Holistic Housing: Concepts, Design Strategies and Processes / Hans Drexler + Sebastian El Khouli

“Holistic Housing: Concepts, Design Strategies and Processes” is a fundamental reference work on housing construction. The book deals with the issue of sustainability in a planning context but also analyses a building’s usage and ageing over its ‘life cycle’. A system of criteria specially developed in an accompanying research project can be used to compare and evaluate buildings. It can also be used as a tool for optimising the sustainability of buildings in development during the planning process. By contrast, most existing sustainability systems are conceived not as design and planning tools, but as instruments for evaluating finished buildings and completed planning.
Wine and Architecture / Heinz-Gert Woschek, Denis Duhme & Katrin Friederichs

Several wineries and vineyards have captured the public’s eye in recent years thanks to their distinctive architecture, which thoroughly conveys the atmosphere of their surroundings while reflecting the tradition of the winemaker. Through selected vineyards, this book traces the path of winemaking from grape harvest to tasting – all through the eyes of architects and winemakers: Based on numerous conversations with them, the authors are able to tell the personal stories behind the origins of each building and how it relates to its special place, all while expressing the sensual experience that is part of the world of wine. Besides information about the various wine-growing regions and the history of “wine architecture”, the book familiarises the reader with the winemaking process and wine itself, making the book a handy wine and travel guide from the architect’s perspective.
DETAIL: Architecture and the Test of Time

Over the past 50 years, DETAIL has presented countless architectural highlights, which, in their time, drove development forward thanks to their experimental designs or groundbreaking use of materials. Yet, how have these once innovative designs fared? What lessons have been learned? Have the buildings changed over the decades?
DETAIL: Best of Housing

Best of Housing by DETAIL Magazine: Housing is something individual: we each have our own ideas and aspirations for it, and we express a lifestyle by the way in which we house ourselves — the way in which we dwell. To dwell means to be “at home”, where one ideally has a sense of well-being.
When it comes to housing, there have been numerous studies of standards, developments and trends, which have analysed and compared people’s needs. But as needs change over time, so do trends. And also the global and demographic changes affecting society alter the way we dwell and flexibility becomes a decisive criterion.
The subject of housing also includes the integration of individual buildings in an urban context. Especially in cities, people often live in compact spaces in which there are fewer personal spaces and more communal areas. Yet each of us longs for a space of our own. Therefore it becomes important that designers develop ideas that meet our shared need for a balance between personal and communal space.
DETAIL: Building Simply Two

As innovation and new developments in technology now follow each other faster and faster, making yesterday’s architectural fantasies today’s construction realities, there’s already a movement to return to the essential things in life: be it a quest for sustainability, which implies basic principles such as incorporating a region’s typologies and materials, or for reasons of expense, which often prompt a search for efficient designs or manufacturing technology, or even aesthetic requirements that allow people to step out of our increasingly noisy and heterogeneous environment.
