Book Review: Tom Kundig: Houses 2

Tom Kundig: Houses 2 by Tom Kundig
Princeton Architectural Press, 2011
Hardcover, 256 pages



Over at Houzz I have a book review/ideabook on the latest monograph on the houses of Tom Kundig, of Olson Kundig Architects. The intro to the review is below, but I recommend clicking over to Houzz for the rest, which features lots and lots of photos of Kundig's distinctive houses in concrete, steel, and often moving parts.

In 2006, the Princeton Architectural Press released the first monograph on the work of Tom Kundig, of the Seattle, Wash. firm of Olson Kundig Architects (then Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects). Tom Kundig: Houses featured only five distinctive houses, a small number for such a work. But what it lacked in numbers it made up for in depth, with sketches, drawings and photographs that explored the details of Kundig's highly-crafted and often kinetic designs.

The newly released sequel, Houses 2, expands upon the first book in just about every way, with more projects (17), more photos and a larger format. Large color photos beautifully capture Kundig's "refined and elegant, but at the same time tough, rough and matter-of-fact" architecture, as Finnish architect and writer Juhani Pallasmaa puts it in the book's introductory essay. Most of the projects are in Kundig's home state; the rest are found in California, Spain and Idaho. No matter where their location, all of these projects are prime examples of the designer's industrial domesticity and his capable hand that gives warmth to steel and sometimes even turns a house into a literal machine.
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