Robust and raw, concrete has been a rudimentary building material for centuries, but it is only relatively recently that architects have begun exploring its softer, tactile side in the design of houses. Concrete is durable, recyclable, and thermally efficient, and it goes up quickly compared to wood or metal framing. The appeal for architects, though, is its plasticity and potential for magic, making poetry out of the mundane. Witness concrete's endless form-making possibilities in this collection of contemporary homes by A-list architects in diverse locations across Japan, Australia, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, the US, and more. Along with exquisite color photography and plans, the architects share their design approach to projects ranging from 10,000 square feet on spectacular sites, to compact urban gems. This close-up of 20 striking houses celebrates the texture and physics of a material that has long been taken for granted.

Prospective homeowners will welcome this introduction to a durable, energy-efficient new building technology: insulating concrete forms (ICFs). Written by a top expert in the field, and organized in an accessible question-and-answer form, it will help homebuyers decide whether an ICF is right for them and how to get the most for their money. Every aspect of planning and construction is covered, from exactly what an ICF is to the intricacies of building a concrete house, from choosing a contractor to selecting a suitable design for the system. There’s crucial advice on how to make sure construction goes smoothly, diagrams and photos to illustrate every point, beautiful ICF homes on display, and explanations of how these homes differ from conventional ones and why they cost less to maintain.

Concrete has conviction, strength and directness. It has plasticity, too, which makes the possibilities for form-making almost endless. Concrete Houses explores the sculptural possibilities of concrete as the material of choice in landmark contemporary houses across Australia, Brazil, Portugal, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands and the USA, from the hands of major international architects including Sou Fujimoto, Tom Kundig, Valerio Olgiati and Marcio Kogan, and Australians such as Peter Stutchbury, Alex Popov, Ian McDougall and Neil Durbach. Illustrated throughout with exceptional colour photography, and selected plans and drawings, Concrete Houses celebrates the incontrovertible fusion of concrete's versatility and brute force to make timeless architecture of lyric beauty.

"The purpose of this book is to make clear the advantages of concrete in the construction of dwellings. ... as applied to houses [in the United States]"--Page 6

This New York Times bestselling book is filled with hundreds of fun, deceptively simple, budget-friendly ideas for sprucing up your home. With two home renovations under their (tool) belts and millions of hits per month on their blog YoungHouseLove.com, Sherry and John Petersik are home-improvement enthusiasts primed to pass on a slew of projects, tricks, and techniques to do-it-yourselfers of all levels. Packed with 243 tips and ideas—both classic and unexpected—and more than 400 photographs and illustrations, this is a book that readers will return to again and again for the creative projects and easy-to-follow instructions in the relatable voice the Petersiks are known for. Learn to trick out a thrift-store mirror, spice up plain old roller shades, "hack" your Ikea table to create three distinct looks, and so much more.

During the years 1919 into 1925 Frank Lloyd Wright worked on four houses and a kindergarten located in metropolitan Los Angeles using concrete blocks as the main building material. The construction system has been described by Wright and others as ’uniquely molded’, ’woven like a textile fabric’ and perceived as ground breaking, truly modern, unprecedented. Many have attempted to uphold these claims while some thought the house-designs borrowed from old exotic buildings. For the first time this book brings together Wright’s declarations, the support of upholders and inferences in order to determine their accuracy and correctness, or the possibility of feigned or fictional stories. It examines technical developments of concrete blocks by Wright and others before his experiences in Los Angeles began in 1919. It also studies the manner of Wright’s design process by an examination of relevant pictorial and textual documents. A unique, in-depth and critical analysis of the houses is set within historical, biographical and theoretical contexts. Consequently, the book explains the impact upon Wright of California contemporaries, architects Irving Gill and Rudolph Schindler, and their instrumentally profound role upon the course of modernism 1907-1923. In doing so, it allows a full appreciation of Wright’s, Gill’s and Schindler’s buildings beyond their experiential qualities.