A seductive vision of the future from the most promising firm in China led by Ma Yansong, an important voice in the new generation of architects. Conceived and designed by Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects, MAD Rhapsody documents the buildings of this avant-garde architecture firm and traces the development of their ideas through associated practice including art, research, and exhibition projects. With photographs, drawings, and models, the book highlights 23 projects from the past six years, both built and in process. Known for their “organic and dreamlike architecture” that creates a dialogue with nature, earth, and sky, MAD projects reach all over the globe. At age 46, Ma Yansong is one of China’s best-known architects. His curvilinear, free-form, and futuristic designs are often compared to those of his mentor, Zaha Hadid. Ma’s greatest inspiration is nature; his opera house in the northern Chinese city of Harbin resembles a snow-capped mountain, while his master plan for the city of Nanjing calls for sloping buildings covered with vertical louvers that resemble waterfalls. Other projects include the Ordos Museum in the wilderness of Inner Mongolia, the Absolute Towers in Canada, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

The first complete overview of the most important contemporary architecture practice ever to have emerged from China The skylines of modern China are punctuated by architecture that amazes, inspires, and awes. Many of these structures are the work of new, experimental practices like China-based MAD Architects. MAD Works not only documents the buildings of this group of avant-garde architects but also traces the development of their ideas through associated practice including art, research, and exhibition projects. Organized thematically, the book explores the underlying concepts of MAD Architects' work. MAD Works is illustrated with photographs, architectural drawings, and 3D visualizations to provide a thorough exploration of MAD Architect's international portfolio of completed works, unbuilt projects, and future ideas.

When an electromagnetic pulse from space triggers a total communications blackout on Earth, astronomer Zeb Aberly tracks the signal to an intelligent alien race, but the government will stop at nothing ensure his silence. Reprint.

A French food critic faces his mortality in an “entertaining [and] witty” novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Newsday). In the heart of Paris, in the same posh building made famous in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Pierre Arthens, the greatest food critic in the world, is dying. Revered by some and reviled by many, Monsieur Arthens has been lording it over the world’s most esteemed chefs for years, passing judgment on their creations, deciding their fates with a stroke of his pen, destroying and building reputations on a whim. But now, during his final hours, his mind has turned to simpler things. He is desperately searching for that singular flavor, that sublime something once sampled, never forgotten, the flavor par excellence. Indeed, this flamboyant and self-absorbed man desires only one thing before he dies: one last taste. Thus begins a charming voyage that traces the career of Monsieur Arthens from childhood to maturity across a celebration of all manner of culinary delights. Alternating with the voice of the supercilious Arthens is a chorus belonging to his acquaintances and familiars—relatives, lovers, a would-be protégé, even a cat. Each will have his or her say about M. Arthens, a man who has inspired only extreme emotions in people. Here, as in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery’s story celebrates life’s simple pleasures and sublime moments while condemning the arrogance and vulgarity of power. “Lush and satisfying prose.” —Publishers Weekly

A luxurious presentation of the work of a celebrated American designer and architect known for creating spaces that balance modern simplicity and historic detail. This book features the work of Lauren Rottet over the past fifteen years and includes the interiors of houses, apartments, hotels, and design studio offices in the wide range of styles at which Rottet Studio is adept, from elegant Modernism to Beaux-Arts classicism. Rottet-designed spaces are artfully curated living/working spaces that transcend their formal use and become places in which people ponder, experience, and are inspired. These environments, though immediately beautiful to the eye, are not meant to be one-moment impacts and instead are designed to reveal themselves over time. Above all, her elegant, contemporary designs, like pieces of art, emphasize transparency and light. “A minimalist at heart,” Rottet “would happily live in a white box with beautiful light.” But her influences are varied and her love of historic architecture, art, lovely objects, and well-edited decoration is deep, as is evident in her work.

A stunning array of rustic and charming treehouses from around the world for inspiration and for those who fantasize about getting away from it all. Whether it’s a yearning to escape the stress of day-to-day existence, or a desire to live more sustainably and to get closer to nature, more and more people are finding reasons to go off-grid, high above the ground. Today’s treehouses have evolved into shapes and sizes that nobody could ever have dreamed of. Philip Jodidio takes us on an exciting international tour of more than 36 structures, revealing how they are designed, built, and appreciated in a wide array of cultures and settings. Each treehouse is presented with breathtaking exterior and interior photography, giving readers an in-depth glimpse of this rapidly evolving symbiosis between nature and shelter, indoor and outdoor, and rustic and polished, in a definitive examination of tree-house living. For people interested in eco-friendly living, this book presents the most innovative inter-pretations of the genre, from a house nestled in the tree trunks of Norway to a hexagon-shaped shelter in Mystic, Connecticut.

At the pinnacle of his profession and powers, Christian de Portzamparc is a shining star in the firmament of high design. Pritzker Prize–winning architect Christian de Portzamparc is renowned for bold yet artful architecture that is at once sensitive to its context while at the same time being novel, adventurous, and frequently exciting. One57, the soaring residential skyscraper in New York, with unparalleled views of Central Park, is perhaps his most famous building in the United States, but his work ranges widely across the globe, from an extraordinary handkerchief puff–shaped boutique for Christian Dior in Seoul to a low-winged arabesque of a building for the wine producer Cheval Blanc to a mysterious temple of the modern for Casarts in Casablanca. This volume, the first major comprehensive book on Portzamparc’s work in more than three decades, is a revelation and a comprehensive survey of the work of one of the world’s most innovative and exciting architects at the height of his powers.