Art & Design - Architecture

A selection of collective housing projects covering a wide range of possibilities within its category. First published 2005.

Today's landscape architects face countless new challenges and tasks posed by the missteps of the industrial age and are only partially concerned with the traditional tasks of the field such as the classical designing of gardens and parks. The challenges lie in the redefinition of urban fallows, the re-naturalization of conversion areas, the reclamation of former industrial areas and the ecological safeguarding of places like former open-cast mining areas.

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First published 2006.

German / English edition A study of the practises and developments of the application of solar energy in contemporary architecture.

Architect Harry Seidler has spent more than 50 years traveling the globe, extensively photographing the peak achievements in architecture from 3000 B.C. to the present day. Thanks to sound advice given to him early on by his photographer brother, Marcell (

A detailed description of Antoni Gaud

Two million people have been drawn by the vision of the Eden Project's founders - and by the extraordinary feats of the project's architecture and engineering. This book reveals in detail just how a disused china clay pit became the home to one of the architectural wonders of the world.

From the magical, ambitious charm of Portmeirion in North-West Wales, to the marvellous eccentricity of La Scarzuola of Montegabbione, Umbria, with its musical staircase and transparent pyramid, this book explores follies, extravagant structures erected for amusement or diversion - and occasionally for the residence - of inspired patrons and artists throughout Europe. Chosen by photographer Nic Barlow, this selection has been assembled not only to demonstrate their charm, diversity and invention, but also to celebrate those that ar... read more

Douglas Lloyd Jenkins brings together in one volume a selection of key essays (28 in total) that have shaped 20th century New Zealand architecture and architectural thinking. The essays have traditionally appeared in journals and magazines, but with an increasing popular and scholarly interest in NZ architecural history, particularly as it pertains to the 20th century, there is considerable renewed interest in these difficult-to-locate works. Each decade is well represented, particularly the 1940s and 1950s with the influences of t... read more

This updated and re-jacketed edition reviews the latest developments in New Zealand's rich architectural history and explores the way a country's architecture reflects the spirit and aspirations of its inhabitants. First published 1991. This third edition 2003.

The landmark building St Matthew-in-the-City, with its gothic architecture and sweeping stone arches, was completed in 1905, so 2005 marks its centennial. This is an appropriate time to look back at the history and activities of a church that has always been 'on the edge'. Literally, it is on the edge of Auckland city's central business district. Metaphorically, it has been on the edge of failure, when the population decentralised and congregation numbers dwindled to a mere handful; it has also been on the edge of church activi... read more

Notwithstanding the boom in inner-city apartment blocks, most New Zealanders still live in timber or masonry detached houses on sections of land that have a frontage to a street and a backyard. This basic model has traditionally allowed relatively simple alterations and additions to suit any changes in lifestyle. However, the idea of heritage has grown over the years - that old house in disrepair is now appreciated and valued by our society. Home owners considering altering or upgrading their houses now try to retain heritage value... read more

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The Taj Mahal is the queen of architecture. Other buildings may be as famous but no other has been so consistently admired for a beauty that is seen as both feminine and regal.

This work offers a radically new look at the ruins of the centre of ancient Rome, one of the best known wonders of the ancient world and a highpoint of the tourist route round Rome, yet for many visitors a baffling and unwelcoming place. There can be few more historic places in the world. Caesar was cremated there. Charles V and Mussolini rode by it in triumph. Napoleon celebrated his Festival of Liberty there. David Watkin's Forum is the site as it was famous for centuries, celebrated in the romantic views of the Grand Tour, not t... read more

Westminster Abbey is the third title in Profile's Wonders of the World series. 'National cathedral', coronation church, royal mausoleum, museum of sculpture, burial place of poets, resting place of the great and of the Unknown Warrior, and recent backdrop to the spectacular funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales - this rich and extraordinary building unites many functions. In terms of those functions, the Abbey is the most complex church in existence - perhaps the most complex of all buildings. It has been abbey, pilgrimage churc... read more

Imperial Rome was a warrior state. The Colosseum (opened in A.D. 80) was Rome's monument to warfare. Like a cathedral of death it towered over the city and invited its citizens, 50,000 at a time, to watch murderous gladiatorial games. It is now visited by two million visitors a year (Hitler was among them). Two leading classical historians tell the story of Rome's greatest arena: how it was built; the gladiatorial and other games that were held there; the training of the gladiators; the audiences who reveled in the games, the emper... read more

A stimulating new book in the Wonders of the World series, Robert Irwin, Arabist and novelist, examines the Alhambra's engrossing and often mysterious history.The Alhambra, the 'red fort' on its rocky hill above Granada, with its fountained courts and gardens, and intricate decoration, has long been a byword for exotic and melancholy beauty.Built by a bloody and threatened dynasty of Muslim Spain, it was preserved as a monument to the triumph of Christianity. Much of what we see is the invention of later generations. Its highly sop... read more

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