In superb graphic detail, with hundreds of plans, illustrations, and diagrams, this comprehensive resource presents and entire library's worth of essential design data for residential development.

    The result: more than thirty-five residences in fifteen countries -- and nearly every conceivable natural environment -- designed by a combination of star architects and heretofore unknown practitioners.Six different climactic zones are presented in The Green House -- waterfront, forest and mountain, tropical, desert, suburban, and urban; there is also a section on mobile dwellings. Each chapter features a series of homes that show the diversity and possibility of sustainable design. Projects are presented with large color images, plans, drawings, and an accompanying text that describes their green features and explains how they work with and in the environment.Architects included: Santiago Calatrava, Shigeru Ban, Miller/Hull, Rick Joy, Lake Flato, Kengo Kuma, Glenn Murcutt, Pugh & Scarpa, Werner Sobek, and many others.The Green House is not only a beautiful object in its own right, but is sure to be an indispensable reference for anyone building or interested in sustainable design -- and if you ask us, that should be everyone.

    But ambition quickly took wing. The house swelled to 225 rooms and became - until 2012 when it was topped by the home of a billionaire in Mumbai, India – the world’s largest residence ever built for a private citizen. Here’s the story of the house that Vanderbilt built - from the gardens by Frederick Law Olmsted to the John Singer Sargent portraits that adorn its walls.

    By reclaiming honest materials and collectibles, large and small, all imbued with their own history, you can infuse your home with warmth, charm, and individuality. Let the experts at Country Living show you how to find and make the most of discarded treasures, such as old windows, barn doors, metal military desks, mailroom filing cabinets, factory lamps, and hand-forged iron hooks. Plus, the editors share best practices for bargain hunting and obtaining the most desirable cast-offs, such as antique beams and weathered barn wood. Stunning photos of every room, along with imaginative ideas from homeowners, will spark your creativity and give you an eye-opening perspective on the decorative potential of “trash.”

    They are bold, brazen, fierce—and sexy. They aren’t known for following rules, they are known for doing—and wearing—whatever they want. Tomboy captures the tomboy’s style, her je ne sais quoi, her wardrobe, and most importantly, her spirit. Throughout the twentieth century, the mass marketing of gender stereotypes meant tomboys cropped up against the odds, trends, and ads. As menswear-inspired fashions for women have exploded into the mainstream under the helm of designers and stylists ranging from J.Crew to Rag & Bone to Boy by Band of Outsiders, acceptance of both the word tomboy and the women associated with its edge has been set into play. But a tomboy is not just about style—tomboys are measured in equal parts wardrobe and spirit.A visual history that chronicles the past eighty years of women who blur the line between masculinity and femininity, Tomboy explores the evolution of the style and its icons. Vivid commentary illuminates the tomboy’s history and captures a diversity of women who are bound together by their inherent ability to seamlessly blend a rugged sensibility with classic, understated elegance.

       Pattern is the strongest element in any room. In Living with Pattern, Rebecca Atwood demystifies how to use that element, a design concept that often confounds and confuses, demonstrating how to seamlessly mix and layer prints throughout a house. She covers pattern usage you probably already have, such as on your duvet cover or in the living room rug, and she also reveals the unexpected places you might not have thought to add it: bathroom tiles, an arrangement of book spines in a reading nook, or windowpane gridding in your entryway. In this stunning book, beautiful photography showcases distinct uses of pattern in homes all over the country to inspire you to realize that an injection of pattern can enliven any space, helping to make it uniquely yours.

    Richard Sennett shows how Paris, Barcelona and New York City assumed their modern forms; rethinks the reputations of Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford and others; and takes us on a tour of emblematic contemporary locations, from the backstreets of Medellín, Colombia, to the Google headquarters in Manhattan. Through it all, he shows how the 'closed city' - segregated, regimented, and controlled - has spread from the global North to the exploding urban agglomerations of the global South. As an alternative, he argues for the 'open city,' where citizens actively hash out their differences and planners experiment with urban forms that make it easier for residents to cope. Rich with arguments that speak directly to our moment - a time when more humans live in urban spaces than ever before - Building and Dwelling draws on Sennett's deep learning and intimate engagement with city life to form a bold and original vision for the future of cities.

    In Live Beautiful, the highly anticipated design book by Athena Calderone, the EyeSwoon creator taps into her international network of interior decorators, fashion designers, and tastemakers to reveal how carefully crafted interiors come together. She also opens the doors to two of her own residences.   With each homeowner, Calderone explores the initial spark of inspiration that incited their design journey. She then breaks down the details of the rooms—like layered textures and patterns, collected pieces, and customized vignettes—and offers helpful tips on how to bring these elevated elements into your own space. Filled with gorgeous photography by Nicole Franzen, Live Beautiful is both a showpiece of exquisite design and a guide to creating a home that’s thoughtfully put together.

    This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive element in building design. Until quite recently, building technology and design has favored high-energy-consuming mechanical methods of neutralizing the thermal environment. It has not responded to the various ways that people use, remember, and care about the thermal environment and how they associate their thermal sense with their other senses. The hearth fire, the sauna, the Roman and Japanese baths, and the Islamic garden are discussed as archetypes of thermal delight about which rituals have developed--reinforcing bonds of affection and ceremony forged in the thermal experience. Not only is thermal symbolism now obsolete but the modern emphasis on central heating systems and air conditioning and hermetically sealed buildings has actually damaged our thermal coping and sensing mechanisms. This book for the solar age could help change all that and open up for us a new dimension of architectural experience.As the cost of energy continues to skyrocket, alternatives to the use of mechanical force must be developed to meet our thermal needs. A major alternative is the use of passive solar energy, and the book will provide those interested in solar design with a reservoir of ideas.

    As the world’s population has grown, our cities have burgeoned, and their impact on the environment worsened. Meanwhile, from the isolated, gated communities within Houston and Los Angeles, to the millions of residents of Bombay living in squalor, the city has failed to serve its ideal function—as the cradle of civilization, the engine of culture, and the inspiration for community and citizenship. In Cities for a Small Planet, Sir Richard Rogers, one of the world’s leading architects and the designer of the Pompidou Center in Paris, demonstrates how future cities could provide the springboard for restoring humanity’s harmony with its environment.Rogers outlines the disastrous impact cities have had and will continue to have on our world, from waste-saturated Tokyo Bay, to the massive plumes of pollution caused by London’s traffic, to the depleted water resources of Mexico City. He traces these problems to the underlying social and cultural values that create them—unchecked commercial zeal, selfish individualism, and a lack of community. Bringing to bear concepts such as that of “open-minded” space—places within cities that serve multiple functions such as markets, parks, and sidewalk cafes—he explains how urban design can be used to give citizens a sense of shared experience. The city built with comfortable and safe public space can bring diverse groups together and breed a sense of tolerance, awareness, identity, and mutual respect. He calls for a new theoretical shift in the way cities do business and interact with the environment, arguing that many products come to market and are sold without figuring their social or environmental cost.Rogers goes on to describe the city of the future: one that is sustainable within its own environment; that can make a positive impact on its surroundings; that encourages communication among its citizens; that is compact and focused around neighborhoods; and that is beautiful, a city whose buildings and spaces spark the creative potential of its inhabitants.As our population grows larger, our planet grows smaller. Cities for a Small Planet is a passionate and eloquent blueprint for the cities we must create in response, cities that provide for the needs of both their residents and the earth on which they live.

    Think again. Tokyo: A Certain Style, the mini-sized decor book with a difference, shows how, for those living in one of the worlds most expensive and densely packed metropolises, closet-sized apartments stacked to the ceiling with gadgetry and CDs are the norm. Photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki rode his scooter all over Tokyo snapping shots of how urban Japanese really live. Hundreds of photographs reveal the real Tokyo style: microapartments, mini and modular everything, rooms filled to the rafters with electronics, piles of books and clothes, clans of remote controls, collections of sundry objects all crammed into a space where every inch counts. Tsuzuki introduces each tiny crash pad with a brief text about who lives there, from artists and students to professionals and couples with children. His captions to the hundreds of photographs capture the spirit and ingenuity required to live in such small quarters. This fascinating, voyeuristic look at modern life comes in a chunky, pocket-sized format-the perfect coffee table book for people with really small apartments.

    Author Kim Leggett is the creator of City Farmhouse, an interior design business, pop-up antiquing fairs, and vintage store. She is also a legendary “picker” and favorite designer to celebrity clients (and country-style mavens) including Meg Ryan, Ralph Lauren, Sheryl Crow, and Phillip Sweet and Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town. In City Farmhouse Style, Leggett offers great style advice, breaking down the design vocabulary that makes for fresh country style (no matter the setting).   The popularity of farmhouse style has designers, home­owners, and fans in search of inspiration to create this look in all its rural glory. City Farmhouse Style is the first design book of its kind to focus entirely on transforming urban interiors with unfussy, welcoming, country-style decor.

    It's about living simply – finding the essence of what makes you happy at home and creating spaces that reflect your needs and style. Filled with clever ideas and creative spaces it shows that you don't need a huge budget to create a beautiful home. This is Home provides examples and case studies of places with a global and timeless feel that haven't always been renovated in the traditional sense but are true homes.Featuring eight case studies from Australia, the US and Europe, and nearly 200 color photographs, This is Home will inspire you with beautiful, authentic places you want to be – today.Chapters include:The big picture: how to determine your decorating personality, and what's authentic for you.Starting over: let go of the past and create a home for the person you are today, with a focus on decision-making and the art of editing.Living for now: Work out a budget for your time and money using your values as a guide. Where you can spend and save when it comes to creating lasting interiors.The Art of ingenuity: Think creatively, not expensively, when it comes to making changes at home. Going beyond the usual suspects can help you to create a home that's distinctively yours.The poetry of space: Successful spaces are all about addition and subtraction, positive and negative. How to create balance within a room while reflecting your decorating style.The feel of a home: Create interiors that make you feel, and have an emotional connection. How to introduce decorative elements that make for authentic interiors.Surrounding spaces: Key ideas to consider when creating your place in relation to its environment - from the surrounding landscape to local community.Maintaining the focus: Ways to evolve what's important for you and keep focussed on your aesthetic and lifestyle.Happy renewal: How to keep your home fresh without exhausting or expensive overhauls.Rest and revive: How our homes can function as a place to rest our bodies, rejoice in our relationships and restore our values.

    DAVID BUSCH'S CANON EOS 7D GUIDE TO DIGITAL SLR PHOTOGRAPHY shows readers how to make the most of their camera's robust feature set, including 18 megapixel resolution, blazing fast automatic focus, the real-time preview system Live View, and full HD movie-making capabilities, to take outstanding photos and videos. They'll learn how, when, and, most importantly, why to use all the cool features and functions of their camera to take eye-popping photographs. Introductory chapters will help them get comfortable with the basics of their camera before you dive right into exploring creative ways to apply the Canon EOS 7D's exposure modes, focus controls, and electronic flash options. This book is chock full of hands-on tips for choosing lenses, flash units, and software products to use with their new camera. Beautiful, full-color images illustrate where the essential buttons and dials are, so they'll quickly learn how to their Canon EOS 7D, and use it well.

    Focusing on dwelling spaces all under 1,000 square feet, TINY HOUSES (Rizzoli, April 2009) by Mimi Zeiger aims to challenge readers to take a look at their own homes and consider how much space they actively use. Ranging from tree houses to floating houses, TINY HOUSES features an international collection of over thirty modular and prefab homes, each one embodying “microgreen living”, defined as the creation of tiny homes where people challenge themselves to live “greener” lives. By using a thoughtful application of green living principles, renewable resources for construction, and clever ingenuity, these homes exemplify sustainable living at its best.