Architects' Houses gathers 200 homes that architects have designed for themselves, from the midcentury to the present—a survey of what happens when the architect is also the client.
About This Book
A house of one's own is the rare commission without a brief to negotiate. Free of a client's constraints, architects have long used their own homes as testing grounds—places to try out structural ideas, material experiments and ways of living that might later shape their wider practice. Dominic Bradbury follows that thread across 200 residences, set out alphabetically by architect, so that canonical names sit beside contemporary practitioners from across the globe.
Each entry pairs photography of the house, inside and out, with a concise text on how its designer approached the job of briefing themselves. A foreword by Francine Houben, whose own home is among those featured, reflects on what it means for an architect to live inside their own work, and an illustrated chronology at the back lets readers trace lines of influence from one house to the next.
Key Features
- 200 architect-designed homes, from the midcentury to the present
- Written by Dominic Bradbury, with a foreword by Francine Houben of Mecanoo
- Featured architects range from Frank Lloyd Wright, Lina Bo Bardi and Charles Correa to Shoei Yoh, Deborah Berke, Ken Shuttleworth, Bjarke Ingels and Omar Gandhi
- Entries arranged alphabetically, each illustrated with exterior and interior photography
- Illustrated chronology of the houses for tracing influences and movements
What You'll Discover
- How architects use their own homes to test ideas they could not try on a client's commission
- The ways a designer's beliefs about living become built form when they are both author and occupant
- Connections between houses across generations and continents, made visible through the chronology
- A broad, international cross-section of residential architecture in a single reference volume
About the Author
Dominic Bradbury is a writer and journalist who specialises in architecture and design and holds a doctorate in architectural history. His earlier Phaidon titles include the Atlas of Interior Design, the Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces and Mid-Century Modern Designers, and he writes for publications in the UK, the US and beyond. Francine Houben is a Dutch architect and founding partner of Mecanoo, known for public buildings shaped closely by people and place.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Dimensions: 230 × 310 mm
- Pages: 352
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781837292264
- Publisher: Phaidon
Perfect For: Architects, students and anyone drawn to residential design, and readers curious about how designers live when they answer only to themselves.