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Mediterranean Modernglamorous European house designs If you like looking at examples of beautiful contemporary architecture, designer homes overlooking the sea, and experiments with shapes, materials, and domestic organisation - then this new book from Thames & Hudson is worth your consideration. It's like A Place in the Sun on steroids.
A high proportion of the examples come from Spain. There's quite a lot of cantilevering, flat roofing, sharp-edged, rectilinear profiles, and all the example shown rise to a maximum of three floors. There's also a recurrent theme of contrasting textures - mahogany against raw concrete, polished steel and plate glass, water features and carefully arranged gravel pathways. I liked the inclusion of small architectural plans, which help you to gain an overall perspective of the building in its geographical location. And visually, the book is a treat, with excellent photographs - even though their relatively small format made me hanker after something more grand.
The locations range from Morocco in the west, via Spain and the Balearics, through Greece, to Turkey in the east. Yet many of the designers of these buildings come from places as far away from the Mediterranean as Paris and Brussels - though I suppose any architects worth their salt must have their practices located in big cities. This is part way between a coffee table book, the text of which nobody (except design anoraks) will ever read, and a serious review of modern architecture. Dominic Bradbury seeks to point out what the designers are doing that's original, and he has a sensiitive regard for his subject. Full contact details of the architects are listed, and a trawl through their web sites is like getting a trip through another book for free. © Roy Johnson 2006 [more ARCHITECTURE books] Dominic Bradbury, Mediterranean Modern, London: Thames & Hudson, 2006, pp.256, ISBN 050034227X
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