A useful research companion for anybody looking to build green, as much as a lovely selection of great new houses all over the globe, the New Natural Home is one of Thames & Hudson’s latest publications, hitting the stores this March.
Written by frequent Wallpaper* contributor Dominic Bradbury and with beautiful imagery courtesy of photographer Richard Powers, this book looks at ways to help us weave ecology in every residential build and eventually, our everyday lives.
Neatly organised in five chapters that take you through the key decisions one needs to make when designing with ecology in mind – from advice for the design and building phases, to lighting issues, material options, the connection to the outdoors and specific sustainable solutions – the publication is a great handbook for combining practical with creative thinking in an environmentally friendly context.
The international selection ranges from hot-weather country houses like BR House in Rio de Janeiro by Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan to new builds in colder environs such as the Rauch House in Austria by a team of Martin Rauch and Roger Boltshauer; the featured Marie Short House by Australian iconic architect Glenn Murcutt is certainly one of our favourites.
Good design should also be eco-friendly and the New Natural Home certainly argues for that approach; not forgetting that there is plenty of space within ‘sensible’, for ‘stylish’.
Although this house was built by architect Glenn Murcutt for client Marie Short, Murcutt fell so in love with the house he later bought it as his own country escape, extending the building to suit his needs and those of his family
With its extreme temperatures the Coachella valley in California may not be everyone’s ideal as a country retreat. However this is where architect Leo Marmol chose to build a holiday home - the first in a sequence of prefabricated Marmol Radziner houses
The modular formation of Marmol’s desert house includes a series of verandas and decks, with canopies and projecting roofs that shade and protect the interiors.
For the Rauch House in Vorarlberg, Austria, architect Martin Rauch used earth to creat all the surfaces and finishes, inside and outside
The Bricault House in Los Angeles is a house of many gardens. The vertical garden and roof garden form part of the eco-aware strategy that runs throughout the design of the house. Electricity is provided by photovaltaic panels on the roof.
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An Indian mud house - and more, on Sketch Design Studio's natural material wondersSketch Design Studio in Rajasthan, India does wonders with the simplest ingredients
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Experience this Singapore apartment’s Zen-like qualities and cocooning urban havenWelcome to Singapore apartment The Rasidence, a spacious, Zen-like interior by Right Angle Studio
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The Park: step inside Jeremy King's mid-century dinerOne of several 2024 openings from restauranteur, Jeremy King, food critic Ben McCormack books in at The Park
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'Tropicality' explored in Indonesian architect Andra Matin’s first monograph'Tropicality' is a key theme in a new book on Indonesian architect Andra Matin, whose work blends landscape, architecture and living
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‘A Time ⋅ A Place’ is a lovingly compiled photographic portrait of cars and architecture‘A Time ⋅ A Place’ is a celebration of the European Car of the Year and changing perceptions of modern design, pairing the best buildings of the age with their automotive contemporaries
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Álvaro Siza’s new monograph through the lens of Duccio Malagamba is impactful and immersiveÁlvaro Siza and photographer Duccio Malagamba collaborate on a new monograph by Phaidon; ‘Before / After: Álvaro Siza Duccio Malagamba’ celebrates the Portuguese architect's work
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Marcio Kogan’s Studio MK27 celebrated in this new monograph from Rizzoli‘The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action’ is a richly illustrated journey through the evolution of this famed Brazilian architecture studio
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‘Interior sculptor’ Christophe Gevers’ oeuvre is celebrated in new book‘Christophe Gevers’ is a sleek monograph dedicated to the Belgian's life work as an interior architect, designer, sculptor and inventor, with unseen photography by Jean-Pierre Gabriel
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Flick through ‘Brutal Wales’, a book celebrating concrete architecture‘Brutal Wales’ book zooms into a selection of concrete Welsh architecture treasures through the lens of photographer Simon Phipps
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Architecture books to inspire shelf loveHere at Wallpaper*, we’ve got architecture books piling up; among them, these are the photographic tomes, architects’ monographs and limited editions that we couldn’t resist
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Pioneering modernist Henry Kulka's life and career tracked in limited-edition monographCzech-New Zealand architect Henry Kulka, a man who spread modernist ideals half way around the world, is celebrated in Giles Reid and Mary Gaudin’s richly illustrated monograph
