The American Idea of Home: Conversations about Architecture and Design

Over thirty leaders in American architecture discuss the most significant issues in the field today.

“Home is an idea,” Meghan Daum writes in her foreword, “a story we tell ourselves about who we are and who and what we want closest in our midst.” In The American Idea of Home, documentary filmmaker Bernard Friedman interviews more than thirty leaders in the field of architecture about a constellation of ideas relating to housing and home. The interviewees include Pritzker Prize winners Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, and Robert Venturi; Pulitzer Prize winners Paul Goldberger and Tracy Kidder; American Institute of Architects head Robert Ivy; and legendary architects such as Denise Scott Brown, Charles Gwathmey, Kenneth Frampton, and Robert A. M. Stern.

The American idea of home and the many types of housing that embody it launch lively, wide-ranging conversations about some of the most vital and important issues in architecture today. The topics that Friedman and his interviewees discuss illuminate five overarching themes: the functions and meanings of home; history, tradition, and change in residential architecture; activism, sustainability, and the environment; cities, suburbs, and regions; and technology, innovation, and materials. Friedman frames the interviews with an extended introduction that highlights these themes and helps readers appreciate the common concerns that underlie projects as disparate as Katrina cottages and Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian houses. Readers will come away from these thought-provoking interviews with an enhanced awareness of the “under the hood” kinds of design decisions that fundamentally shape our ideas of home and the dwellings in which we live.
"1124867390"
The American Idea of Home: Conversations about Architecture and Design

Over thirty leaders in American architecture discuss the most significant issues in the field today.

“Home is an idea,” Meghan Daum writes in her foreword, “a story we tell ourselves about who we are and who and what we want closest in our midst.” In The American Idea of Home, documentary filmmaker Bernard Friedman interviews more than thirty leaders in the field of architecture about a constellation of ideas relating to housing and home. The interviewees include Pritzker Prize winners Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, and Robert Venturi; Pulitzer Prize winners Paul Goldberger and Tracy Kidder; American Institute of Architects head Robert Ivy; and legendary architects such as Denise Scott Brown, Charles Gwathmey, Kenneth Frampton, and Robert A. M. Stern.

The American idea of home and the many types of housing that embody it launch lively, wide-ranging conversations about some of the most vital and important issues in architecture today. The topics that Friedman and his interviewees discuss illuminate five overarching themes: the functions and meanings of home; history, tradition, and change in residential architecture; activism, sustainability, and the environment; cities, suburbs, and regions; and technology, innovation, and materials. Friedman frames the interviews with an extended introduction that highlights these themes and helps readers appreciate the common concerns that underlie projects as disparate as Katrina cottages and Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian houses. Readers will come away from these thought-provoking interviews with an enhanced awareness of the “under the hood” kinds of design decisions that fundamentally shape our ideas of home and the dwellings in which we live.
13.49 In Stock
The American Idea of Home: Conversations about Architecture and Design

The American Idea of Home: Conversations about Architecture and Design

by Bernard Friedman
The American Idea of Home: Conversations about Architecture and Design

The American Idea of Home: Conversations about Architecture and Design

by Bernard Friedman

eBook

$13.49  $17.99 Save 25% Current price is $13.49, Original price is $17.99. You Save 25%.

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

Over thirty leaders in American architecture discuss the most significant issues in the field today.

“Home is an idea,” Meghan Daum writes in her foreword, “a story we tell ourselves about who we are and who and what we want closest in our midst.” In The American Idea of Home, documentary filmmaker Bernard Friedman interviews more than thirty leaders in the field of architecture about a constellation of ideas relating to housing and home. The interviewees include Pritzker Prize winners Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, and Robert Venturi; Pulitzer Prize winners Paul Goldberger and Tracy Kidder; American Institute of Architects head Robert Ivy; and legendary architects such as Denise Scott Brown, Charles Gwathmey, Kenneth Frampton, and Robert A. M. Stern.

The American idea of home and the many types of housing that embody it launch lively, wide-ranging conversations about some of the most vital and important issues in architecture today. The topics that Friedman and his interviewees discuss illuminate five overarching themes: the functions and meanings of home; history, tradition, and change in residential architecture; activism, sustainability, and the environment; cities, suburbs, and regions; and technology, innovation, and materials. Friedman frames the interviews with an extended introduction that highlights these themes and helps readers appreciate the common concerns that underlie projects as disparate as Katrina cottages and Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian houses. Readers will come away from these thought-provoking interviews with an enhanced awareness of the “under the hood” kinds of design decisions that fundamentally shape our ideas of home and the dwellings in which we live.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781477312896
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication date: 02/24/2022
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 246
File size: 14 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bernard Friedman is managing partner of Flying Mind, a multidisciplinary documentary development and production company. He directed American Homes, an animated one-thousand-year history of residential architecture in North America, which has been acclaimed at the Edinburgh Film Festival, New York Architecture & Design Film Festival, and Architecture Film Festival of Rotterdam, among others. Friedman is a founder and the current chair of the advisory board of the Arid Lands Institute, which trains designers and citizens to innovate in response to hydrologic variability brought on by climate change.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword: No Place Like It by Meghan Daum
  • Introduction by Bernard Friedman
  • Part 1: The Functions and Meanings of Home
    • Richard Meier
    • Grant Hildebrand
    • Witold Rybczynski
    • Lester Walker
    • Sarah Susanka
    • Barbara Winslow and Max Jacobson
    • Hadley Arnold
  • Part 2: History, Tradition, Change
    • Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown
    • Kenneth Frampton
    • Lee Mindel
    • Eric Owen Moss
    • Robert A. M. Stern
    • Sam Watters
    • Douglas Garofalo
    • Tracy Kidder
  • Part 3: Activism, Sustainability, Environment
    • Marianne Cusato
    • Andrew Freear
    • Cameron Sinclair
    • Robert Ivy
    • Charles Gwathmey
  • Part 4: Cities, Suburbs, Regions
    • Paul Goldberger
    • Jeremiah Eck
    • Tom Kundig
    • Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
    • David Salmela
  • Part 5: Technology, Innovation, Materials
    • Toshiko Mori
    • Greg Lynn
    • Thom Mayne
    • Lorcan O'Herlihy
    • Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena
  • Acknowledgments
  • Photography Credits
  • Index
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews