Architectural Design, Architectural Decoration & Ornament, Decorative Arts - General & Miscellaneous
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Overview
From backpacks to luxury yachts, tents to trailer homes, the newest book from the author of Blowup, Where's My Space Age, and Xtreme Houses follows architecture designed to follow mankind. For most of us, "house" means stability, structure, and permanence. In an age of increasing population and technological gains, today's mobile society has resulted in a demand for portable dwellings. This mix of forty innovative projects illustrates how architects, self-builders, and artists are pushing the limits of form and material to answer the new demands for portability. Surprisingly, many of the movable houses of today echo history's earliest and most rudimentary shelters. Some reveal an unprecedented demand for luxury and comfort while others reflect a desire to lessen man's impact on the earth. Juxtaposing the old and the new, photographs of moble homes, transformable fashions, custom vehicles, and private jets are paired with texts to explore the new nomadic lifestyle and the evolution of temporary communities. The book shows how our desire for a house that moves can be thrillingly modern, while expressing an essential part of our human nature.Editorials
Library Journal
These books showcase the variety of ways that housing can pack up and go. Rawlings and Abel, editors of Mountain Living and Log & Timber Style magazines, focus on plush movable living arrangements. They provide examples of how, in the United States primarily, people have customized and revamped vintage Streamline trailers, school buses, sheep wagons, Volkswagen buses, train cars, planes, tepees, and other portable dwellings. Each example describes the owner's desire for the interior and what to consider when attempting the same. Color photographs show lavishly decked-out interiors, many in a vintage or rustic style. Topham (Blow-Up) takes a similar approach in that he shows real-life examples and prototypes of portable or temporary dwellings, with descriptions of the designers' intent. Color photographs depict structures from all over the world, including unique, forward-looking styles like a park bench that converts to a bed and a parka that converts to a mattress. Neither book is intended as a how-to; instead, the aim is to show what people are doing to expand the idea of a mobile home. Rawlings and Abel's book is recommended for large interior design collections, while Topham's is a definite purchase for professional and academic libraries. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Book Details
Published
May 28, 2004
Publisher
Prestel Publishing
Pages
144
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9783791330563