Homes For Our Time. Contemporary Houses around the World

Hardcover, 15.6 x 21.7 cm, 1.24 kg, 512 pages
ISBN 978-3-8365-8191-2

Edition: German, English, French

There's No Place Like Home

Enter the most beautiful contemporary homes in the world

From rural cottages to futuristic villas, from the artist's studio on the beach to a secluded retreat in the forest: This global selection of innovative, extraordinary architect-designed individual houses presents works by well-known figures such as Shigeru Ban and Marcio Kogan as well as up-and-coming talents such as Aires Mateus, Xu Fu- Min, Võ Trọng Nghĩa, Desai Chia and Shunri Nishizawa. Houses in Australia and New Zealand, China, Vietnam, the USA, Mexico, Ecuador and Costa Rica can be seen.

In western India, Kamal Malik of Malik Architecture, Mumbai has built an unconventional, spacious house for himself and his family, which is enthroned on six levels and on a ridge over two gorges and – because it seems to get along without walls – in permanent dialogue with the landscape stands. The House of the Three Streams owes its name to the streams that foam through the complex, which is designed as a multi-generational house, during the heavy rains of the monsoon season and are skilfully integrated into the overall plan, bridged by stairs, external corridors and catwalks.

The Casa de la Encina by Aranguren + Gallegos, an elegant, open and clearly structured concrete building, is framed by pine trees on the southern slope of Monte Abantos north of Madrid and is reminiscent of a large, modern viewing pavilion. The lower level, in which the bedrooms are located, is embedded in rock and, like the upper level, into which a holm oak tree found on the building site was integrated, offers panoramic windows and verandas with a fantastic view of the level, which extends from the Sierra de Guadarrama extends to Madrid.

Shinichi Ogawa's oceanfront home is a white, two-story minimalist marvel in Kanagawa overlooking the Pacific Ocean with no opening to the street, window or door. The living area with its south-facing glass front opens onto a free-floating terrace and an infinity pool that seems to merge seamlessly with the sea.

These residential buildings – and more than 50 others – are remarkably individual in their design language, but they all share the intention of developing a modern vision of living in and with nature, appreciating the topography of their surroundings and linking inside and outside. All projects presented are documented with brilliant architectural photos, floor plans and detailed descriptions.

The author

Philip Jodidio studied art history and economics at Harvard and was editor-in-chief of the French art magazine Connaissance des Arts for over two decades. His publications at TASCHEN include the Architecture Now! as well as his monographs on Tadao Ando, ​​Santiago Calatrava, Renzo Piano, Jean Nouvel, Shigeru Ban, Richard Meier, Zaha Hadid, and soon Norman Foster.