Buildings in Wood: The History and Traditions of Architecture's Oldest Building Material

From Arts and Crafts-style masterpieces like the Isaac Bell House in Rhode Island and the Gamble House in California to the Temple of Heaven complex in Beijing; from the stave church at Urnes in Norway, almost 900 years old, to the undulating, organic forms of the Price Residence, again in California, this book surveys the remarkable flexibility and expression of wood as a building material. Ancient, traditional, and modern buildings are showcased here in large color photographs and brief essays, describing how wood was used in Chinese buildings to anchor man-made structures to the natural world, or how even modernist buildings attain a natural warmth from wood, inspiring that "ooh, I want to live there" response.