The House Book

by Phaidon Press

The House Book presents a vibrant and fresh view of architects and designers responsible for some of the most diverse international houses of all time. From Hadrian's Villa to Palladio's Villa Rotunda and Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye through to the contemporary houses of Richard Rogers and Frank Gehry, it features the widest range of both architect-designed and traditional dwellings. Following the format of The Art Book, it presents 500 architects in A-Z order, offering an easily accessible and informative sourcebook for experts as well as readers coming to an architectural survey for the first time. Some of the houses are acknowledged for their role in architectural history, others will be iconic for the individual features or structure, but all are seminal forms of dwelling. The selection ranges from the palaces of kings to the individual huts of the Hutu, but the book illustrates that the essential qualities of the house or dwelling remain greatly unchanged over the centuries. Each architect or designer is represented by a full page reproduction mostly in colour of their most significant house and accompanying text that describes the image and its designer. Each page includes cross-references to other architects working in a similar style, movement or time period. The book also includes an easy-to-use glossary of architectural terms and movements and a directory of houses open to the public.

Genres: Architecture, Art, Reference, Design, Nonfiction

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional offices in Paris and Berlin. -wikipedia

Reviews

[Sula · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive coverage of house designs. I found myself more impressed and interested by the traditional vernacular houses and cottages than the modern designs. There were one or two minor factual errors in the descriptions.

The biggest issue for me was the print size, which I think may depend on the edition of the book, but the paperback edition I read had miniscule print, each character less than 2mm so probably 6pt or smaller. I'm not at the stage of life to need reading specs, but I did need to strain my eyes to try read text this small!

Personally, I think I would have liked half the number of buildings and for each building to take up 2 pages instead of one. Some buildings were hard to understand from the description and the picture chosen, and there were some that I know I really like but if I had first come across them in here, I wouldn't have given them a second thought due to the lack of information and the way it was presented.

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I read this book shortly after it was first published in 2001. Phaidon Press always gets a good grade from me.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books to read every few years. Architecture never gets out of date.
Imagine 500 homes from castles to teepees to Bucky Fuller.
My favorite is the conical stone houses in Apulia, Italy, constructed without mortar so that when the tax collectors were due to come by, they could easily be dismantled (and later rebuilt) so that no house tax could be collected.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

another great phaidon book covering a vast number of architectural styles.

[Iain Watson]

The House Book (Architecture) by Editors of Phaidon Press (2004)

[Michael Heath-Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Large, comprehensive book on architectural design and different architects and styles from around the world.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is an on~going read for me....a constant point of reference for both architects,styles, materials,cultures and design...you can never really finish a reference book.....

[Manza Zitou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un livre à découvrir et surtout à avoir dans sa bibliothèque.
Merci PHAIDON.