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More books by Colin Davies:

Key Houses of the Twentieth Century
Plans, Sections and Elevations - with CD ROM
Laurence King, 2006

This book features more than 100 of the most important and influential architect-designed houses of the twentieth century, including works by Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Tadao Ando, Glen murcutt, Rem Koolhaas and many more. Specially drawn scale drawings are provided in both printed and digital form for each house .

From the Introduction:
'The individual, architect-designed house is a distinct category of artistic and cultural production, comparable perhaps to the landscape painting, the documentary film or the romantic novel. The fact that houses in general also perform a practical function, are in fact essential to survival in most parts of the world, may lead us to look at them in a different light. We might be tempted, for example, to include among the 'key houses of the twentieth century' examples of vernacular or mass-produced houses - the American tract home, the English cottage or the Swedish summer house. Surely these 'ordinary' houses have had more effect on the daily lives of most people than any of the 'special' houses in this book. In a comprehensive global history of the twentieth century house the individual architect-designed house would be hardly more than a footnote. But this book does not aim to provide a comprehensive global history. It deals with something more limited but no less interesting: that relatively small selection of houses that form what might be termed the artistic canon. The houses in this book are the famous houses, the houses that, for one reason or another, have been widely published and have found their way into architectural history books.'

A text-only ebook version of 'Key Houses', with links to illustrative web sites, will be available soon from Crowstep.

Hopkins 1 and 2
Phaidon, 1993 and 2000

The definitive two-volume monograph on this leading British architect. Contains detailed descriptions and critiques of all of Hopkins's major buildings, including The Mound Stand at Lords, the Parliamentary Building and Glyndebourne Opera House. Written by Colin Davies with additional essays by Kenneth Frampton, Charles Jencks and Patrick Hodgkinson.

Commerzbank, Frankfurt: Prototype for an Ecological High-rise
Watermark, 1997

The Commerzbank in Frankfurt, designed by Sir Norman Foster and completed in May 1997, is the tallest building in Europe. Unlike most high-rise office buildings, it receives natural daylight and ventilation, has an atrium reaching from the ground to the top floor, and each office or department enjoys an unobstructed view to the outside. It therefore 'successfully reconciles seemingly inreconcilable requirements: optimal use of space, a humane working environment, environmental soundness, technological innovation, and architectural quality'. The building shows 'what possibilites there are... for the high-rise in the dense inner-city'. This monograph traces the complete history of the Commerzbank building, from design to realization. Illustrated essays explain the many innovative aspects of this structure, and elucidate the successive phases of the construction process.

Buy Key Houses of the Twentieth Century

Buy Hopkins 1 and 2

Buy Commerzbank