Gay Giordano

This magical volume presents the startling world of illusion in design as employed by today s architects, interior designers, furniture designers, and others at work bending the appearance of reality for purposes of aesthetics or practicality or fun. From a faux bookcase that masks a room or Prohibition-style bar, to the mind-boggling Escher-like effects achieved by Casa Ceramica, whose optical illusion of a floor dips into valleys and rises into mounds (but is in reality flat), the book is a revelation and an inspiration. It offers to us the possibility that nearly anything can be done, if it can be imagined even in our own homes. The authors look at residences across the globe, as well as spaces beyond the home, that utilize a myriad of surprising techniques. Included are projects by conceptual designers such as Studio Malka and Vector Architects, as well as established practitioners such as Ferguson and Shamamian, G. P. Schafer, Peter Pennoyer, Redd/Kaihoi, and others, and all will surprise and engage the inspired viewer who will see that nearly anything can be done, if it can be imagined.

This magical volume presents the startling world of illusion in design as employed by today s architects, interior designers, furniture designers, and others at work bending the appearance of reality for purposes of aesthetics or practicality or fun. From a faux bookcase that masks a room or Prohibition-style bar, to the mind-boggling Escher-like effects achieved by Casa Ceramica, whose optical illusion of a floor dips into valleys and rises into mounds (but is in reality flat), the book is a revelation and an inspiration. It offers to us the possibility that nearly anything can be done, if it can be imagined even in our own homes. The authors look at residences across the globe, as well as spaces beyond the home, that utilize a myriad of surprising techniques. Included are projects by up-and-coming designers, such as Studio Malka and Vector Architects, as well as more established practitioners, such as Ferguson and Shamamian, G. P. Schafer, Peter Pennoyer, Robert A. M. Stern, and others.

What does a home look like in twenty-first-century New York? While the city s name alone brings to mind very specific ideas the Fifth Avenue penthouse, with its elegant mouldings and crystal chandeliers; the SoHo loft, with its bright spaces and air of bohemian ease; the Brooklyn brownstone, with its fireplaces, parquet floors, and lush backyards the truth is, New York today is much more than this, and the potential for variety in ways of living is, now more than ever, virtually limitless. As a result, in the twenty-first century, the combined design professions enjoy an unprecedented menu of prospective solutions, whether based upon respect for a classically inflected New York past, an emphatic denial of such a tradition, or, most often, some hybrid response that often yields the best innovation possible. New York Living celebrates this vast potential while exploring contemporary apartments and town houses throughout the city, ranging beyond Manhattan into the outer boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx, and back to the centre, Manhattan, which continues to climb ever higher in its reach toward the sky.