Phaidon

Brutalism, or Brutalist Architecture, is aptly named.  There is nothing soft, friendly, or accommodating about it. It is stark, harsh, hard, powerful and massive. Many Brutalist buildings have the strange ability to look simultaneously futuristic and highly dated.

A favorite of the Communist Bloc housing, fascist dictators like Mussolini …

Robert Winter and Alexander Vertikoff

Craftsman Style is a good starter overview coffee-table book on Craftsman style architecture. Springing from William Morris’s Arts and Crafts movement, this architectural movement aimed to be the antithesis of industrialized, modern building. In the views of the Arts and Crafts movement, things started going …

The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations

Micro Nations

Micronations, sometimes also referred to as model countries and new country projects, are small, self-proclaimed entities that claim to be independent sovereign states but which are not acknowledged as such by any recognized sovereign state, or by any supranational organization. Wikipedia

Lost HorizonJames Hilton

Published in 1933, Lost Horizon, came at the twilight of the great, grand, adventure books, like  its predecessors, including Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Lost World by Conan Doyle. The tale is an enjoyable fantasy of normal, everyday folks ending up …

Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies

Alastair Bonnett

Unruly PlacesAt first glance, Bonnett’s book may look like another interesting guide to off-the-beaten-track places. Unruly Places goes a step further. Divided into eight categories, Bonnett looks at truly unique geographical places and concepts. Lost Spaces include cities that have been …

The Celebration ChroniclesAndrew Ross

We Americans like describing ourselves as pragmatic realists – capitalists who make cold, shrewd decisions based on the market and the value of a dollar stretched as thin as possible. However, conjure up visions of white picket fences, front porches, little Susie on her bike and mom making …