The Architecture of Luxury

The Architecture of Luxury
Author: Annette Condello
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2016-03-16
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317044762

Over the past century, luxury has been increasingly celebrated in the sense that it is no longer a privilege (or attitude) of the European elite or America’s leisure class. It has become more ubiquitous and now, practically everyone can experience luxury, even luxury in architecture. Focusing on various contexts within Western Europe, Latin America and the United States, this book traces the myths and application of luxury within architecture, interiors and designed landscapes. Spanning from antiquity to the modern era, it sets out six historical categories of luxury - Sybaritic, Lucullan, architectural excess, rustic, neoEuropean and modern - and relates these to the built and unbuilt environment, taking different cultural contexts and historical periods into consideration. It studies some of the ethical questions raised by the nature of luxury in architecture and discusses whether architectural luxury is an unqualified benefit or something which should only be present within strict limits. The author argues how the ideas of permissible and impermissible luxury have informed architecture and how these notions of ethical approval have changed from one context to another. Providing voluptuous settings for the nobles and the leisure class, luxury took the form of not only grand palaces, but also follies, country and suburban houses, private or public entertainment venues and ornate skyscrapers with fast lifts. The Architecture of Luxury proposes that in Western societies the growth of the leisure classes and their desire for various settings for pleasure resulted in a constantly increasing level of ’luxury’ sought within everyday architecture.

The Architecture of Luxury

The Architecture of Luxury
Author: Annette Condello
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2016-03-16
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317044770

Over the past century, luxury has been increasingly celebrated in the sense that it is no longer a privilege (or attitude) of the European elite or America’s leisure class. It has become more ubiquitous and now, practically everyone can experience luxury, even luxury in architecture. Focusing on various contexts within Western Europe, Latin America and the United States, this book traces the myths and application of luxury within architecture, interiors and designed landscapes. Spanning from antiquity to the modern era, it sets out six historical categories of luxury - Sybaritic, Lucullan, architectural excess, rustic, neoEuropean and modern - and relates these to the built and unbuilt environment, taking different cultural contexts and historical periods into consideration. It studies some of the ethical questions raised by the nature of luxury in architecture and discusses whether architectural luxury is an unqualified benefit or something which should only be present within strict limits. The author argues how the ideas of permissible and impermissible luxury have informed architecture and how these notions of ethical approval have changed from one context to another. Providing voluptuous settings for the nobles and the leisure class, luxury took the form of not only grand palaces, but also follies, country and suburban houses, private or public entertainment venues and ornate skyscrapers with fast lifts. The Architecture of Luxury proposes that in Western societies the growth of the leisure classes and their desire for various settings for pleasure resulted in a constantly increasing level of ’luxury’ sought within everyday architecture.

Luxury and Modernism

Luxury and Modernism
Author: Robin Schuldenfrei
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1400890489

While modernism was publicized as a fusion of technology, new materials, and rational aesthetics to improve the lives of ordinary people, it was often out of reach to the very masses it purportedly served. Luxury and Modernism shows how luxury was present in bold, literal forms in modern designs—from lavish materials and costly technologies to deluxe buildings and household objects—and in subtler ways as well, such as social milieus and modes of living. In a period of social unrest and extreme wealth disparity between the common worker and those at the helm of capitalist enterprises generating immense profits, architects envisioned modern designs providing solutions for a more equitable future. Robin Schuldenfrei exposes the disconnect between modernism's utopian discourse and its luxury objects and elite architectural commissions. Despite the movement's egalitarian rhetoric, many modern designs addressed the desires of the privileged individual. Yet as Schuldenfrei demonstrates, luxury was integral not only to how modern buildings and objects were designed, manufactured, and sold, but has contributed to modernism's appeal to this day. This beautifully illustrated book provides a new interpretation of modern architecture and design in Germany during the heyday of the Bauhaus and the Werkbund, tracing modernism's lasting allure to its many manifestations of luxury. Schuldenfrei casts the work of legendary figures such as Peter Behrens, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in an entirely different light, revealing the complexities and contradictions inherent to modernism's promotion and consumption.

Spirit of Luxury and Design

Spirit of Luxury and Design
Author: Jie Srun
Publisher: Oro Editions
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2021-10-11
Genre: Fashion design
ISBN: 9781951541767

The vast medium of jewelry and fashion artefact design continues to be a central pillar of fashion luxury goods industries and artistic practice, but there is a lack of discussions on the researches, value and roles of it. Design is an expression of values and attitudes, and a tangible form of guiding the thoughts and desires of individuals and members of society. In the contemporary society, when science, technology and craftsmanship reach a stage, whether products and services become luxurious or not, its quality, uniqueness, artistry and rarity are all achieved through design. This book represents the articles from 20 outstanding design researchers from 11 countries, including many works from international designers, who are engaging with and pushing the boundaries of the medium. It contributes to these international debates on contemporary fashion and jewelry design while providing an accessible overview and a concise reference book.

Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan

Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan
Author: Andrew Alpern
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780486273709

Lavishly illustrated volume provides detailed mini-histories of the Gramercy, Ansonia, Hotel des Artistes, Joseph Pulitzer's palatial residence, and many other luxurious lodgings. 175 illustrations — many from private sources — depict interiors and exteriors. Introduction. Index.

Terror and Wonder

Terror and Wonder
Author: Blair Kamin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2011-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0226423123

Collects the best of Kamin's writings for the Chicago Tribune from the past decade.

The Architecture of Bathing

The Architecture of Bathing
Author: Christie Pearson
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0262044218

A celebration of communal bathing—swimming pools, saunas, beaches, ritual baths, sweat lodges, and more—viewed through the lens of architecture and landscape. We enter the public pool, the sauna, or the beach with a heightened awareness of our bodies and the bodies of others. The phenomenology of bathing opens all of our senses toward the physical world entwined with the social, while the history of bathing is one of shared space, in both natural and built environments. In The Architecture of Bathing, Christie Pearson offers a unique examination of communal bathing and its history from the perspective of architecture and landscape. Engagingly written and richly illustrated, with more than 260 illustrations, many in color, The Architecture of Bathing offers a celebration of spaces in which public and private, sacred and profane, ritual and habitual, pure and impure, nature and culture commingle. Pearson takes a wide-ranging view of her subject, drawing on architecture, art, and literary works. Each chapter is structured around an architectural typology and explores an accompanying theme—for example, tub, sensuality; river, flow; waterfall, rejuvenation; and banya, immersion. Offering examples, introducing relevant theory, and recounting personal experiences, Pearson effortlessly combines a practitioner's zest with astonishing erudition. As she examines these forms, we see that they are inextricable from landscapes, bodily practices, and cultural production. Looking more closely, we experience architecture itself as an immersive material and social space, embedded inthe interdependent environmental and cultural fabric of our world.

From the Land

From the Land
Author:
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2013-10-08
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0847840778

Elegant rusticity meets unpretentious luxury in the work of this award-winning architecture firm. Howard Backen, principal of the architecture firm Backen, Gillam & Kroeger, is at the center of a popular movement in home design that emphasizes elegant simplicity and embraces the rustic charm of natural materials. This volume, the first on his work and that of the firm, is an artful exploration of this aesthetic, featuring farmhouses in the Napa Valley, hilltop homes, seaside retreats, and lakeside hideaways. Throughout the work, a sense of intimacy, warmth, and informality pervades. Natural materials, such as wood, stone, and brick, form the foundations, walls, and ceilings of these subtly luxurious spaces, while nature itself plays a considered role that is at once complementary and also intricately conjoined with the work. Sensitive, alluring, and wonderfully resonant with the suggestion of invitation, the work of Backen, Gillam & Kroeger is both thrilling to the eye and restorative to the soul.

Architecture of Being

Architecture of Being
Author: Alan Faena
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2022-05-31
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0847872904

Authored during the height of the pandemic amidst a period of self-reflection, culture and style impresario Alan Faena conceives a deeply personal framework of attributes to liberate the self in this highly personal manifesto exploring the constructs of human potential. To build my dreams, I first had to build myself. In this book I share the secrets of that Architecture. — Alan Faena As a creative with a highly personal vision of design, Alan Faena has produced some of the most extraordinary spaces in the recent past — from his ingenious reconstruction of an abandoned neighborhood in Buenos Aires to the heights of luxury in Miami Beach. Faena now presents the guiding principles that have helped him produce these urban marvels. Authored during the height of the pandemic, Faena conceived a deeply personal framework of tenets that guided his journey of self-discovery and creativity. Composed of eight thematic pillars — Creation, Vision, Weakness, Silence, Path, Present, Love and Architecture — these chapters explore the inspired source from which all creativity emanates, from the personal battles to the deliberate decisions that ultimately define Faena’s vision and infuse his imaginative vision.

Posh Portals

Posh Portals
Author: Andrew Alpern
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-10-27
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0789213796

An illustrated tour of the elegant entrances to New York City’s most celebrated apartment houses This handsome, oversized book introduces us to the grandest entrances of New York City’s residential buildings. These posh portals come in an array of forms and styles, such as the porte cochere, with a passage to admit carriages or motor cars; the classic awning, originally meant to be retracted in good weather; and Neoclassical, Romanesque, and Gothic revivals. Architectural historian Andrew Alpern highlights approximately 140 entrances, from the nineteenth century to the present, including those of the Dakota, the first true luxury apartment house in New York; San Remo, one of Central Park West’s most impressive apartment houses; and the Ansonia, at one time the largest hotel in the world. Each entrance is accompanied by a description of its signal features and the history of the building that surrounds it. All are represented in splendid color photographs, and many by charming watercolor drawings. These ornate entrances offer a glimpse into New York’s past, as well as its future—for today, once again, entryways have begun to feature heavily in the marketing of residential buildings. Posh Portals will be an inspiration for architects and a delight for city dwellers.