European House Now

Rating:
Summary: European Beauty From Helsinki To Barcelona
Review: "European House Now" is a worthy sequel to the earlier "American House Now," although I think some of the home selections were less inspired in the European book. This book features a wide variety of superior architects, but in some cases not the best works by those architects; for instance the book features one of my favorite European architects, Ben van Berkel and his splendid Mobius House, but then follows up with one of his aesthetically least pleasing works ever, the dreadful semi-subterranean Villa Wilbrink, a conscious affront to suburbia located in the Dutch suburb of Amersfoort.

I have always been a fan of Finnish architecture; unfortunately it is somewhat underrepresented here. Despite that shortcoming, the one Finnish selection (the Double House in Espoo, Finland) by the Helsinki firm of Gullichsen Kairamo Vormala is a splendid example of constructivist school philosophy tempered with rationalist emphasis on economical construction based in part on prefabricated structures.

Alongside the Espoo house, my other favorites in the book are all Spanish and Portuguese, with the Cap Martinet House on Ibiza and a beautiful Portuguese home by renowned modernist Eduardo Souto de Moura being the best examples of southern European modernism displayed in the book.

There are a few structures that while interesting structurally, were aesthetically unacceptable to me as they were extremely avant-garde modifications of century old structures which shortchanged both old and new; chief among these offenders is the House Kada B in Leibnitz, Austria, in which a beautiful blue home built in the 1800s had an enormous brown box attached to it in a most unstately manner. Second offender is the Cristoph Mackler home addition onto a sixteenth century Lake Constance home. I am actually a fan of the new structure, and think Mackler is brilliant, but the juxtaposition between the two structures is visually distressing to say the least.

All in all this is a great book worthy of being in any architectural library. I gave it four stars for some home selections that I thought were sub par, for an under representation of Scandinavian architecture (some of the most creative, innovative, and beautiful in the world), and especially for the extremely tiny house plans that you actually need a magnifying glass to read.


Rating:
Summary: wounderful collection, microscopic plans
Review: Every thing in this book is nice... the houses themselves are fantastic, the names included... it is full of ideas although like any architecture book you might like or dislike some of the content; that's a matter of taste. But we will all agree that we need some desent plans to understand the projects, now THAT is the ONLY drawback here, you lose orientation inside these magnificant houses because the figures of the plans are microscopic and poorly labled. this affects how much you can get out of the book. otherwise it is wounderful.

Rating:
Summary: The authoritative book on contemporary architecture
Review: Like these fine authors' previous book, American House Now, this book is an important new entry into the architecture literature field. Doubillet and Boles have compiled an impressive group of houses from which one can critically look at and judge the direction of contemporary architecture. Boles and Doubillet are gifted and well-seasoned experts in this field. We may read their words and analysis with great confidence. I loved it.

Rating:
Summary: The authoritative book on contemporary architecture
Review: Like these fine authors' previous book, American House Now, this book is an important new entry into the architecture literature field. Doubillet and Boles have compiled an impressive group of houses from which one can critically look at and judge the direction of contemporary architecture. Boles and Doubillet are gifted and well-seasoned experts in this field. We may read their words and analysis with great confidence. I loved it.