Quite the retreat, by design

For those who dream of getting away from it all, a new design book from Thames & Hudson, “Off the Grid: Houses for Escape” offers plenty of food for thought.

Everyone has a bad day sometimes.

And if it’s a really bad day, you might dream of getting away from it all.

In a fitting conclusion to March, our month devoted to “Fascinating Designs” here at WAG, we suggest a new design book that’s all about houses designed for getting away – really getting away.

“Off the Grid: Houses for Escape” by Dominic Bradbury (272 pages, $45) has just been released by Thames & Hudson.

Bradbury, a writer and journalist specializing in architecture and design, was featured here last autumn when we wrote about his October title, “The Iconic House: Architectural Masterworks Since 1900.”

In this new book, though, his focus is more pointed, showcasing, as the advance materials shared, “some of the world’s most innovative off-the-grid homes, highlighting the creative architecture and cutting-edge technologies that are redefining where and how we live.”

The lavishly illustrated book is divided into three sections, “Countryside and Forest,” “Hillside and Mountain” and “Waterside and Coast,” explored through an around-the-world journey.

Readers are taken to a woodland escape in Sweden and a studio perched over a Canadian bay, to a “hut” in Wales and a hillside retreat in Spain. Examples also feature American destinations, from Oregon to California plus two New York designs, one in Columbia County’s Ancram and the other in Orient, on the Long Island Sound.

In the introduction, Bradbury shares his approach:

“Each house that we explore in this book provides its residents with a retreat of one kind or another, in some of the world’s most extraordinary and beautiful natural settings.”

Skimming through the book, we have to agree.

For more, visit thamesandhudsonusa.com.

– Mary Shustack

 

 

 

Written By
More from Staff
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
Botanical celebrates Monet’s floral works By Georgette Gouveia He was, of course,...
Read More
Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *