spectrum. With clean, elegant design and thematic structure, together with a comprehensive index of designers and architects, and directory of stockists, this book offers anyone looking to create their own stylish and contemporary interior a complete source of inspiration.

One of the most influential design philosophies of the past 25 years has been Glenn Murcutt's dictum that buildings should touch the earth lightly. While architects have always sought to liberate architecture from its solid foundations through the use of new materials and spatial reconfigurations, climate change, new materials and restricted land use have given new impetus to finding lightweight solutions for our homes. Superlight houses combine two strands of thinking: that lightweight buildings have less impact on their environments, and that this lightness (visually, materially, ecologically) can lead to more open living and greater communion with their surroundings. Each of the 41 houses presented here is shown through photographs, plans and lucid explanations. Residences that appear to float, ingenious constructions using local materials, innovative structures, inflatable spaces, high-tech hyper- intelligent houses superlight takes many forms, in many places from the urban jungle of Tokyo to rural China and mountainous Chile.