Oscar Riera Ojeda – författare

WOW: Experiential Design for a Changing World explores the work of the multi-disciplinary design firms Warner Wong Design and WOW Architects. Through the selection of twelve breathtaking hotel, restaurant and custom home projects located across five different countries, as well as one provocative architectural installation that was commissioned by the Singapore Institute of Architects, WOW Architects and Warner Wong Design’s experientially engaging work is beautifully presented in this book.

Pavilions, sheds, studios, extensions call them what you will, architects around the globe are experimenting with attached or detached workplaces and creating imaginative ateliers that strain the limits of miniature ; one is just 100 square feet. It is a worldwide adventure in architectural experimentation and originality. Organized organically, much like the eco-sensitive structures shown here that only very lightly touch the land, the book allows a reader to meander happily into and out of ideas and space-sensitive solutions for writers, painters, accountants, ceramicists, and individuals of all stripes in need of spaces to think, to work, and to wonder. From a scholar s library study in upstate New York that reduces an enclosed shelter down to its most spartan modernist roots to a weathered steel-clad extension in London humorously dubbed Brexit Bunker, featured examples are splendidly diverse expressions of the creative use of space toward an end of inspiration and productivity. We can work, study, and dream at a pace that responds to our individual needs in places that inspire us and fill us with delight that is the goal and the lesson to be learned here.

One of architecture s most distinguished voices, Isay Weinfeld is renowned for a body of work that exudes the power of classical modernism while being completely of its own moment. Based in Brazil, with an expansive international practice, he is loved for a refined yet biophilic minimalism that at once revels in a gorgeous aesthetics while it also celebrates nature. Here, design aspires to a sublime symbiosis where the natural world and that which is human-made serve as complements rather than contendors, giving us the very best of both. Above all, Weinfeld s buildings are easy to be in, inviting, and elegant and all without ostentatiousness. With work ranging from residential towers and houses to bars, hotels, restaurants, equestrian centers, and bookstores, to name only a few of the building types at which Weinfeld excels, he is most concerned with how people feel in his spaces, and designs with the ultimate goal that any given place be it a house interior, a courtyard garden, a restaurant, or simple hall between rooms be comfortable. Featured are projects spanning nearly four decades in Weinfeld s ongoing quest for beauty and his deeply felt devotion to modernist principles of architecture, including the wonderful Jardim Building in New York s Chelsea neighborhood, overlooking the High Line; the much-praised reinvention of the Four Seasons restaurant in the iconic Seagram Building; the evocative La Petite Afrique Building in Monte Carlo, with its deep plant studded balconies and organically curving corners; and the monolithic Fasano Hotel in Sao Paulo, among many others.

From a ranch in the U.S. and a Finnish farmstead to a Spanish hacienda and Australian outback home, Stables is a celebration of horses and their extraordinary lodgings. International in scope, ranging from traditional to contemporary in flavour, these stables built of wood, metal, and stone are exemplars of the finest taste in design. The allure of housing horses is a story of architecture, design, landscape, and a unique way of living in magnificent places and spaces that are made exclusively for horses and for those who love them. The book also explores indoor and outdoor arenas, paddocks, and gardens, providing a humane face to the otherwise functional buildings. Social spaces for the horses, riders, and visitors also play an important role in filling out the projects, making stables not just places for sport but also for entertainment and leisure. There is a beauty here that reflects the majesty of these animals, the distinctive landscapes in which they are set, and the creative visions of the owners, architects, and designers who have all brought them into being. Beautifully photographed, the book is sure to interest horse aficionados as well as all those interested in engaging, clean, human-scaled design.

Wineries of the World celebrates the architecture and design of contemporary viniculture. From a vineyard in Napa Valley in the U.S., to an Italian winery estate in the hills of Tuscany, to an Australian enterprise at the cutting edge of organic viniculture, the projects featured are all exemplars of the finest taste in both wine and design, and increasingly popular destinations for wine lovers. With the rise in destination travel by wine lovers over the past years, vintners the world over have embraced the opportunity to create splendid spaces for visitors to enjoy unique varieties alongside good company. Rather than repeat established, even ancient traditions cultivated over centuries throughout Europe, the contemporary architecture of wine has become a modern celebration of place, reflecting the topography of the landscape in which a winery is situated, the agricultural heritage, and at times the regional vernacular. Ultimately, these projects comprise an expression of bold vision coupled with a passion for sustainability and design.

Lake Flato Architects, based in San Antonio and Austin, believe first and foremost that architecture should be rooted in its particular place, responding in a meaningful way to the natural or built environment. Using local materials and partnering with the best local craftsmen, Lake Flato seek to create buildings that are tactile and modern, environmentally responsible and authentic, artful and crafted. Now more than thirty years since its founding, the firm has grown along with the range and complexity of its projects, yet it still considers the desire to build in partnership with the land to be an approach that remains valid and increasingly resonant. Lake Flato s first projects were houses, and these projects excite the firm still. By exploring the intimate relationship between family, place, and building, Lake Flato create unique living environments that possess a compelling authenticity and beauty.

Featuring innovative home offices that are inventive, accessible, and often wonderfully serene, this book is a rich source of ideas and inspirations embracing the call to work from home!Pavilions, sheds, studios, extensions—call them what you will, architects around the globe are experimenting with attached or detached workplaces and creating imaginative ateliers that strain the limits of “miniature”; one is just 100 square feet. It is a worldwide adventure in architectural experimentation and originality.Organized organically, much like the eco-sensitive structures shown here that only very lightly touch the land, the book allows a reader to meander happily into and out of ideas and space-sensitive solutions for writers, painters, accountants, ceramicists, and individuals of all stripes in need of spaces to think, to work, and to wonder. From a scholar’s library study in upstate New York that reduces an enclosed shelter down to its most spartan modernist roots to a weathered steel-clad extension in London humorously dubbed “Brexit Bunker,” featured examples are splendidly diverse expressions of the creative use of space toward an end of inspiration and productivity.We can work, study, and dream at a pace that responds to our individual needs in places that inspire us and fill us with delight—that is the goal…and the lesson to be learned here.

This volume celebrates 32 innovative homes from around the world that transform rooftops into lush, living landscapes. From Tokyo to the Hamptons, these houses blend architecture and nature to redefine sustainability. With rich historical context and striking contemporary examples, the book explores how green roofs cool homes, nurture biodiversity, and heal landscapes. Visionary architects from Studio Arthur Casas to Guz Architects demonstrate how green design elevates aesthetics and environmental consciousness. With stunning imagery and insightful texts by James Moore McCown, this volume is a vibrant tribute to homes that don t just sit on the earth they grow from it.

On October 3, 2003, the Liberty Bell Center, the new home of the Liberty Bell, was opened to the public. The building, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, is one of the highlights of Philadelphia s reconfigured Independence Mall. This book offers a close look at the building. It presents an extensive set of reproductions and photographs, including records of the design and building process, that thoroughly document the building and its surroundings. The book also features essays that flesh out the building's rich context and its historical background. They include insiders accounts of the design process as well as critical maps of the constellation of forces that come into play in shaping a building of this significance and quality.

‘Patio, channel of sky/The patio is the window/Through which God watches souls/The patio is the slope/Down which the sky follows into the house/Serene’ - Jorge Luis Borges Bedmar & Shi’s Chancery Lane is the apotheosis of their ongoing interaction with a new language of tropical residential architecture. Evocative of the simple, open structures of time’s past, yet possessed of a modernity of spirit perfectly in keeping with contemporary life. Set around an open courtyard space, with a series of demarcated private abodes, Chancery Lane perfectly embodies the tenets of personal privacy heightened and brought together through shared experience. Subtle and serene, this is a residence borne of a coalescence between the environmental, the aesthetic, and the spatial. A true gem.

On occasion, an artist is not only from, but of, a place. Imbued with the very spirit of a locale, and thus inspired to return the favour. Such is the nature of the relationship between the legendary architect Foyez Ullah, and Bangladesh’ capital city, Dhaka. Dhaka is a city rich with history; borne of eclecticism, and her tremendous growth post-independence has been extraordinary, both culturally and architecturally. From the early Mughal architecture to the Indo-Saracenic style of the colonial era, to the sheets of steel and glass that characterize a modern metropolis, there’s an aesthetic battle for the city’s very soul being waged. Dhaka is a city rich with history; borne of eclecticism, and her tremendous growth postindependence has been extraordinary, both culturally and architecturally. From the early Mughal architecture to the Indo-Saracenic style of the colonial era, to the sheets of steel and glass that characterize a modern metropolis, there’s an aesthetic battle for the city’s very soul being waged. Foyez Ullah has played an active role in this conversation for nearly three decades, weaving a tapestry of work within Dhaka’s realm that declutters her chaotic whims and sets revealing insight into contextspecific architectural response. Through a series of his architectural benchmarks, as well as texts from the architectural critics Vladimir Belogolovsky and Byron Hawes, this volume posits a framework for responsive and contextual architecture for Dhaka in the 21st century.

Jen Alkema's minimalism goes beyond an economy of language and material; it is a way of perceiving the world, a personal attitude rather than an application of style or method. Alkema’s primary objective is not to produce a definitive work of beauty. Rather, he creates the conditions that allow beauty to surface. The design claims its own existence, developing into an undeniable reality. The architect becomes his own instrument, no longer the master. If we see minimalism as a derivative of modernism in art, architecture and music, Jen Alkema is not a minimalist. If, however, minimalism is regarded as a way of thinking shared by numerous cultures throughout the ages, Jen Alkema is a minimalist pur sang. His minimalism goes beyond an economy of language and material; it is a way of perceiving the world, a personal attitude rather than an application of style or method. After receiving his degree at The Academy of Architecture (Amsterdam) and reaching the finals of the prestigious Prix de Rome competition in 1995, Jen Alkema turned his focus to the pure essence of architecture: mass, light, structure, repetition, volume, material. His designs, although austere almost to the point of being chaste, incorporate an innate luxury achieved through the exacting use of materials and attention to detail, a perfection in execution. Paradoxical as it may seem, the creation of this sensuous simplicity demands tremendous skill and discipline.

Artron is the foremost printing enterprise in China. As the core project of Artron’s printing culture industry, the Artron art website is actively setting up to create archives for artists. Moreover, since the site is at the periphery of the city, the art center will need to be conceived with a one-stop multi-service printing facility and cultural center. The site of Shenzhen’s Artron Art Center is located on the city edge, surrounded by three highways. In order to keep away from the noisy and chaotic environment, the building is idealized to be a landmark to define this area. Since the main view of this building will come from the three adjacent highways, the building shape should be continuous and integrated with the large-scale urban infrastructure to form a dialogue between the two. Taking into account the volume as a whole, the architects must think about how to digest this huge volume. On the one hand, on the premise of integrity and continuity, the gaps between the different parts of the volumes were created to bring people the comfortable visual impression when walking in this territory.

“I think bamboo is the right material for creating a new architectural language unique to Vietnam.” Vo Trong Nghia. With the climate crisis raging and awareness of humanity’s detrimental impact on the environment now patently apparent, the need for architects to come up with sustainable new solutions has never been more pressing. A key part of any green approach to architecture is the use of local natural materials with a low environmental impact. Bamboo, which has been widely used in Asian architecture for centuries as scaffolding and for bridges, pavilions, houses and other structures, is an ideal material in this context: lightweight, strong and readily available. In an effort to meet the challenges of the 21st century, VTN Architects has developed new ways of working with two species of bamboo in particular: the flexible “Tam Vong” (Thyrsostachys oliveri Gamble) and sturdier “Luong” (Dendrocalamus barbatus), creating a manufacturing workflow that allows for the production of standardized modules, a knitting technique that enables the material to span large distances and environmentally friendly traditional treatments such as mud-soaking and smoking. In Bamboo Architecture we see how these methods have been applied in award-winning, groundbreaking projects such as the Wind and Water Café, Diamond Island Community Center, and the majestic Vedana Restaurant, alongside an illuminating introduction by Masaaki Iwamoto and an interview with the studio principal Vo Trong Nghia who offers an inspiring vision for the future of natural, green architecture.

“Vietnamese cities have lost their tropical beauty. They have turned into concrete jungles just like Bangkok or Jakarta.”Vo Trong NghiaIn a context of rapid urbanization and environmental crisis, Vietnam, like many other countries across the world, requires innovative new architectural solutions to improve the lives of its urban residents. Green Architecture showcases the multi-faceted responses to these challenges conceived by the award winning studio VTN Architects, led by Vo Trong Nghia, in which the emphasis is placed on bringing greenery back to cities in a holistic and sustainable manner. Through detailed illustrated breakdowns of a series of building projects such as The Babylon Hotel, House for Trees and Nanoco Headquarters, as well as several schools, educational institutions and apartment buildings, and enlightening texts including an interview with the architect, this book explores how Vo Trong Nghia and his team draw on their experience and philosophy to help restore the connection between architecture and nature. “Green architecture means being friendly with the environment, not just planting trees,” Nghia says, and in these pages we see those sentiments reflected in the flow and design of his buildings, which transcend functionality to foster a sense of community in a way that is drawing admiration and setting an example across Southeast Asia and much further afield.

Powerful black and white photographs create a portrait of Edinburgh that truly reveals the depths of the city. Photographer James Reid masterfully takes readers on a journey through Edinburgh's familiar iconic buildings and cityscapes. Reid also asks us to look deeper in to the urban fabric of the city, as he presents us with the projects that are readily seen as stains on the contemporary city landscape: the redevelopment of public spaces to make way for new brutalist structures like St. James Centre and Edinburgh University. With photographs of the city’s architecture, culture, and history, Reid presents the reader with the multiple truths that define Edinburgh, past and present. Edinburgh: Portraits of the City is a book for those who want to take an unabridged look at the city through the lens of a photographer who, having been exposed to the diverse realities of six continents, is compelled to uncover the authenticity of place.

The work of [STRANG] is beautifully explored in this comprehensive monograph which highlights the firm’s site-specific and climate-driven designs. The ability to create stunning architectural designs while maintaining an acute awareness of the surrounding environment has come to define their work. Under the creative direction of Max Strang FAIA, the Miami-based firm continues to advance many of the timeless concepts set forth by the famed Sarasota School of Architecture. Strang’s early exposure to that mid-century modernism movement resulted in a deep respect for structures that are intimately connected to their surroundings as they celebrate the Florida climate.

This book presents a privileged insight into the design and construction of the award-winning Thomas P. Murphy Design Studio Building through a series of interviews with the main professionals responsible for its conception, design and construction: the lead architects Bernardo Fort-Brescia, Raymond Fort-Brescia and Thomas Westberg; the builders Thomas C. Murphy, Erin Murphy, Nick Duke and Jason Anderson; the curtain wall manufacturers Jose Daes and Carmen L. Guerrero, and the University of Miami Project Manager, Gary Tarbe. It also offers sumptuous, detailed photography to provide a thorough understanding of a building that is not just a brilliant work of architecture in its own right but that also provides an inspiring, tailor-made environment in which to educate the architects of the future.

This instalment of the Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers Masterpiece Series focuses on Hive Architects’ Shibusa Residence on the Big Sarasota Pass in Siesta Key, Florida. In response to the client’s brief; for their future home to reflect their simple, uncomplicated lifestyle, the long, narrow lot and zoning requirements, the studio decided to base their project around the Japanese concept of Shibusa: economy of form, line and effort resulting in a refined, timeless tranquility.Featuring critical texts by renowned architectural writers, detailed plans and layouts and comprehensive photographic documentation, this monograph shows how the L-shaped structure made up of a pair of rectilinear pavilions seems to float over the tropical landscape, offering excellent functionality for the public and private programs, which include a main and guest pavilion, tropical garden and lap pool, and, crucially, an uninterrupted stream of views of the Big Sarasota Pass and/or Bayou Louise throughout the property.

Between 1915 and 1917 the Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev wrote a series of twenty piano pieces. While playing them for a gatheringof friends, the poet Konstantin Balmont wrote a sonnet which entitled Mimolyotnosti which Kira Nikolayevna would translate as Visions fugitives. Inspired by these dazzling miniatures, I have assembled a jewel box containing twenty individual felt-tip drawings on watercolor paper capturing fugitive visions of China. For a country that has of late been focused on the future, I have been fascinated by the search for a true contemporary regional language in traditional Chinese architecture and painting. The intricate and careful composition in relation to landscape and light has been a continual revelation, as evidenced by the Summer Palace on the outskirts of Beijing and vanishing water towns such as Zhujiajiao, known as the “Venice of Shanghai.”

Between 1915 and 1917 the Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev wrote a series oftwenty piano pieces. While playing them for a gathering of friends, the poet Konstantin Balmont wrote a sonnet which entitled Mimolyotnosti which Kira Nikolayevna would translate as Visions fugitives. Inspired by these dazzling miniatures, I have assembled a jewel box containing twenty individual felt-tip drawings on watercolor paper capturing fugitive visions of Italy. I have always been eager to capture the faded beauty of cities and buildings. This obsession would inevitably draw me to Venice and Sicily. Wandering amidst the shadows of the Venetian light I have tried to portray the beauty of this luminous city. No part of Italy has as many layers of history or been inhabited by so many different peoples as Sicily. From the Greeks who colonized Siracusa and Selinunte, to the Romans in Agrigento, to the Normans in Palermo.

Between 1915 and 1917 the Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev wrote a series of twenty piano pieces. While playing them for a gathering of friends, the poet Konstantin Balmont wrote a sonnet which entitled Mimolyotnosti which Kira Nikolayevna would translate as Visions fugitives. Inspired by these dazzling miniatures, I have assembled a jewel box containing twenty individual felt-tip drawings on watercolor paper capturing fugitive visions of Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The white worlds Kim Utzon has created in Denmark and southern Sweden over the last few decades are stage sets for the ordered appearance of rational and reasonable human beings at work, at home, or at play. Clear in their composition, sequence, and scale, sensuous in their responseto light, and conducive to rest and reason more than anything else, theare a refinement of the Scandinavian Modern tradition in which he works. Combining sparse and light-filled rooms surrounded or defined by open grids with expressive roofs or objects, Utzon’s work is able to make sense out of complex programs and create relaxed and continuous spaces.

This book captures the insights and moments of discovery gained from their encounters with the land. The Fields’ responsive approach and meticulous execution extends to every element of their architectural practice, from considering the way that a tree casts a shadow on a wall to carefully orchestrating a project to minimize the impact of construction on a site. The book includes a Q&A with Stan Field; an essay by Jess Field on his sources of inspiration; sketches and models that they use as design tools; and a portfolio of 10 exquisitely crafted houses shaped by the imprint of the natural world and beautifully documented by acclaimed photographers Joe Fletcher and Matthew Millman.

For her dedication to design of noble, everyday projects, Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, Honorary ASLA, is the recipient of the 2023 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. A renowned Architect for public and civic space design, she has spent her career creating exceptional public spaces that have made a lasting impact. Her designs have become cultural icons, showcasing her belief in the transformative power of the built environment on our daily lives. A recognized urbanist, mentor, and educator, she firmly advocates that excellent design should be accessible to all, emphasizing that it is a right rather than a privilege. For almost two decades, her studio was involved in projects along Chicago’s rivers, including the design of the iconic Chicago Riverwalk.Carol is a graduate of the University of Illinois and has served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, where she contributed to nationalpark planning. She has taught an advanced Design Studio at the Illinois Institute of Technology for over thirty years, sharing her expertise and shaping the next generation of architects. With her focus on design excellence, social responsibility, and generosity, Barney is an unrivaled architect for the people.

These seventy-five works are the harvest of seventeen years of exploration from our office in San Francisco. With this admired city as backdrop, we search for ways to produce fitting contemporary architecture in its highly conservative terrain. These local efforts have provided opportunities to also work nationally. The projects describe allied explorations of Outsides and Insides, Places and Programs, Contexts and Contents. Outsides are about building the evolving city with continuity. More than 80% of the fabric of cities is housing, so urban grain is predominantly composed of dwellings, and multifamily housing has become a focus of our work where we have explored ways to be both contextual and contemporary simultaneously. Insides are about blankness, emptiness to provide indeterminate shelter which frees occupants to inhabit space at their will.

This book provides a privileged glimpse into the conception and execution of this superlative structure with a text by the renowned architectural critic Aaron Betsky, an introduction and interview with the architect by James Moore McCown, sumptuous photography by Stetson Ybarra, Stephen Morgan and Daniel Joseph Chenin, illuminating drawings, diagrams and layouts. An homage to the forts built when the area was first being settled, the building sits resplendently alone in the tranquility of the landscape: truly a modern masterpiece.

STRIVE explores Jones Studio’s four decades of work bringing inventive design to our built environment. The firm samples from ancient global architectureand the pragmatics of the American School, from the realities of today’s climate change to nature’s healing truths, to create a unique modernism of place. Nature is a primary partner and collaborator in Jones Studio’s work. Firm founder Eddie Jones, brother Neal Jones and partners Brian Farling and Jacob Benyi express the preciousness of water and light in the Sonoran Desert and beyond. Water performs, literally and figuratively, across Jones

STRATA celebrates modernist design in multiple ways. Its vast use of glass blurs the inside with the outside. Its deep overhanging eaves intersecting with each other at various angles recalls the best work of Wright. Its expansive glass calls to mind Neutra’s work and his insistence on architectural transparency. The house’s imaginative interiors bespeak comfort and solace needed for days spent in the unforgiving Arizona sun. Its construction required extensive work on the site before the first slab was poured, a testament to the talent of the construction team. Whenever and wherever possible, native stone and wood were used to give the house a sense of authenticity. The sliding glass doors located at multiple points allow the owners to have delightful dinner parties just as the sun is setting and the dry air is cooling – neither indoors nor outdoors, but a vivid combination of the two.