Spirit of Place, Collector's Edition

Book excerpt: Spirit of Place is the first monograph on the work of Chad Oppenheim and his firm, Oppenheim Architectecture, and features seven of the award-winning firm’s projects, with a focus on how the architectural design honors the natural elements of each site. Oppenheim Architecture’s first monograph, Spirit of Place, explores seven of the architectural firm’s acclaimed projects, located in beautiful settings across the globe. The book includes 120 stunning photographs and minimal text. The projects presented range in scale and location from homes in the Bahamas and Aspen to a resort in the Jordanian desert. The images, like the architecture, focus on and celebrate the natural world, illustrating Chad Oppenheim’s design philosophy that “form follows feeling.” Through passion and sensitivity towards man and nature, the firm designs monumental yet silent work that invokes a site’s inherent power. “For thousands of years, civilization has constructed its buildings on the land. We prefer to construct our buildings with the land, where architecture recedes and becomes a frame,” writes Chad Oppenheim. The projects are categorized by each site’s predominant natural element: dune, desert, stream, river, sea, canyon, and peninsula. The volume includes text by Chad Oppenheim, Val K. Warke, Antón García-Abril, and Mark Jarzombek. The Collector’s Edition of Spirit of Place maximizes the viewer’s engagement with the sites. The book’s unique format includes extra-thick pages and a lay flat binding, allowing the book to open fully. The white-on-white cover, white book sleeve, and white hard-shell slipcase emphasize that the focus is on the natural world conveyed through the images. This book will appeal to readers interested in architecture, photography, nature, sustainability, and the environment.