Wood

Book excerpt: Wood is a fresh, insightful and surprising look at the world's best timber architecture. With 170 structures from the last 1,000 years, Wood features projects from some of the world's most celebrated architects. Renzo Piano's otherworldly New Caledonian Cultural Centre is found alongside projects from Tadao Ando and Peter Zumthor. Even the work of Le Corbusier, an architect best known for his work in concrete, is shown - his humble Mediterranean log cabin, Le Cabanon, was his last home. Arranged to promote comparison and discussion, the selected projects take the reader on a global tour of inspiring and intriguing structures: a Vietnamese village hall sits beside a state-of-the-art Belgian laboratory, an Italian anatomical theatre alongside a luxurious Canadian sauna and an onion-domed Russian church next to a fortified Japanese castle. Illustrated with extraordinary photographs, each project includes an extended caption providing an insightful commentary on the building. An essay by the bestselling author and naturalist Richard Mabey explores the close relationship between trees and architecture. Following the popularity of Concrete and Brick, Wood is a beautiful and informative visual exploration of a natural material that harbours an extraordinary range of expression and potential and has inspired architects for generations.