Pierluigi Serraino – författare

The creator of the ubiquitous Knoll “Tulip” chairs and tables, Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) was one of the 20th century’s most prominent space shapers, merging dynamic forms with a modernist sensibility across architecture and design.Among Saarinen’s greatest accomplishments are Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport, the very sculptural and fluid TWA terminal at JFK Airport in New York, and the 630 ft. (192 m) high Gateway Arch of St. Louis, Missouri, each of them defining structures of postwar America. Catenary curves were present in many of his structural designs. During his long association with Knoll, Saarinen’s other famous furniture pieces included the “Grasshopper” lounge chair and the “Womb” settee. Married to Aline Bernstein Saarinen, a well-known critic of art and architecture, Saarinen also collaborated with Charles Eames, with whom he designed his first prize-winning chair.With rich illustration tracing his life and career, this introduction follows Saarinen from his studies across his training all the way to his most prestigious projects, and explores how each of his designs brought a new dimension to the modernist landscape.

A captivating history of 20th-century Modern American architecture, as seen through the eyes of a legendary photographerIt is impossible to overstate the importance of photography's role in shaping the world's perception of architecture. And towering above the ever-growing crowd of image-makers is Ezra Stoller, an architectural photographer of immeasurable consequence in documenting the history of modern architecture – both known and unknown – in the United States and beyond. This book is one of the first to present the breadth of Stoller's largely unseen archive of images, brought to life through exquisite color and duotone black-and-white reproductions.

Visionary landscape architecture and garden design at mid-century in North America is captured by the greats of the era, including Julius Shulman and Ezra Stoller in many previously unpublished photographs.The treasures of mid-century American architecture have long been celebrated. Less appreciated has been the landscape design that provides the framing for these masterworks. But more than frame, landscape architecture is an art worthy of the spotlight, particularly at mid-century, when the notion that “gardens are outdoor spaces for people to live in” was championed and brought to the fore; now gardens and landscapes are not just external attributes to the house but a continuation of it and its living spaces in a relationship of symbiosis, with its pools and terraces, its winding lawns, and its partly enclosed room-like spaces flanked by brick or stone or plantings in a range of colors and forms.Approximately seventy-five mostly residential projects are thoroughly documented and recounted. Landscape architects whose work is featured include Thomas Church, Lawrence Halprin, and Garrett Eckbo, among others. Highlights include the dramatic surrounds of Richard Neutra’s Perkins House in its Pasadena hillside setting and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Marin County Civic Center, where environment and building comingle in an extraordinary modernist vision of the future made real.This book is both a wishful gesture toward a realignment of building with nature and a must-have for anyone with a visceral appreciation for a designed environment understood as an integrated whole. Ultimately, the book underlines the fundamental importance of gardens and landscape design, intended in the widest possible sense, for the quality of living of all individuals.

John Marx's watercolours, first published in the Architectural Review, are a captivating example of an architect's way of thinking. Subtle and quiet they are nonetheless compelling works in how they tackle a sense of place, of inhabiting space and time all the while resonating with the core of one's inner being. There is an existential quality to these watercolours that is rare to be found in this medium. Something akin to the psychologically piercing observational quality of artists like De Chirico or Hopper.As architects strive to communicate their ideas, it is interesting to explore the world of Marx's watercolours as an example of a humane approach to conveying emotional meaning in relation to our environment. Marx's subject matter read like"built landscape" heightening the role of the manmade yet wholly in balance with the natural world. This is a message and sentiment that is perhaps more important than ever to relay to audiences.

With offices in San Francisco and Sacramento, Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture has 48 employees and has been in continuous operation since 1950. The firm achieved international recognition early on with the design of several notable game-changing landmark structures, including the recently rehabilitated SMUD Headquarters Building in Sacramento, CA. This project recently received the California Preservation Foundation’s 2020 Preservation Design Award as well as the Trustee’s Award for Excellence. Now in their seventh decade, they continue to be one of the preeminent architectural firms in the region, providing architecture, planning, and interiors services to a broad spectrum of public and private sector clients.Their unwavering commitment to design excellence is reflected in the quality of their built work. They believe great planning is about more than how people use the spaces they create — it’s how they feel inside of them. Positive experience provides the space for engagement and positive communication — resulting in an opportunity for making change in the world through the sharing of knowledge and collective experience. When they combine this understanding with a consistent pattern of outstanding design and efficient construction, the structures can provide lasting aesthetic quality and durability for generations. The firm has been recognised for design at local, state, and national levels with more than 150 awards over its 71-year history.This book celebrates 70 years of outstanding design by Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture. It starts with historical milestones, shows some examples of process and practice, and concludes with a few consequential recent projects.

From product design to city planning and everything in between, Finnish master Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) authored works of transformational impact on people’s lives. This book pays a grand homage to the genius that put design at the center of human experience, whose creativity continues to inspire to this day.