Sean Topham Knihy

From backpacks to luxury yachts, tents to trailer homes, the newest book from the author of Blowup, Where's My Space Age, and Xtreme Houses follows architecture designed to follow mankind. For most of us, "house" means stability, structure, and permanence. In an age of increasing population and technological gains, today's mobile society has resulted in a demand for portable dwellings. This mix of forty innovative projects illustrates how architects, self-builders, and artists are pushing the limits of form and material to answer the new demands for portability. Surprisingly, many of the movable houses of today echo history's earliest and most rudimentary shelters. Some reveal an unprecedented demand for luxury and comfort while others reflect a desire to lessen man's impact on the earth. Juxtaposing the old and the new, photographs of moble homes, transformable fashions, custom vehicles, and private jets are paired with texts to explore the new nomadic lifestyle and the evolution of temporary communities. The book shows how our desire for a house that moves can be thrillingly modern, while expressing an essential part of our human nature.

Ever since the first hot-air balloons sailed over the French countryside in the eighteenth century, both delighting and terrifying those watching below, the world has had ambivalent feelings towards air-filled forms. This first up-to-date history explores the fear and wonder evoked by inflatable technologies in all aspects of from children ’s toys to military craft and everything in between.

The exploits of Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn, and Neil Armstrong ignited a worldwide obsession with futuristic living, but where did it all go? Intense optimism for a space-age future invaded every aspect of design, from fashion and furniture to architecture and typography. But, all of a sudden, it vanished, and euphoria about the future gave way to anxiety. Where's My Space Age? charts the rise and fall of the space age aesthetic and highlights a trend among contemporary artists to question this deceptively complex period. A unique examination of a fascinating era, Where's My Space Age? is one giant leap into a world of nostalgia.Featured artists and designers Joe Colombo, Verner Panton, Quasar Khanh, Eero Saarinen, AJS Aerolande, Pierre Cardin, Courreges, Paco Rabanne, Frutiger, Haus-Rucker-Co, Archigram, Matti Suuronen, Jean Maneval, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Kisho Kurokawa, Andrew Grassie, Mariko Mori, Brian Cyril Griffiths, Fergal Stapleton, Anthony Dunne and Flona Raby, Aleksej Iskos, LOT/EK, Martin Ruiz de Azua, Monica Forster, Softroom, Ushida Findlay.

The computer age, environmental concerns, overpopulation, suburban sprawl, economic boom and bust have all conspired to bring about enormous change in our everyday lives, and perhaps nowhere more so than in our homes. This collection of photographs, drawings, plans, and essays features exciting, newly designed and built dwelling spaces by architects, artists, and individuals that respond to our increasing awareness of architecture’s ability to shape the way we live. Whether they are floating on top of water or nestled underground, seemingly transparent or apparently invisible, these homes push the envelope of what’s considered "normal" in domestic architecture. Yet each was designed in response to a very real and immediate concern, be it economic, spatial, resource-related, or aesthetic. Innovative, bold, and sometimes shocking, these homes, like their Modern predecessors, signal a new way of thinking about what our homes can be. They will no doubt set the standard for where and how we live, now and in the future.