Category Archives: Homes

Design And Architecture: The Top Ten Books Of 2024

Best architecture and design books

Dezeen (December 17, 2024): The top 10 architecture and design books of 2024 include:

2024 top architecture books: Kiosk by David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka

Kiosk by David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka

Simply named Kiosk, this book features photos of more than 150 modernist, modular kiosks that brighten streets across central and eastern Europe.

Authors David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka aimed to draw attention to the surviving, unusual structures that were constructed in factories in the Eastern Bloc from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Find out more about Kiosk ›


100 Women: Architects in Practice by Harriet Harriss, Naomi House, Monika Parrinder and Tom Ravenscroft

100 Women: Architects in Practice by Harriet Harriss, Naomi House, Monika Parrinder and Tom Ravenscroft

Written by academics Harriet Harriss, Naomi House, Monika Parrinder and Dezeen editor Tom Ravenscroft, 100 Women: Architects in Practice showcases the work of  architects from 78 different countries.

The book contains interviews with some of the world’s best-known architects including Liz Diller, Tatiana Bilbao, Mariam Issoufou Kamara and Lina Ghotmeh, along with numerous women who have not yet received extensive global attention.

Find out more about 100 Women: Architects in Practice ›


2024 top architecture books: Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces by Dominic Bradbury

Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces by Dominic Bradbury

Published by Phaidon, the Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces is an encyclopedia featuring 450 mid-century-modern buildings from all across the world.

The book not only contains many of the key buildings created by the movement’s trailblazers but also those designed by more under-represented architects.

Find out more about Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces ›


2024 top architecture books: Humanise by Thomas Heatherwick

Humanise by Thomas Heatherwick

The book that undoubtedly drew the most attention this year was Thomas Heatherwick’s Humanise.

In the book, along with a Radio 4 series and initiative of the same name, British designer Heatherwick takes aim at “boring” buildings.

Find out more about Humanise ›


2024 top architecture books: Sacred Modernity by Jamie McGregor Smith

Sacred Modernity by Jamie McGregor Smith

Sacred Modernity aimed to showcase the “unique beauty and architectural innovation” of brutalist churches across Europe.

The book contains 139 photographs of 100 churches taken by photographer Jamie McGregor Smith over five years, along with essays by writers Jonathan Meades and Ivica Brnic.

Find out more about Sacred Modernity ›


Brutal Wales by Simon Phipps

Brutal Wales by Simon Phipps

Simon Phipps’ follow up to his Brutal North and Brutal London books, Brutal Wales highlights architecture in the brutalist style across the country.

Alongside photography of 60 buildings, the book has explanatory texts in both Welsh and English, as well as an introduction by social historian John Grindrod.

Find out more about Brutal Wales ›


Donald Judd Furniture by Judd Foundation

Donald Judd Furniture by Judd Foundation

The Donald Judd Furniture book contains photos of all the furniture pieces created by the artist for his New York and Marfa, Texas, properties that remain in production.

Along with the photos, the book contains archival sketches by Judd, newly commissioned drawings of each piece and several essays by the artist.

Find out more about Donald Judd Furniture ›


London Estates by Thaddeus Zupančič

London Estates by Thaddeus Zupančič

London Estates documents the modernist council housing built in the UK capital in the post-war period.

Described by publisher Fuel as “the most comprehensive photographic document of council housing schemes in the capital”, the book was photographed by Thaddeus Zupančič.

Find out more about London Estates ›


Made in America by Christopher Payne

Made in America by Christopher Payne

Photographer Christopher Payne’s Made in America book contains images taken over the past decade in the USA’s factories.

Payne created the book as a way of helping to preserve the legacy of industry in America, while documenting the skill of workers who are featured in the photography.

Find out more about Made in America ›


50 Design Ideas You Really Need to Know by John Jervis

50 Design Ideas You Really Need to Know by John Jervis

The latest book in the 50 ideas series, 50 Design Ideas You Really Need to Know contains essays tracking the evolution of design from the 19th century to today.

Written by John Jervis, the book aims to make a broad range of design concepts accessible to a wide audience.

Find out more about 50 Design Ideas You Really Need to Know ›

Architecture: Kārearea House In New Zealand

The Local Project (December 15, 2024): Located in the Wakatipu Basin on New Zealand’s South Island, Kārearea House by RTA Studio, which takes inspiration from the region’s majestic native falcons, is the most breathtaking home shaped by nature.

00:00 – Introduction to the Most Breathtaking Home 01:12 – The Location Centred Brief 02:36 – Approaching the Home 03:09 – Walkthrough of the House 04:11 – Restrained Interior Styling 05:44 – The Kitchen Design and Appliances 07:21 – A Balanced Material Palette 08:29 – Curating The Views 09:21 – Proud Moments

What defines it, however, is the site’s staggering 360-degree views to The Remarkables, Coronet Peak and the Crown Range, and the architects’ response to these multifaceted aspects. “We’ve done a few houses in this area and, over the years, we’ve developed an approach that’s firstly about identifying the significant views,” says Richard Naish, founder of RTA Studio.

Though Naish acknowledges that the perspectives are a gift, he believes good architecture is more about the control and release of views. This philosophy underscored RTA Studio’s approach to crafting the most breathtaking home shaped by nature. The roof lines played heavily into this idea; designed to follow the contours of the land and echo the surrounding topography, the roof dips in parts and soars in others, creating views both vast and precise.

#Nature #Home #NewZealand

Country Life Magazine – December 18, 2024 Preview

Country Life Magazine (December 10, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Christmas Double Issue’…

A story of homeliness

The Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy considers the Christmas story told in familiar rituals

Earth stood hard as iron

Frost casts a garden’s structure into sharp relief. Tiffany Daneff enters a sparkling world

The Very Revd Jo Kelly-Moore’s favourite painting

The Dean of St Albans chooses a canvas full of uplifting light for dark times

The legacy

Kate Green pays tribute to Dame Ninette de Valois, the ‘godmother of ballet’

Where Britain’s first saint lies

In the first of two articles, John Goodall traces the saintly history of the ancient abbey church of St Albans, Hertfordshire

Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet

The feisty robin is the undisputed avian king of Christmas. Mark Cocker wonders why

It’s a most wonderful time of the year

From weaving wreaths to corralling choristers, the work is ramping up for country people, who talk to Kate Green and Paula Lester

Baby, it’s gold outside

Catriona Gray meets the artists capturing Nature’s beauty in gold

Silence is golden

Stop and listen to Nature’s voice, urges John Lewis-Stempel

Each year you bring to us delight

Hanging treasured decorations is all part of the magic. Matthew Dennison opens the bauble box

Look out! Look out! Jack Frost is about

Deborah Nicholls-Lee dares to unveil the mysterious figure

The Editor’s Christmas quiz

Take on our quizmaster — and, more importantly, your family and friends

Anyone for indoor cricket?

Melanie Cable-Alexander buckles up for riotous country-house-corridor games

No Risk, no reward

Harry Pearson takes over the world with the classic board game

Make ’em laugh

Jonathan Self chortles at British comedy

The Christmas Story: ‘Bring me flesh and bring me wine’

The spirit of Christmas works its magic on a curmudgeonly baronet in Kate Green’s tale

Interiors

Natural scents win for Arabella Youens

While shepherds watched their flocks

The sheep and its patient guardians have long delighted artists, finds Michael Prodger

Luxury

Knitting, diamonds and Giles Coren’s treats

It takes a village

Is the perfect rural habitation real, wonders John Lewis-Stempel

Don’t mince your words

Modern mince pies are but pale shadows of the past, believes Neil Buttery

You’re one hot roast potato

Who can resist a roastie? Not Emma Hughes, nor anyone else in their right mind

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson builds a gingerbread house

That’ll do, pig

Glazed and succulent, the Christmas ham is the king of the feast for Tom Parker Bowles

Lay, lady, lay

Give wine time to age, urges Harry Eyres

Crown Him with many crowns

John Lewis-Stempel gathers in the holly, once divine diadem, now a cow’s Christmas feast

The straw that broke the camel’s back

Labour’s family-farm tax will mean ruin for a beleaguered sector, says Minette Batters

 ‘Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional’

Sam Leith opens the well-worn covers of the childhood books we will always cherish

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

From frogs to rat armies, the natural world has inspired countless ballets. Laura Parker straps on her pointe shoes for the bunny hop

Highlights, delights and lowlights

Michael Billington awards his accolades to the stars — and the scourges — of the stage

Spectres of the feast

Operas with food and wine may be rousing, but there are perils, warns Henrietta Bredin

Unputdownable: the page turners of 2024

Country Life reviewers select their top books

Country Life Magazine – December 4, 2024 Preview

Country Life Magazine (December 3, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Full English’ – Why our homegrown style is back….

London Life

  • Richard MacKichan finds Sir Paul Smith rockin’ around Claridge’s Christmas tree
  • Catriona Gray meets the movers and shakers of the capital’s art world
  • All you need to know this month in the capital

Caroline Moorehead’s favourite painting

The author selects a portrait that shows the ‘very essence of what it was to be Sicilian’

The world turned upside down

Carla Carlisle—wife of a farmer and a diversifier extraordinaire— offers an insider’s view on the Government’s ‘Great Betrayal’

What to look for in winter

Now is not the time to hibernate, suggests John Wright, as he encourages us to appreciate the countryside’s stark, intricate beauty in these colder months

Putting in a Good Word

Lucy Denton delves into the remarkable history of Stationers’ Hall, the central London home of the Worshipful Company of Stationers for the past 400 years

The legacy

Amie Elizabeth White hails Henry Cole, inventor of Christmas cards

The rocky-pool horror show

John Lewis-Stempel loves to be beside the seaside as he examines the enduring appeal of England’s glorious coastline

Bowler me over

Matthew Dennison tips his hat to the rural origins of the bowler as he celebrates its 175th birthday

A touch of frost

Beware an ill wind blowing us into 2025, warns Lia Leendertz

Piste de résistance

Joseph Phelan finds a business on an upslope when he visits the last ski-maker in Scotland

Eyes wide shut

Sleep in art is often drunken, deadly or the stuff of nightmares, but rarely is it peaceful, as Claudia Pritchard discovers

Size matters

Charles Quest-Ritson cranes his neck to take in the sheer scale of the specimens at West Sussex’s Architectural Plants

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on sprouts

Travel

  • Life in Grenada quickly grows on Rosie Paterson
  • Catamarans and cabanas
  • Jamaica’s Blue Mountains are heaven for Steven King
  • Fine dining is the holy grail for Pamela Goodman

Australia Design: Burnt Earth Beach House Tour

The Local Project (December 3, 2024): Located in Anglesea on Victoria’s surf coast, Burnt Earth Beach House is an architect’s own home inspired by nature. Architect John Wardle designs a holiday home deeply embedded in its landscape, grounded in an enduring love of terracotta, a fascination with ceramics and the unique beauty of bricks.

00:00 – Introduction to the Architect’s Own Home 01:48 – Walkthrough and Layout of the Home 03:18 – The Material Palette 04:48 – The Bathing Spaces 06:12 – Unique and Favourite Moments 07:16 – Creating A Special Place

As an architect’s own home inspired by nature, Burnt Earth Beach House reflects the hues and tonality of the ochre-coloured cliff edges of Anglesea just beyond. “It was very important that we do something here that would transcend time but do so in a way that is completely different from our homes in Melbourne,” says John Wardle, founding partner of Wardle. The home’s facade is expressed through an invented brick developed alongside brickmaker Klynton Krause.

The process involved extrusion and hand tearing the brick surface prior to cutting, which exposes a raw, uneven surface, making every brick unique. Approaching the architect’s own home inspired by nature, a courtyard acts as an informal living zone and is bordered by a kitchen that houses a vast square central terracotta island bench. The space then bends around into the dining area with a reading nook that looks into the courtyard. Upstairs, a study appears to float overhead, enveloped in a hand-knotted screening from Vietnam.

#Architect #Nature #Home

Country Life Magazine – November 27, 2024 Preview

Country Life Magazine (November 26, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Advent Calendar Special’…

The master builder

Carla Passino is captivated by floral photographs that evoke 17th-century still-life paintings

A little mite with a mighty heart

She may be tiny, but Jenny wren certainly makes her presence felt, declares Mark Cocker

Worth its weight in gold

There’s more to myrrh than meets the eye, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee

Now that packs a punch

Lucien de Guise is bowled over by the intoxicating concoctions mixed by Dickens and George IV

Pie say!

Neil Buttery tucks into the tale of the Yorkshire Christmas Pye

Christmas gifts

Pick out those perfect presents with a helping hand from Hetty Lintell and Amie Elizabeth White

Mayara Magri’s favourite painting

The Royal Ballet dancer selects an inspiring, transformative work

Hardy and the country house

The author’s Wessex is brought to life in Jeremy Musson’s words and Matthew Rice’s drawings

Beauty by numbers

Deborah Nicholls-Lee is fascinated by fractals, the exquisite, ever-repeating patterns in Nature

The fall of Albion

John Lewis-Stempel urges us to rediscover our love of heathland, now a rarer habitat than rainforest

Get a Grip

Andrew Green rounds up the animals in Dickens’s life and work

First out of the lychgate

Jack Watkins explores the folklore and function of the lychgate

Little things that make a big difference

Our guide to entertaining in style

Thank you for the memories

From flying a Spitfire to sushi-making, the COUNTRY LIFE team puts gift experiences to the test

The legacy

Kate Green reveals how Sir David Willcocks changed the sound of Christmas with Carols for Choirs

Luxury

Hetty Lintell on saunas, socks, silk bows and precious stones

Now we’re just some gadgets that you used to know

Neil Buttery sorts the pudding prick from the tongue press

Lid pro quo

Rob Crossan talks Tupperware

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on cabbage

It’s always darkest before the dawn

A black fox illuminates a dreary dawn for John Lewis-Stempel

Let’s go to the movies

Victoria Marston looks back at classic film posters

It takes the biscuit

Matthew Dennison explores the tin-novations that made Huntley & Palmers a household name

Forever a chorister

Sarah Sands shares how choral singing shaped the life of her late brother Kit Hesketh-Harvey

 ‘What a good boy am I’

Ian Morton investigates the real meanings of our nursery rhymes

The great astral sneeze

Harry Pearson finds out why this is the year of the Northern Lights

Country Life Magazine – November 20, 2024 Preview

Country Life Magazine (November 20, 2024): The latest issue features Winston Churchill – The wit and wisdom of the great man…

‘Let us go forward together’

As we approach the 150th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s birthday, Amie Elizabeth White and Octavia Pollock pay homage to the great man, in his own words.

Entertaining His Majesty

In the second of two articles, John Goodall charts the 1560s and 1620s expansion of Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire

Landscape of ‘seamless sameness’

England’s heather moorland and its glorious purple swathe is a wonder of the Western world, suggest John Lewis-Stempel

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Do you know a Yonerywander from a Vinvertuperator? Engage your inner Edward Lear as Daniel McKay welcomes you into his wacky world of whimwondery

Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, jelly made of paint

Food, glorious food is fuelling the creativity of modern still-life artists discovers Catriona Gray

Sex, lies and sewing machines

The sewing machine rose to be an emblem of domesticity, but its invention is a story of Saints and Singers. Matthew Dennison follows the thread

Interiors

Raze to the ground or renovate? Has the open-plan layout had its day? Cart shed or garage? Giles Kime considers some key architectural conundrums

Wisley reinvented

John Hoyland is captivated by the spectacular transformation of Piet Oudolf’s double borders at the RHS garden in Surrey

Some like it hot

If you like your chili ‘hotter than the hinges of hell’, Tom Parker Bowles has just the dish for you (and there’s not a bean in sight)

Wooden walls restored

John Goodall lauds a decade-long project to rescue a unique painted church at Ursi, Romania

Tours: Iconic Mid-Century Modern In Palm Springs

The Local Project (November 12, 2024): Inside an iconic mid-century home designed by Steven Harris Architects, Palm Springs Residence is a study in restraint, honouring both the existing structure and the work of those who came before. This sensitive renovation reimagines the original house, known as Charney House, designed by Donald Wexler in 1956.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Iconic Mid-century Home 00:52 – The Original Plan and Inspiration 02:18 – A Minimal Layout 02:48 – The Afternoon Light and Vibes 03:46 – A Very California House 04:05 – Proud Moments

“Wexler was brilliant, with an extraordinary sense of syntax and grammar; everything lines up with everything,” says Steven Harris, partner at Steven Harris Architects. Interestingly, Harris and his partner bought the house accidentally. “We were helping another friend with their house and fell in love with the place,” recalls Harris. After spending time inside an iconic mid-century home designed by Wexler, Harris’s vision was rooted in preserving as much of the original as possible. “Almost everything here is original to the house,” he notes. “For me, the greatest liability would be for someone to drive by on the street and immediately say, ‘oh! that’s a Steven Harris house.’”

Alterations inside the iconic mid-century home designed by Wexler were largely stylistic and inspired by a Wassily Kandinsky painting. “If you look at it from the air, you will see flashes and curves and various shapes, which on one hand is quite graphic, and on the other, almost every view is perspectival because the things you’re looking at are only oblique. Things shift off of each other in a very curious and interesting way.” Stepping inside an iconic mid-century home designed by Wexler, the front door is indicated by a covered passage, flanked by an oblique terrazzo sidewalk extending from the driveway.

Architecture & History: A Ventian Palazzo Restored

Cabana Magazine (November 8, 2024): “I believe in the future of Venice, otherwise I would not do this job,” says curator and restorer Toto Bergamo Rossi, speaking to Cabana from the spectacular surroundings of the X.

The director of Venetian Heritage is protecting and preserving his native Venice for future generations, always working within the architectural fabric of the historic water-locked city.

“I find that the ego of the architect who restores [these buildings] must disappear, never trying to compete with what’s over 300 years old, ever,” he tells Cabana. “Because we are temporary, but this remains.” Join Cabana Films and Toto Bergamo Rossi on a journey through Venetian heritage, as he paves the way for the city’s future.

For more design and decoration, subscribe to Cabana Magazine: https://cabanamagazine.com/products/c…

Architecture: ‘Shepherd’s Hut’ – A Secretive Design

The Local Project (July 26, 2024): Inspired by structures found near New Zealand’s Southern Alps, The Shepherd’s Hut is the worlds most secret home. The minimalist house – designed by Fearon Hay in collaboration with interior designer Paul Kennedy – sits comfortably in the landscape while offering a flexible set of interiors.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the World’s Most Secret Home 01:07 – Behind the Design and Name 02:31 – The Arrival Sequence 02:58 – A Playful and Relaxed Brief 04:29 – The Floor Plan and Layout 06:25 – The Interior Material Palette 07:59 – The Exterior Material Palette 08:48 – Proud Moments

Settled on the Wānaka lakefront, the worlds most secret home is often in the path of cold wind crossing from Makarora. “When there are storms, you can feel very alone, but with the warmth of the fires, my two dogs rugged up with sheepskin, you essentially become a shepherd,” says Matt Chapman, custodian of the property. “When we created the home, I didn’t want too much space for an abundance of possessions. I’d reached a point in my life where minimalism and simplicity were the ways I wanted to exist.”

While maintaining a minimalist focus, the design brief for the project proposed a spatially flexible home that enables new experiences. “When we encountered the site, it was an opportunity to build a structure with length,” says Tim Hay, architect at Fearon Hay. “We liked the idea of a very simple silhouette … we wanted the building to have a sense of retreat and integration with the landscape.”