"Some books are so beautifully produced and contain such
superb images that even before one starts reading they have an
entrancing quality that makes ownership essential. For anyone interested
in design, architecture, cultures or travel [this book] is just such a
volume . . . captivating.” ―TES
Many of the world’s
greatest buildings are made of wood, yet it is undervalued or ignored in
histories of architecture. However, leading designers around the world
are increasingly drawn to it to satisfy social and environmental needs.
Will
Pryce is an award-winning photographer who trained as an architect and
photojournalist. Intensely dramatic but not overdramatized, technically
flawless but not merely documentary, his internationally acclaimed
photographs convey all the excitement of encountering these amazing
structures firsthand.
He has traveled the world seeking the famous
and the obscure. In the text he shows how the wooden heritage of Japan
grew from its Buddhist history; how Russia’s carpenters determined its
iconic domes; how Norway’s stave churches contain clues to her pagan
past; how Turkic tribes brought the yali from Asia; how the settlers of
New England employed a provincial English tradition on the new
continent; and how, today, sophisticated architects such as Peter
Zumthor and Renzo Piano are inventing an eloquent new wooden
architecture.
400+ illustrations
