Lake|Flato Houses: Embracing the Landscape

Loved the book, hated the binding (It's a heavy book with thick pages and the glued-on cover fell off the first day. Aggravating, especially in a book of this overall quality.) As far as the book's content goes, it's gorgeous. Lake/Flato are designing some extraordinary spaces and they're well-documented in the photos and text, which are more evenly balanced than in some books of this type. I especially liked the Brown and the Dunning desert houses, but almost all are interesting and novel in approach in one way or another, especially in the way they are set into the landscape. I wdo wish they'd designed the legs so the highest adjustment buttons weren't partially set inside the bench seat. They're not the easiest to get to, but at least you'll only need to change the leg heights once. I do wish the floor plans had better labelling, though, as many of them have some spaces that aren't in the key and other titles are uninformative. 'Storage' or 'studio', for instance, don't tell you much about the actual use... Overall, however, this is an exceptional record of the firm's work to date, and of interest to any design aficionado.

The binding on this book is terrible. I'm sending it back. Too bad because the printing is great as well as the book's content. University of Texas Press.

I love the architecture. Beautiful use of materials, great integration into the landscape. I also really like that the division between indoor and outdoor is blurred very creatively. I'd always liked the work when I saw it in the magazines but this book takes my understanding of the firm's work to a new level. I gave it 4 stars because second floor plans and scale are not included.

It takes a lot of imagination to develop a unique and lasting style in any field. Lake/Flato has developed a wonderful, contemporary style that is unique in architecture. They are on par with Frank Lloyd Wright, John Lautner and Philip Johnson in the true development of style.Lake/Flato's houses are integrated into all of their surroundings (light, the landscape, and overall environment) as so well illustrated into this latest book. It is a great addition to any collection of books on great, contemporary architecture.

Great book and amazing photos! Architecture is stunning!

Their designs are creative and brilliant. They break projects down to their necessary components, bring them into existing landscape (versus the other way around) all the while using sustainable forethought. I am a big fan of their work. This book is mostly pictures with descriptions of the projects. I wish I knew more about the thought processes and the planning that created these gems.

Brand new book arrived with broken spine and had been removed from its shrink wrap. The book appears to have been a display copy - flipped through by a few hundred folks. It was not a “new” book.

Love the work of this firm. The book is inspiring.

Yup - good book. Lots of interesting projects, well photographed and detailed.They obviously have a certain style that translates well to different regions, which is how the book breaks down the enormous volume of their residential work.