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Outlandish forms and extravagant materials fill many an architecture tome, but The New Modern House documents a refreshing backlash to the tide of style over substance. Looking at 50 residential projects from across the world, it explores the rise of an approach that combines functional design and sustainable processes with a straightforward, honest aesthetic.
Sober as this 'New Functionalism' may sound, it gives rise to radically varying structures - from the blocky, agricultural-like appearance of the corrugated 'Permanent Camping' house by Casey Brown Architecture in Australia to the sculptural, but eminently practical, gabion, pitched-roof façade of '9X9 House' in suburban Germany by Titus Bernhard Architekten.
We'll admit a touch of bias, given that it was penned by Wallpaper's very own architecture team, Jonathan Bell and Ellie Stathaki, but the self-assured and practical beauty documented in The New Modern House is far more interesting to behold than the architectural swagger with which we're so often presented.