Architecture at the Heart of the Home

Book excerpt: Increasingly, domestic architecture has sought to enhance everyday life by providing resonant settings that reflect the human need for comfort, safety and connection. A house has walls and ceilings, and perhaps a garden, but beyond that, there is always that one part of a home that becomes a place of belonging, around which people gather. Architecture at the Heart of the Home showcases those special places and features that make a residence unique. Of course, there are kitchen and dining areas, but a home's heart can also be the physical link between the interior and the exterior, a view, a particular room, or even an architectural feature: a pool that reflects the sky overhead, windows that frame a panoramic vista, or a building's position in the landscape. The projects in this book are not necessarily grand in scale, but all reveal extraordinary settings that fill the heart with joy and the soul with happiness - the places where memories are made.