Tom Kundig Houses

"Architect Tom Kundig is known worldwide for the originality of his work. This paperback edition of Tom Kundig: Houses, first published in 2006, collects five of his most prominent early residential projects, which remain touchstones for him today. In a new preface written for this edition, Kundig reflects on the influence that these designs continue to have on his current thinking. Each house, presented from conceptual sketches through meticulously realized details, is the product of a sustained and active collaborative process among designer, builder, and client. The work of the Seattle-based architect has been called both raw and refined--disparate characteristics that produce extraordinarily inventive designs inspired by both the industrial structures ubiquitous to his upbringing in the Pacific Northwest and the vibrant craft cultures that are fostered there." --

Striking, innovative, and dramatically sited, the twenty-nine projects in Tom Kundig: Working Title reveal the hand of a master of contextually astute, richly detailed architecture. As Kundig's work has increased in scale and variety, in diverse locations from his native Seattle to Hawaii and Rio de Janeiro, it continues to exhibit his signature sensitivity to material and locale and to feature his fascinating kinetic "gizmos." Projects range from inviting homes that integrate nature to large-scale commercial and public buildings: wineries, high-performance mixed-use skyscrapers, a Visitor Center for Tillamook Creamery, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and the Wagner Education Center of the Center for Wooden Boats, among others. Tom Kundig: Working Title includes lush photography, sketches, and a dialogue between Tom Kundig and Michael Chaiken, curator of the Kundig-designed Bob Dylan Archive at the Helmerich Center for American Research.

Our 2006 monograph Tom Kundig: Houses was an instant critical and commercial success. Over the past five years, Seattle-based Kundig has continued his meteoric rise, collecting numerous awards, including the 2008 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture Design. Tom Kundig: Houses 2 features seventeen residential projects, ranging from a five hundred-square-foot cabin in the woods to a house carved into and built out of solid rock. In his new work, Kundig continues to strike a balance between raw and refined and modern and warm, creating inviting spaces with a strong sense of place. The houses seamlessly incorporate his signature inventive details, rich materials, and stunning sites from the majestic Northwestern forest to the severe high desert.

Little Mouse and Big Bear live on opposite ends of the same road, and they both would like a friend. But every morning, Little Mouse and Big Bear pass by each other, unnoticed. Until one day, their eyes meet! It's a little awkward at firs—as most new friendships can be—but soon enough they're sipping warm tea together in Big Bear's cozy home, and making plans to meet again the following Sunday. When a nasty storm blows into town will it wreck everything they've built? This tale of friendship and bravery will warm your heart like a cookie and a warm drink shared with a friend.

Architects and designers are breaking new ground on the West Coast, incorporating tested ideas with modern technologies, materials, and concepts in thrilling and sustainable designs. This collection of more than 25 inspiring residences by such renowned western architects and interior designers as Ricardo and Victor Legorreta, Tom Kundig, Jim Jennings, Steven Ehrlich, Marmol Radziner, Aidlin Darling, Paul Wiseman, Terry Hunziker, and Gary Hutton showcases large and small homes that respond to the deserts, mountains, plains, and coastlines of the West. The sculptural forms and elegant interiors are urban and rural, open to the outdoors, and always contemporary, comfortable, and stylish.

This ground-breaking volume invites the reader into the elegant Seattle home of influential collectors Barney A. and Pam Ebsworth, who own one of the most important private collections of modern American art. The house was designed specifically for the collection, which includes seminal paintings and sculptures by Hopper, de Kooning, Pollock, O'Keefe, Johns, Hockney and Calder, among many others. Art + Architecture is one of the first examinations ever of how a top-flight collector works with an architecture firm-in this case, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen-which understands the alchemy that allows a great work of art to exist independently in a room, and still allow the residents to live life around it. This gorgeous book includes photos of the art in the home and also beautiful color reproductions of each piece. With commentary by Franklin Kelly, curator of British and American art at the National Gallery. A must for both architecture and art aficionados.

What are the challenges architects face when designing dwelling spaces of a limited size? And what can these projects tell us about architecture – and architectural principles – in general? In BIG little house, award-winning architect Donna Kacmar introduces twenty real-life examples of small houses. Each project is under 1,000 square feet (100 square meters) in size and, brought together, the designs reveal an attitude towards materiality, light, enclosure and accommodation which is unique to minimal dwellings. While part of a trend to address growing concerns about minimising consumption and lack of affordable housing, the book demonstrates that small dwellings are not always simply the result of budget constraints but constitute a deliberate design strategy in their own right. Highly illustrated and in full-colour throughout, each example is based on interviews with the original architect and accompanied by detailed floor plans. This ground-breaking, beautifully designed text offers practical guidance to any professional architect or homeowner interested in small scale projects.

This title presents an up-to-the-minute collection of residential work from much-lauded practitioners, proving that architecture can always be re-imagined.

Over the past thirty-five years, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects, based in Seattle, has created a body of architecture that is recognized for its ability to merge notions of materiality, craft, and lightness, all of which are richly demonstrated in their work on art collectors' residences and art museums. The firm began its creative existence with architect Jim Olson, whose work in the late 1960s explored the complex relationship between dwellings and the landscape they inhabit. In the early 1970s the growing firm broadened its emphasis to include urbanism and the landscape of the city. Though firmly rooted in the regional features of the Pacific Northwest -- its unique climate and dramatic landscape -- the firm's work extends beyond any regionalist classification. Instead, the projects are characterized by a relaxed modernism that is attuned to its regional context. Each of the projects featured in this volume exhibits a striking use of both natural and highly refined materials, masterful modulation of light, a careful balance between monumentality and intimacy, and frequent collaborations with artists and craftsmen, especially glass artists such as Ed Carpenter. In addition to generous illustrations, including full-color and black-and-white photography and detailed drawings and plans, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects: Architecture, Art, and Craft features a statement from the firm's partners, explicating their influence and process, and an essay by noted architectural critic Paul Goldberger.

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.