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Bricks are the only non-natural building material that can look back at several thousand years of history. And as Mies van der Rhohe stated: "Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins". Buildings made of this fabric from very different epochs and cultures all over the world are always astonishing, and the world's best architects have explored the qualities of brickwork. A key characteristic for its success since time immemorial has always been easy planning through the standardization of production and the resulting harmonized construction process. Amazing constructive qualities, inexpensive and at the same time environmentally friendly production as well as the longevity are among the qualities that are particularly valued today. In this volume, historical and contemporary brick edifices are featured showing the wide range of possible applications and design possibilities.

Surrounded by a magical flair, villas have been the gleaming diamond of residential design since ancient times, characterized by generosity, representation and individuality.This classic form of habitation is a synonym for architectural distinctiveness with the nimbus of a refined way of living and sophisticated building culture - regardless of the style. For architects and interior designers, both the new construction and the conversion of a villa offer the exciting challenge of reinterpreting this building task with individual concepts. This volume presents the work of renowned architects as well as designs by young and up-and-coming design studios. Innovative thinking and creative refinement are required to realize the wishes and dreams of the client. Minimalist or opulent, traditional or extravagant, each villa offers a different design solution.

Housing shortages and building dereliction are fundamental challenges, concerning also the current architectural landscape. That these problems can be overcome by addressing them together has been proven by the increasingly successful reactivation and conversion of existing real estate in both urban and rural contexts. Real-world examples show that these measures can also make sense economically and from an urban planning perspective. In this way, the most extraordinary living spaces are created from old silos or depreciated office buildings, vacant churches, former station buildings or obsolete infrastructure buildings with the creative appropriation of the existing substance. The careful and respectful handling of the building fabric is as important in this process as the creative extension of the existing structures. This volume shows the exciting variety of reuse possibilities and provides new insights into and perspectives on a highly topical subject.

An often-quoted Swedish saying goes as follows: "A child has three teachers: the first teacher is the other children, the second teacher is the teacher, and the third teacher is the room." Students learn best where learning is interesting and fun - so the standards required for school construction are equally high. The continual development of educational concepts and new didactic approaches are changing everyday life in schools and, with it, the functional and aesthetic qualities of this building task. Classrooms and public areas both inside and outside are becoming increasingly flexible and multifunctional. They offer opportunities to retreat for individualized learning opportunities and zones of concentrated work, as well as open space landscapes for inter-year mingling and self-organized group activities. The school projects presented in this volume show how contemporary pedagogical concepts are translated into compelling and very diverse architectural solutions.

The purpose and primary function of wayfinding and signage design is to provide spatial orientation as quickly and clearly as possible. Respective concepts and systems can be designed for individual buildings, for example coporate headquarters, museums or hospitals, for areas such as a university campus or distinct municipal district, or for entire systems like a city's public transport. In addition to communicating direction, the interplay of typography, pictograms, materials, colors and shapes in these systems also delineates a particular identity of the location. On the basis of international realizations this title shows the range of different approaches and implementation possibilities of environmental graphics. No matter what kind of spatial context, the focus is always on visual communication that is understandable for every user. This volume is an indispensable reference work for anyone invloved in communications, as well as for architects, interior designers, graphic designers, and indeed creatives minds of any sectors.

Wood has undergone quite an image change - as future and trend researcher Matthias Horx puts in a nutshell: "Wood is Style". It has come out of the corner of the traditional and rustic and moved to the top of high-tech building materials. In addition to the well-known ecological and building biology aspects, innovative timber construction technology allows a great deal of design freedom, is extremely precise, and at the same time manages to enrich even very daring architecture with the factors of warmth and coziness. Using wood in combination with or in contrast to other materials such as metal, glass, bricks or exposed concrete is an option that architects and designers are increasingly choosing for their designs. The planners' willingness to experiment is now also evident in the color scheme of wooden houses and interiors. This publication offers a unique overview of its use for residential buildings from all over the world, including the United States and Canada and introduces architects, interior designers, and builders to the diversity of contemporary timber architecture.

This title is dedicated to a common and very frequent construction task in Switzerland and Austria: the detached house. Current design trends and new interpretations of alpine building cultures, different life forms and realities, changed demands and needs can be discovered in what architects and designers have created in recent years. A particularly exciting phenomenon in this context is the creative handling of room arrangements and the spatial partitioning, for which very different solutions are found. For this volume, the author has selected outstanding contemporary concepts and designs that deserve to be noticed and appreciated much more. Between prefabricated houses on the one hand and fancy villas on the other, all presented homes are within a middle-class budget. Floor plans and elevations, key figures on square feet, facts on ecological aspects, materials used and, last but not least, the respective designers offer the potential builder an extremely practical benefit.

In contrast to a decade ago, when ecological architecture was considered a luxury, it has now become essentially impossible to build without considering sustainability issues. Aspects of ecological balance have become an important part in the planning and construction process. In recent years, a canon of standard methods and possibilities has emerged to achieve this goal of environmentally friendly architecture. However, there are architects whose ideas and techniques for sustainable buildings go beyond the standards that have now been established such as the LEED rating system and are sometimes also mandatory. This publication discusses such new and innovative solutions for ecological construction. The author presents projects from all over the world that stand out from the standard measures and concepts and point the way to the future.

The building culture of China is currently one of the most innovative and most adventurous in the world because of the bold ways architects approach materials and genres as well as forms and functions. At the same time, it offers the opportunity to implement the most daring designs in the shortest possible time, as both the expertise and the necessary manpower are available. While technology and tradition play an important role, so do sustainability and ecological concepts aiming at achieving a harmonious interplay between the respective building and its surroundings. This volume features a wide range of typologies, styles, and locations that have one thing in common - their architects come from China and make the world stop and take notice of their work. The author presents the most important and interesting contemporary offices and designers and their most significant projects at home and abroad.

The desire for beautiful gardens is as strong as ever. An own garden as a private oasis of well-being, but also as a place of prestige can be much more than lawn and flowerbed, path, and hedge. The projects by professional landscape and garden architects presented in this volume show which elements, components and structures, composed and conceived with care and sophistication, constitute stylish and convincing garden design. The interaction with the surroundings, usually the house that belongs to the particular garden, always plays an important role. This can be sometimes strictly geometrical in a near-natural environment, unpretentious in front of a luxury villa, or freely moving, loosening up minimalist architecture. The size of the presented gardens from very different climatic zones ranges from a green backyard of less than 20 square feet to park-like grounds of over 2,000.

Communicative living on a single level thanks to a wide variety of layouts, ingenious spatial solutions by playing with building structures, and the symbiosis of architecture and environment: The bungalow is the epitome of a self-determined life - and inspires builders and architects alike. The one or one-and-a-half-story type of detached single-family house today is resplendent with elegant monopitch roofs, flat-roof variants in the Bauhaus style, or classic gable-roof models. The contemporary projects presented show the entire range of functional and design possibilities. Each one is unique and has been individually developed according to its location and the wishes of the residents. What all the bungalows presented have in common is their architectural quality and their high quality of living.

1000x European Hotels reveals what unites and divides European hotels by exploring its variety with regard to style, architecture and design: famous Grand Hotels, stylish business accommodations, innovative youth hostels, superb country houses, romantic bed & breakfasts, extravagant luxury hotels as well as quite unusual places such as a timbered tree house, a former jail, a cave or a repurposed drain pipe.