Living Architecture

Book excerpt: When architects venture from commercial commissions to home design, there is a freedom to take more risks, often resulting in their stylistic and philosophic visions to be most fully realized. Here, former House & Garden editor-in-chief Dominique Browning presents a stunning selection of America's most innovative and iconic houses of the 20th century, as crafted by these risk-takers and envelope-pushers. When forward-thinking art collectors John and Dominique de Menil needed a new home in the 1940s, they took a chance on a then-unknown architect named Philip Johnson. While initially a controversial structure for its minimalist, International Style, the home Johnson built for them near Houston has since become one of the country's most cherished cultural icons. In more than 130 illustrations, Browning highlights architecture's best in a range of styles and eras--from James Deering's Vizcaya, his 1916 Italian Renaissance-inspired villa in Miami, to postwar marvels by Bauhaus practitioners Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Farnsworth House) and Marcel Breuer (Hooper House II), to more recent constructions, such as Marwan Al-Sayed's mirage-like House of Earth and Light in the Southwest desert. Featuring works that blur the lines between dwellings and art, Living Architecture is an excellent visual guide of cutting-edge architecture for both industry professionals and design lovers of all kinds. ILLUSTRATIONS 166 images