num_pages: 384
description: No other place in the world can compare with the variety of domestic architecture in America. HOME takes the reader on a fascinating journey to every significant house style across the continent, from early settlers' efforts to innovations of the new millennium; from simple dwellings to grand retreats and elegant townhousesIn previous, illustrated histories of architecture, most attention has been paid to the grand buildings: the seats of authority, religion and luxury. Less has been said about the house, its builders, and most importantly what it was like to live in such structures and why particular design features, furniture, furnishings and artifacts came in and went out of style. The extraordinary story of the American home begins with the first styles brought from the Old World and adapted to the new landscapes. It continues with the new cultures, arriving in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and how they influenced the variety of home building ranging from the log cabins and tiled stove-warmed interiors in the northern Midwest to row house parlors and kitchens in New York. Home builders then moved to the sunny West. The wide prairie invited the idea of single-level, open-plan living. In the Southwest, the pine cabins of Anglo ranchers mingled with and subsequently merged into the more adaptable adobe houses that had been sculpted by the earlier Spanish settlers. Further west, the new arrivals had an additional variety of attitudes, cultures, plans and materials to employ and enjoyed the bonus of decorative influences and simple proportions from China and Japan. Finally, HOME also examines contemporary centers of creativity in the West and Southwest. No longer reliant on wood, brick and stone, designers and their clients prefer their houses to bask in the sun, to evoke long shadows and to provide cool interiors. Throughout this visual documentary, the accuracy of detail in the many examples brings the experience of the historic American house to life. Among the numerous homes included are those that belonged to such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, as well as homes of architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, Louis Kahn and many more. Author Biography: David Larkin is an editor, author, and book designer who has been exploring the history of American vernacular architecture for the last twenty years. He has published an extensive list of illustrated books, including: American Colonial, Mission, Adobe, Barn, Farm, Shaker Style, Classic America, Mill, Victorian America, American Masterworks, Frank Lloyd Wright: Master Builder, and The Treehouse Book.
language: English
title: American Home: From Colonial Simplicity to the Modern Adventure
titlecomplete: American Home: From Colonial Simplicity to the Modern Adventure
ratings_count: 4
publisher: Universe