Bøger af Caroline Constant

Between Shadow and Light probes Maryann Thompson's commitment to an architecture that is sustainable and regionally driven and her penchant for heightening the experiential qualities of each project through a holistic, consensus-building approach to design. Between Shadow and Light is the first comprehensive monograph on the work of Cambridge-based architect Maryann Thompson. As one of her clients recently declared, Thompson inhabits a "liminal" space, a space of both-and, of inside and outside, of light and shadow. It is a dialogic space, a position from which to examine a situation from multiple perspectives, to facilitate opportunities for discussion, and, ultimately, to seek a consensual basis for design. For Thompson, architecture is the stage on which we live out our lives, a philosophy that foregrounds its inherent symbolism, its ability to arouse our emotions, to challenge our preconceptions, and to provide sites of individual solace and respite from quotidian affairs as well as of heightened collective interaction. Her inclusive design process encompasses extended conversations with clients, patrons, users, and ultimately with the public at large--all envisioned as a means to address the collective social dimension of the work. To address the myriad ways in which certain prominent themes in the work transcend notions of chronological development or typological classification, the book has a tripartite organization. A set of essays on certain theoretical starting points is followed by an elaboration of distinctive architectural themes. It concludes with brief analyses of selected examples of the work, grouped according to programmatic type.

Irish-born designer Eileen Gray (1878-1976) was an extremely private figure and has remained an elusive subject despite her long-lasting influence. Known primarily for her highly original furniture and interior design, Gray realized nine buildings in her lifetime and recorded more than 45 architectural projects in her archive, although several of her built projects were attributed, until very recently, solely to her collaborator, Romanian architect Jean Badovici.After briefly studying art in London and Paris, Gray settled in Paris in 1907 and began designing sumptuous lacquer furniture, wool carpets, and draperies that reflected the sensual luxury of traditional French decorative arts. Beginning in the mid-1920s, and influenced by the modern movement, she turned to architecture. Her most renowned project, the villa E.1027 on the coast of southern France, interprets Corbusian spatial principles and forms to become a fundamental example of Modernist architecture.This monograph embodies the first ever in-depth study of Gray's entire career, providing a generously illustrated analysis of her early designs as well as her work as an architect beginning in 1926. It draws on a diverse wealth of archival material, plans, drawings and photographs - including many of Gray's own - to place this fascinating individual in the context of contemporary movements in design and architecture as well as twentieth-century social and cultural history in general.