Best of
Architecture

2021

Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Tradeoff Analysis for Distributed Architectures


Neal Ford - 2021
    These are the difficult problems architects face, what this book's authors call the hard parts. These topics have no best practices, forcing architects to understand various tradeoffs to succeed. This book discusses these hard parts by not only investigating what makes architecture so difficult, but also by providing proven ways to address these problems and make them easier.The book explores topics such as choosing an appropriate architecture, deciding on service granularity, managing workflows and orchestration, managing and decoupling contracts, managing distributed transactions, and optimizing operational characteristics such as scalability, elasticity, and performance. As practicing consultants, the authors focus on questions they commonly hear architects ask and provide techniques that enable them to discover the tradeoffs necessary to answer these questions.

Design: Building on Country


Alison Page - 2021
    It is visible in the aerodynamic boomerang, the ingenious design of fish traps and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion.Alison Page and Paul Memmott show how these design principles of sophisticated function, sustainability and storytelling, refined over many millennia, are now being applied to contemporary practices. Design: Building on Country issues a challenge for a new Australian design ethos, one that truly responds to the essence of Country and its people.About the First Knowledges series: Each book is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors; the series is edited by Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia.Other titles in the series include: Songlines by Margo Neale & Lynne Kelly (2020); Country by Bill Gammage & Bruce Pascoe (2021); Plants by Zena Cumpston, Michael Fletcher & Lesley Head (2022); Astronomy (2022); Innovation (2023).

BIG. Formgiving. An Architectural Future History


Taschen - 2021
    

Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt: A Captivating Guide to the Age of the Pyramids and the Egyptian Pharaohs Who Ruled


Captivating History - 2021
    

Sandfuture


Justin Beal - 2021
    That Yamasaki's most famous projects--the Pruitt-Igoe apartments in St. Louis and the original World Trade Center in New York--were both destroyed on national television, thirty years apart, makes his relative obscurity all the more remarkable. Sandfuture is also a book about an artist interrogating art and architecture's role in culture as New York changes drastically after a decade bracketed by terrorism and natural disaster. From the central thread of Yamasaki's life, Sandfuture spirals outward to include reflections on a wide range of subjects, from the figure of the architect in literature and film and transformations in the contemporary art market to the perils of sick buildings and the broader social and political implications of how, and for whom, cities are built. The result is at once sophisticated in its understanding of material culture and novelistic in its telling of a good story.

Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra-Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the 21st Century


Matthew Soules - 2021
    We rarely consider architecture to be an important factor in contemporary economic and political debates, yet unoccupied ultra-thin "pencil towers" develop in our cities, functioning as wealth storage for the superrich, and cavernous "iceberg" homes burrow many stories below street level. Meanwhile, communities around the globe are blighted by zombie and ghost urbanism, marked by unoccupied neighborhoods and abandoned housing developments.In Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin, Matthew Soules issues an indictment of how finance capitalism changes not only architectural forms, but the very nature of our cities and societies. From Ireland's devastated housing estates, to the chic luxury apartments of architect Rafael Viñoly's 432 Park Avenue, Soules demonstrates how investment imperatives shape what and how we build. Photos and drawings of architectural phenomena that have changed the way we live make the urgency of these issues even more apparent.

Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century


Matthew Soules - 2021
    Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin arms architects and the general public with an essential understanding of how capitalism makes property. Required reading for those who think tomorrow can be different from today."— Jack Self, coeditor of Real Estates: Life Without DebtIn Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin, Matthew Soules issues an indictment of how finance capitalism dramatically alters not only architectural forms but also the very nature of our cities and societies. We rarely consider architecture to be an important factor in contemporary economic and political debates, yet sparsely occupied ultra-thin "pencil towers" develop in our cities, functioning as speculative wealth storage for the superrich, and cavernous "iceberg" homes extend architectural assets many stories below street level. Meanwhile, communities around the globe are blighted by zombie and ghost urbanism, marked by unoccupied neighborhoods and abandoned housing developments.Learn how the use of architecture as an investment tool has accelerated in recent years, heightening inequality and contributing to worldwide financial instability:• See how investment imperatives shape what and how we build, changing the very structure of our communities• Delve into high-profile projects, like the luxury apartments of architect Rafael Viñoly's 432 Park Avenue• Understand the convergence of technology, finance, and spirituality, which together are configuring the financialized walls within which we eat, sleep, and workIncludes dozens of photos and drawings of architectural phenomena that have changed the way we live. Essential reading for anyone interested in architecture, design, economics, and understanding the way our world is formed.

The Secret Keepers: Jack's Journal #1


Nellie H. Steele - 2021
    An old castle. A life-changing secret.When mild-mannered Dr. Catherine Kensie arrives at Dunhaven Castle in the Scottish Highlands, estate manager Jack Reid isn’t sure what to expect from his new American boss. Other than adjusting to her preferences, though, he doesn’t foresee many issues.That is, until the new Countess begins experiencing strange phenomena within the castle walls. With Cate’s reports of people roaming the halls and phantom voices, Jack begins to investigate.What he and Cate discover will alter the course of their lives... and possibly history.*While this novella is part of a series, it can be read as a stand-alone. This book can be read in addition to or instead of The Secret of Dunhaven Castle, Book 1 in the Cate Kensie Mysteries series.*

Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency (Pelican Books)


Barnabas Calder - 2021
    

Soviet Seasons


Arseniy Kotov - 2021
    From snow-blanketed Siberia in winter to the mountains of the Caucasus in summer, these images show how a once powerful, utopian landscape has been affected by the weight of nature itself.

Patina Homes


Brooke Giannetti - 2021
    His materials palette consists of wood, metal, and stone. His color palette is a chalky patina. Twelve varied homes—ranging from a modern desert glass box and a beachfront contemporary to a historic East Coast farmhouse and a Provencal-style home in California—show how Steve has used these themes to solve unique architectural challenges. Steve has collaborated with his wife, Brooke, as well as other designers on the various interiors.

A Modern Way to Live: 5 Design Principles from The Modern House


Matt Gibberd - 2021
    They founded The Modern House - in equal parts an estate agency, a publisher and a lifestyle brand - and went on to inspire a generation to live more thoughtfully and beautifully at home.As The Modern House grew, Matt and Albert came to realise that the most successful homes they encountered - from cleverly conceived studio flats to listed architectural masterpieces - had been designed with attention to the same timeless principles: Space, Light, Materials, Nature and Decoration.In this lavishly illustrated book, Matt tells the stories of these remarkable living spaces and their equally remarkable owners, and demonstrates how the five principles can be applied to your own space in ways both large and small. Revolutionary in its simplicity, and full of elegance, humour and joy, this book will inspire you to find happiness in the place you call home.PRAISE FOR THE MODERN HOUSE: 'One of the best things in the world' GQ'The Modern House transformed our search for the perfect home' Financial Times'Nowhere has mastered the art of showing off the most desirable homes for both buyers and casual browsers alike than The Modern House' Vogue

Cabin Tripping: A Traveler's Guide to the World's Most Spectacular Getaways


J.J. Eggers - 2021
    A sleek cabin just 80 minutes from Manhattan, overlooking the property’s pond and 19 acres of woodland. A romantic, eco-friendly escape in the misty mountains of Bali’s Gunung Agung volcano. A glass-domed Finnish hut offering unobstructed views of the Northern Lights. Whether readers are seeking a once-in-a-lifetime adventure or a quiet retreat, a cozy night around a firepit or a summery lakefront sojourn, Cabin Tripping delivers.   Divided into six chapters—Forest, Tropics, Mountain, Arctic, Water, and Desert—the book features a curated collection of 150 of the most incredible cabins available to rent all over the globe. Each cabin profile includes information on how to get there, activities to enjoy in the area (hiking trails, fishing holes, thermal spas, and more), and tips like when to plan your visit to maximize your “leaf-peeping” or whale-watching opportunities.

The Boleyns of Hever Castle


Owen Emmerson - 2021
    

Hidden Heritage: A Story of Britain in Six Forgotten Relics


Fatima Manji - 2021
    They point to a more complex national history than is commonly remembered. These objects, lost, concealed or simply overlooked, expose the diversity of pre-twentieth-century Britain and the misconceptions around modern immigration narratives.Hidden Heritage powerfully recontextualises the relationship between Britain and the people and societies of the Orient. In her journey across Britain exploring cultural landmarks, Fatima Manji searches for a richer and more honest story of a nation struggling with identity and the legacy of empire.

Strategic Microservices and Monoliths


Vaughn Vernon - 2021
    But that isn't always a safe assumption: in fact, in some cases, it can be disastrous, leading to architectures that serve nobody well. Strategic Microservices and Monoliths helps business decision-makers and technical team members collaborate to clearly understand their strategic problems, and identify their optimal architectural approaches, whether those turns out to be distributed microservices, well-modularized monoliths, or coarser-grade services partway between the two.Writing for executives and IT professionals alike, leading software architecture expert Vaughn Vernon and Tomasz Jaskula guide you through making balanced architecture compositional decisions based on need and purpose rather than popular opinion, so you can maximize business value and deliver systems that evolve more easily. Throughout, the authors provide realistic application examples, showing how to construct well-designed monoliths that are maintainable and extensible, and how to decompose massively tangled legacy systems into truly effective microservices.

Preserving Los Angeles: How Historic Places Can Transform America's Cities


Ken Bernstein - 2021
    Yet the reality is quite different. Over the past decade, the City of Los Angeles has developed one of the most successful historic preservation programs in the nation, culminating with the completion of the nation’s most ambitious citywide survey of historic resources. All across the city, historic preservation is now transforming Los Angeles, while also pointing the way to how other cities can use preservation to revitalize their neighborhoods and build community. Preserving Los Angeles: How Historic Places Can Transform America’s Cities, authored by Ken Bernstein, who oversees Los Angeles’ Office of Historic Resources, tells this under-appreciated L.A. story: how historic preservation has been transforming neighborhoods, creating a Downtown renaissance, and guiding the future of the city.While it is younger than many East Coast cities, Los Angeles has a remarkable collection of architectural resources in all styles, reflecting the legacy of notable architects from the past 150 years. As one of the most diverse cities in the world, Los Angeles is also breaking new ground in its approach to historic preservation, extending beyond the preservation of significant architecture, to also identify and protect the places of social and cultural meaning to all of Los Angeles’s communities. Preserving Los Angeles illuminates a Los Angeles that will surprise even longtime Angelenos—highlighting dozens of lesser-known buildings, neighborhoods, and places in every corner of the city that have been “found” by SurveyLA, the first-ever city-wide survey of Los Angeles’ historic resources. The text is richly illustrated through images by a prominent architectural photographer, Stephen Schafer. Preserving Los Angeles is an authoritative chronicle of Los Angeles’ urban transformation— and a useful guide for citizens and urban practitioners nationally seeking to draw lessons for their own cities.

Hip-Hop Architecture


Sekou Cooke - 2021
    It is not for architectural academic elites. It is not for those who have gentrified our neighborhoods, overly intellectualized the profession, and ignored all contemporary Black theory within the discipline. You have made architecture a symbol of exclusion, oppression, and domination rather than expression, aspiration, and inspiration. This book is not for conformists-Black, White, or other.” As architecture grapples with its own racist legacy, Hip-Hop Architecture outlines a powerful new manifesto-the voice of the underrepresented, marginalized, and voiceless within the discipline. Exploring the production of spaces, buildings, and urban environments that embody the creative energies in hip-hop, it is a newly expanding design philosophy which sees architecture as a distinct part of hip-hop's cultural expression, and which uses hip-hop as a lens through which to provoke new architectural ideas.Examining the present and the future of Hip-Hop Architecture, the book also explores its historical antecedents and its theory, placing it in a wider context both within architecture and within Black and African American movements. Throughout, the work is illustrated with inspirational case studies of architectural projects and creative practices, and interspersed with interludes and interviews with key architects, designers, and academics in the field. This is a vital and provocative work that will appeal to architects, designers, students, theorists, and anyone interested in a fresh view of architecture, design, race and culture.Includes Foreword by Michael Eric Dyson.

The Making of a Master (Concord Chronicles .5)


Kai Strand - 2021
    From traffic control to providing new equipment for the playground, he works to keep the citizens of Concord safe and happy.Frank grows concerned when signs of a failing infrastructure appear - small piles of dirt in unexpected places, damp spots on the walls - especially as his sister, Dawn, is scheduled to spend an entire week in Concord. Then the museum collapses. He and his partner, Anna, race to solve the mystery but things become more difficult when his own entrance to the Underworld fails, limiting his access to Concord.With Dawn’s assignment imminent, Frank races against time and gravity to save her and the residents of Concord. Will he find answers in time, or will a giant collapse destroy his beloved city?The Making of a Master is a Concord Chronicles novella.

The Materiality of Architecture


Antoine Picon - 2021
    In this ambitious exploration, an eminent thinker examines what, exactly, the building blocks of architecture have meant over the centuries and how technology may—or may not—be changing how we think about them.  Antoine Picon argues that materiality is not only about matter and that the silence and inscrutability—the otherness—of raw materials work against humanity’s need to live in a meaningful world. He describes how people define who they are, in part, through their specific physical experience of architectural materials and spaces. Indeed, Picon asserts, the entire paradox of the architectural discipline consists in its desire to render matter expressive to human beings. Through a retrospective review of canonical moments in Western European architecture, Picon offers an original perspective on the ways materiality has varied throughout centuries, demonstrating how experiences of the physical world have changed in relation to the evolution of human subjectivity.  Ultimately, Picon concludes that computer-based design methods are not an abrupt departure from previous architectural traditions but rather a new way for architects to control material resources. The result reinforces the fundamentally humanistic nature of architectural endeavor with an increasing sense of design freedom and a release from material constraint in the digital era.

Radical Architecture of the Future


Beatrice Galilee - 2021
    This remarkable book features projects – surprising, beautiful, outrageous, and sometimes even frightening - that break rules and shatter boundaries. In this timely book, the work of award-winning architects, designers, artists, photographers, writers, filmmakers, and researchers – all of whom synthesize and reflect our spatial environments – comes together for the first time.Radical Architecture of the Future's featured architects include Diller Scofidio + Renfro, David Adjaye, SANAA, Amateur Architecture Studio, and Ensamble Studio. Artists, designers, filmmakers, and writers covered include Julie Mehretu, Wolfgang Tillmans, and John Gerrard.

The System Design Interview, 2nd Edition


Lewis C. Lin - 2021
    

Building Sharjah


Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi - 2021
    An oil discovery in 1972 positioned Sharjah as one of the world's final cities shaped by transformative fortune. In the footsteps of Kuwait, Riyadh, and Dubai, Sharjah faced a metamorphosis: either one that repeated the past's mistakes or one that reimagined how wealth can build a city.Sharjah's potential enticed an international cast of experts to create a bold, new city. As their projects begin to vanish, this book preserves them through unseen photographs and recovered documents. New writing chronicles how local and arriving residents arranged the designed, concrete environment into a home. Beyond just a local artifact, this book examines the confident promises made by global practices of urbanization.

Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920–1930


Anna Bokov - 2021
    The school was the first to implement mass art and technology education, which was seen as essential to the Soviet Union’s dominant modernist paradigm. With Avant-Garde as Method, architect and historian Anna Bokov explores the nature of art and technology education in the Soviet Union. The pedagogical program at Vkhutemas, she shows, combined longstanding academic ideas and practices with more nascent industrial era ones to initiate a new type of pedagogy that took an explorative approach and drew its strength from continuous feedback and exchange between students and educators. Elaborating on the ways the Vkhutemas curriculum challenged established canons of academic tradition by replacing it with open-ended inquiry, Bokov then shows how this came to be articulated in architectural and urban projects within the school’s advanced studios.

French History: A Captivating Guide to the History of France, Charlemagne, and Notre-Dame de Paris


Captivating History - 2021
    

Case Study House #22: The Stahl House


Bruce Stahl - 2021
    This book is a new look at the never-before-told backstory behind this famous house and the family that made it their home.Case Study House #22, also known as the Stahl House after the family who built it, is considered one of the most iconic and recognizable examples of mid-century modern architecture in the world. Designed by architect Pierre Koenig and immortalized by photographer Julius Shulman, this 1960 glass-and-steel home in the Hollywood Hills has come to embody the idealism of a generation in search of the American dream. As one of the Case Study Houses designed between 1945 and 1966 under the vision of John Entenza and ARTS & ARCHITECTURE magazine, this was an affordable yet progressive design experiment to address the postwar housing shortage.The result—a two-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot house with glass walls that disappear into a 270-degree panorama of Los Angeles—became Koenig's pièce de résistance. The Stahl House broke rules, defied building codes that discouraged building on cliffs, and expanded the possibilities of residential architecture. The glass walls blurred the boundary between indoors and outdoors. The building seemed to merge with the city itself, the lines of the structure aligning with the geometry of the city's gridded streets. "Los Angeles becomes an extension of the house and vice versa," Koenig said. "The house is just a part of the city."The book shares the never-before-told inside story by the Stahl family's adult children who grew up there and still own the home. Many stories and personal photos are featured, including Buck Stahl's initial vision of the home and his own DIY schematic model for how to build on the complicated site. Instead of living in a rarefied museum, the family enthusiastically loved their home and its prominent swimming pool. In fact, as children, they were trained to put on their life jackets over their pajamas as soon as they woke up, as the swimming pool came right up to the sliding glass door of their bedroom. They all became expert swimmers and later jumped off the flat roof into the pool, defying any preciousness that may have been associated with such a highly designed home.UNIQUE VIEWPOINT: Although there have been numerous successful books on the Case Study program, on Pierre Koenig's architecture, and Julius Shulman's architectural photography, this is the first book by the actual family who dreamed up the home, who persevered to see it built, and who to this day care for it.IDEAL GIFT/ COVETABLE OBJECT: This is a great gift for any mid-century design and architecture enthusiast.HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This house is one of the most recognizable and revered modernist homes in the world, and its significance in the history of modernism is well established.MERCH / DISPLAY OPPORTUNITIES: Julius Shulman's iconic photograph on the cover is a recognizable image that makes for great display and merchandising.Perfect for:Design-savvy shoppers, mid-century design fans, Palm Springs-lifestyle fans, interior design fans, decorators, buyers looking for a distinctive gift for someone with discriminating taste, architects, designers, fashionistas, California-design enthusiasts

Massey Hall


David McPherson - 2021
    For many musicians, playing the hall is the surest sign that they have made it. Looking out over the crowd, performers often comment that they feel they have joined history as they stand on the stage where Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, and so many other legends have stood.Based on scores of interviews and meticulous research, Massey Hall chronicles not only the historical and musical moments of the past 127 years, but also the community of artists and supporters that has built up around the hall. Covering both emerging artists such as Shakura S’Aida and William Prince and musical giants from Herbie Hancock to the Tragically Hip, this full-colour book is a celebration of music, community, and our shared cultural heritage.

Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks: The Legacy of America’s Epic Structural Failure


Richard A. Serrano - 2021
    

Modern Architecture A-Z


Taschen - 2021
    From the period spanning the 19th to the 21st century, pioneering architects are featured with a portrait, concise biography, as well as a description of her or his important work.Like a bespoke global architecture tour, you'll travel from Manhattan skyscrapers to a Japanese concert hall, from Gaud�'s Palau G�ell in Barcelona to Lina Bo Bardi's sports and leisure center in a former factory site in S�o Paulo. You'll take in Gio Ponti's colored geometries, Zaha Hadid's free-flowing futurism, the luminous interiors of SANAA, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh's unique blend of Scottish tradition and elegant japonisme.The book's A to Z entries also cover groups, movements, and styles to position these leading individual architects within broader building trends across time and geography, including International Style, Bauhaus, De Stijl, and much more. With illustrations including some of the best architectural photography of the modern era, this is a comprehensive resource for any architecture professional, student, or devotee.

Design: The Definitive Visual Guide


D.K. Publishing - 2021
    The pages of this book are packed with fabulous images of objects, technology, prints, buildings, and interiors that will help you explore the fascinating history of design movements, illustrating how and why different styles emerged and became popular. Explore the big historical moments in design such as the Art Nouveau, Art Deco, mid-century modern and contemporary movements. This reference book will show you how each one began, its philosophy, and its visual style. This volume also includes all of the great names and manufacturers who have influenced the field of design such as William Morris, the Bauhaus, Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Vitra in extraordinary detail. This glorious and comprehensive view of classic design includes:- Timelines of key historical design movements- Visually stunning image catalogues that celebrate innovation in glassware, posters, typography, furniture, and much more!- Profiles of key designers, manufacturers and iconic objects over the last 150 years.Design is Thinking Made Visual Expert analysis, stunning photography, and a huge range of objects both familiar and extraordinary, Design explains what makes a truly great design and reveals the hidden stories behind the everyday things all around us. A true celebration of classic design - and the perfect gift for design lovers of any age.

The Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright


Lisa D. Schrenk - 2021
    Here, architectural historian Lisa D. Schrenk breaks the myth of Wright as the lone genius and reveals new insights into his early career.   With a rich narrative voice and meticulous detail, Schrenk tracks the practice’s evolution: addressing how the studio fit into the Chicago-area design scene; identifying other architects working there and their contributions; and exploring how the suburban setting and the nearby presence of Wright’s family influenced office life. Built as an addition to his 1889 shingle-style home, Wright’s studio was a core site for the ideological development of the prairie house, one of the first truly American forms of residential architecture. Schrenk documents the educational atmosphere of Wright’s office in the context of his developing design ideology, revealing three phases as he transitioned from colleague to leader. This heavily illustrated book includes a detailed discussion of the physical changes Wright made to the building and how they informed his architectural thinking and educational practices. Schrenk also addresses the later transformations of the building, including into an art center in the 1930s, its restoration in the 1970s and 80s, and its current use as a historic house museum.   Based on significant original and archival research, including interviews with Wright’s family and others involved in the studio and 180 images, The Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright offers the first comprehensive look at the early independent office of one of the world’s most influential architects.

Stone Age: Ancient Castles of Europe


Frédéric Chaubin - 2021
    Featuring images of more than 200 buildings in 21 countries, Stone Age presents the history and architecture of the most dramatic medieval castles of the continent in an unprecedented collection.Building on the success of his foray into Soviet design with CCCP, Chaubin once again documents the afterlife of highly rational structures that seem out of place in a modern-day world. Precursors of Brutalism, these castles value function over form and epitomize the raw materials and shapes that would go on to define so much of architectural history.Shot on film with a Linhof view camera, the collection is the outcome of five years of travel and investigation. Complete with a practical map and explanatory essay, its castles tell the story of 400 years, unfolding through the feudal Middle Ages into the 15th century.A photographic study of decay as much as endurance, Stone Age traces the history of some of these singular structures that continue to enchant their audiences today and that occupy a distinct, mystical place in our collective imagination.

Architectural Styles: A Visual Guide


Margaret Fletcher - 2021
    Whether it be a Gothic crocket or a simple Modernist join, this book illustrates all the key architectural styles from around the world using beautiful, specially commissioned drawings to identify key features and details.It begins with the earliest styles of the ancient civilizations – Egypt, Greece and Rome – before travelling through Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque and into the modern world via the panoply of 19th-century revivalist styles. Also covered is the traditional architecture of China, India, Japan and Pre-Columbian America. A final section gathers together key architectural elements from different periods – columns, towers, doorways, windows.Filled with hundreds of drawings by an expert architectural illustrator, this book is ideal for anyone with a general interest in architecture as well as for students.

The Azure Cloud Native Architecture Mapbook: Explore Microsoft Cloud’s infrastructure, application, data, and security architecture


Stephane Eyskens - 2021
    

Backroads Buildings: In Search of the Vernacular


Steve Gross - 2021
    Isolated in full-color and black-and-white portraits, the roadside caf�s, feed stores, grange halls, juke joints, and general stores are a poignant reminder of the ingenuity of local building practices and working-class culture during the years between the Civil War and the Great Depression. With their humble beauty and distinctive character, these once-useful structures infuse the American landscape with a strong sense of place. This collection of buildings preserves a sampling of our country's architecture heritage and encourages travelers to slow down and notice the details.

Provence Style: Decorating with French Country Flair


Shauna Varvel - 2021
    Provence Style showcases the best of the region, with Shauna Varvel’s quintessential 18th-century Rhône valley farmhouse—Le Mas des Poiriers—as its centerpiece. Named for the working pear orchard on the grounds, the property was reimagined by noted local architect Alexandre Lafourcade, who transformed a rough structure into a luxurious expression of the Provençal aesthetic, referencing historical influences, rural traditions, and Parisian taste. Set amid a garden of allées, arbors, and terraces designed by the architect’s mother, renowned landscape designer Dominique Lafourcade, this exemplar of Provençal style is the starting point for exploring the region’s characteristic interior details and exterior features. The book includes chapters on the public spaces of the home, from entrances to living rooms, the private realm of bedrooms and bathrooms, and outdoor areas including patios and kitchen gardens, transporting the reader on a captivating stylistic journey.