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British Boutique Hotels

by Gina Jackson (Hoxton Mini Press)

Come Together

edited by Joann Plockova (Gestalten)

Putting international travel plans on hold has had a welcome side-effect: many of us have discovered the wonders that lie on our doorstep in the UK, including some excellent hotels. Today’s boltholes seem to be continually upping their game when it comes to design nous, locavore dining, spa experiences and other personal touches, which is all good news for discerning guests. This book explores the best boutique getaways, including stalwarts such as Lime Wood in the heart of the New Forest to newcomers like The Mitre in Hampton Court. Enticing photography and advice on everything from the most divine fine-dining spots to the best places for a digital detox will have you ready to pack your bags and hit the road for your next trip. Multigenerational homes were the norm in the past, and as demographics have shifted and land prices have risen, it is being reappraised as a model way to live. Gestalten’s book looks at collective living both within families and wider communities, and explores how to design the ideal space where all the generations in question have fulfilling lives. It argues that these living spaces need to be designed as more than just an extra-large family home, with flexibility the key way to cope with the changing needs of residents as they grow. Essays, profiles and case studies include a slick new take on the granny annexe in Seattle by Best Practice Architecture, and a look at how Asia is adapting its strong tradition for multigenerational living to suit 21st-century needs.

Rose Uniacke at Home

by Rose Uniacke (Rizzoli)

The restrained cotton slipcase of this book dedicated to the London home of interior and product designer Rose Uniacke gives strong clues as to what lies within: Uniacke is the authority on interiors that are totally luxurious yet barely ostentatious. The house in question was built as the home and studio of Victorian portraitist James Rannie Swinton, but had fallen into disrepair by the time the designer and her husband bought it in 2006. François Halard’s photography captures it as it is now, with its breezily high-ceilinged rooms, sculpture, antique furniture and a lushly planted winter garden. The book includes conversations with architect Vincent van Duysen and garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith, both of whom contributed to the house’s transformation. A collaborative effort between Dutch architect Bjarne Mastenbroek and photographer Iwan Baan, this book explores the many types of relationship that buildings can have with the earth they sit upon. Scanning the centuries and the globe, it is ambitious in its scale, seeking out all the examples the pair could find where the landscape merges with the building, many of which had never been documented before. There are churches carved from rocks – excavating downwards, rather than building upwards – in Lalibela, Ethiopia; low-slung desert modernist houses in Palm Springs; and the 1970s Gallo-Roman Museum in Lyon by Bernard Zehrfuss, near-invisibly built into a hill. “I hope this book…gives an understanding of how we can do more with less,” says Baan.

Dig It! Building Bound to the Ground

by Bjarne Mastenbroek (Taschen)