European House Now: Contemporary Architectural Directions

CONTENTS (1999 EDITION) 6 INTRODUCTION: SUSAN DOUBILET, DARALICE BOLES 14 MOBIUS HOUSE: UN STUDIO/VAN BERKEL & BOS, ARCHITECTS, AMSTERDAM 24 VILLA WILBRINK: UN STUDIO/VAN BERKEL & BOS, ARCHITECTS, AMSTERDAM 30 KERN HOUSE: BAUMSCHLAGER & EBERLE ARCHITECTURE OFFICE, LOCHAU, AUSTRIA 38 HAUSLER HOUSE: BAUMSCHLAGER & EBERLE ARCHITECTURE OFFICE, LOCHAU, AUSTRIA 46 CASA LA CLOTA: ENRIC MIRALLES, BENEDETTA TAGLIABUE, ARCHITECTS, BARCELONA 54 SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSE: STUDIO ARCHEA ASSOCIATES, FLORENCE 60 ALONSO-PLANAS HOUSE: CARLOS FERRATER, ARCHITECTS, BARCELONA 68 VILLA DALL'AVA: OFFICE FOR METROPOLITAN ARCHITECTURE/REM KOOLHAAS, ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS 78 HOUSE VAISE: JOURDA PERRAUDIN, ARCHITECTS, LYONS, FRANCE 86 SUZUKI HOUSE: BOLLES + WILSON ARCHITECTURE OFFICE, MUNSTER, GERMANY 92 H0USE IN LAS MATAS: VICENS RAMOS ARCHITECTS, MADRID 102 CUBE HOUSE: O. M. UNGERS, ARCHITECT, COLOGNE, GERMANY 108 UNGERS H0USE III: O. M. UNGERS, ARCHITECT, COLOGNE, GERMANY 116 H0USE/BARN: BARONE POTTGIESSER, ARCHITECTS, PARIS 124 STONE HOUSE: HERZOG & DE MEURON ARCHITECTS, BASEL, SWITZERLAND 138 HOUSE KADA B.: KLAUS KADA, ARCHITECT, GRAZ, AUSTRIA 138 GASPAR HOUSE: ALBERTO CAMPO BAEZA, ARCHITECT, MADRID 144 SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSE: MARIO BOTTA ARCHITECT, LUGANO, SWITZERLAND 150 THE DECKHOUSE: JOHN YOUNG, ARCHITECT, LONDON 162 HOUSE ON RUE ROBERT BLACHE: ARCHITECTURE STUDIO, PARIS 168 STANDARD SOLAR HOUSE: DRIENDL*STEIXNER, ARCHITECTS VIENNA 176 BOM JESUS HOUSE: EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA ARCHITECTS, PORTO, PORTUGAL 184 HOUSE ADDITION: CHRISTOPH MACKLER, ARCHITECTS: FRANKFURT-ON-MAIN, GERMANY 194 HOUSE IN ABBIATEGRASS: ZUCCHIARCHITECTS, MILAN 200 DOUBLE HOUSE: GULLICHSEN KAIRAMO VORMALA ARCHITECTS, HELSINKI 208 PHOTOGRAPHER'S RETREAT: NIALL MCLAUGHLIN ARCHITECT, LONDON 214 HOUSE IN BRASSCHAAT: XAVEER DE GEYTER ARCHITECTURE OFFICE, ANTWERP, BELGIUM 220 CAP MARTINET HOUSE: JOSE ANTONIO MARTINEZ LAPENA AND ELIAS TORRES TUR, ARCHITECTS, BARCELONA 228 HOUSE AND STUDIO: MECANDO ARCHITECTS, DELFT, THE NETHERLANDS 236 PROJECT AND PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS

"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.

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.

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.