7 Books We Are Looking Forward To: Collected Works Bookstore, Santa Fe

Today no architect would deny that the greatest single challenge facing the profession and the most exciting opportunity it has ever faced is to reconstruct the delicate balance between human life and the health of the ecosystems we depend on. This volume presents some of the most imaginative, creative and exuberant solutions for a greener future from architects from all over the world, from both established and up-and-coming practices. Architecture for a Green Future, bursting with inspirational ideas, is an unmissable volume for practicing architects, designers, students and the visionaries of tomorrow.

# 1 Design Best Seller at Book Soup, Los Angeles (December 2013).

From the Publisher. Following the best seller Axel Vervoordt: Timeless Interiors, this volume of twenty new interiors expands on the Vervoordt vision for creating exceptional homes that combine natural elements, antiques, and fine art. The art of harmonious living is extolled in this volume through twenty bespoke interiors designed by the Axel Vervoordt company. Each room incorporates natural elements—light, water, metal, wood—blended with a modern aesthetic and punctuated with fine art. The Vervoordt concept of the home is revealed through a refined balance between art and nature to create timeless living spaces. The range of featured properties includes homes by the sea as well as in urban and rural locations, demonstrating a breadth of styles possible within the essential Vervoordt design principles. Photography by Laziz Hamani brings into focus both the unique design details and the carefully constructed interiors that fuse to create each striking setting. These exceptional residences are rich with inspirational ideas to incorporate into your own home so that you can celebrate your living space in the singular Vervoordt style.

From the Publisher. The ecological impact of new construction, once a secondary concern, has become a crucial issue in recent years. Badly designed buildings guzzle natural resources and pollute their surroundings. In an era of rocketing energy costs and environmental degradation, the need for a sustainable, energy-efficient architecture is paramount. This book examines the emergent innovations, aesthetics, and pioneers of green architecture, including such artists, architects and firms as Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Zaha Hadid, Morphosis, and many more.

From the Publisher. How do we accommodate a growing urban population in a way that is sustainable, equitable, and inviting? This question is becoming increasingly urgent to answer as we face diminishing fossil-fuel resources and the effects of a changing climate while global cities continue to compete to be the most vibrant centers of culture, knowledge, and finance.

Jan Gehl has been examining this question since the 1960s, when few urban designers or planners were thinking about designing cities for people. But given the unpredictable, complex and ephemeral nature of life in cities, how can we best design public infrastructure—vital to cities for getting from place to place, or staying in place—for human use? Studying city life and understanding the factors that encourage or discourage use is the key to designing inviting public space.

In How to Study Public Life Jan Gehl and Birgitte Svarre draw from their combined experience of over 50 years to provide a history of public-life study as well as methods and tools necessary to recapture city life as an important planning dimension.

This type of systematic study began in earnest in the 1960s, when several researchers and journalists on different continents criticized urban planning for having forgotten life in the city. City life studies provide knowledge about human behavior in the built environment in an attempt to put it on an equal footing with knowledge about urban elements such as buildings and transport systems. Studies can be used as input in the decision-making process, as part of overall planning, or in designing individual projects such as streets, squares or parks. The original goal is still the goal today: to recapture city life as an important planning dimension. Anyone interested in improving city life will find inspiration, tools, and examples in this invaluable guide.

From the Publisher. Prefabricated housing of high design and quality construction has long been an elusive goal for architects, where industry practices, bureaucratic regulations, and cost have always stood in the way, until now. The New York–based firm Resolution: 4 Architecture is revolutionizing prefab housing with their Modern Modular design system. Home designs based on modules of use intended for communal or private spaces are mixed and matched to achieve an infinite number of designs suited to each buyer's site, budget, and lifestyle. Modern Modular, the first book on the critically acclaimed firm, presents fourteen beautifully photographed case studies illustrating each step in their prefab system, from design and fabrication to transportation, siting, and final construction of distinctively modern and surprisingly affordable new homes.

From the Publisher. Berlin is thought of as the city of Urban Pioneers, a place where everything is possible and where space can be taken over and transformed. -Voids and unused spaces waiting to be occupied, old buildings engaged with new program. The self-determined design of space, building, living and working, be it in the form of builder collectives or co-housing (Baugruppen), co-op’s (Genossenschaften), co-working spaces or other project forms, has produced an architectural diversity and quality in Berlin over the last fifteen years that is exemplary. Self-Made City presents the evolving condition in Berlin, including a survey of over 120 projects, an analysis of the qualities and potentials of these projects as well as 50 best-practice case studies. Which contributions are being made in private initiative for the development of the city and what can be achieved in the future? Which methods and strategies are generating added value?

From the Publisher. Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that’s easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at.
Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities.

Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.