‘Look, and gasp. Some of these homes are truly astonishing, some are modest, but all are excellent’ – The Sunday Times

'Extremely impressive … genuinely pioneering' – Perspective

Brave New Houses showcases thirty of the most exciting new houses and five daring projects from southern California, a region that has always been a crucible for experimentation in residential design. They express the needs of courageous individuals who decided to please themselves, flout conventional wisdom and collaborate with talented architects. Brave New Houses will appeal to everyone who has thought of making a fresh start by designing, or buying, a one-of-a-kind house.

These architects respond to varied sites – from the canyons of Santa Barbara south to the mountains of San Diego County. Modest or grand, expansive or tightly compressed, angular or sensuously curved, their solutions offer a cross-section of the best of contemporary design and are linked only by their openness to nature and the benign climate.

Here are the successors to Richard Neutra and R.M.Schindler, John Lautner and Frank Gehry: architects who break out of the box to create houses that express their vision for clients and, sometimes, themselves. They are sensitive to environment – there's no wasted space, no striving to impress. They speak to the present and offer an appealing alternative to claustrophobic historicism.

Michael Webb began writing about architecture in the 1960s and now does so in Los Angeles out of a classic Richard Neutra apartment that Charles and Ray Eames once called home. He is the author of 21 books and travels the world gathering material for articles in Architectural Digest, Architectural Review, Domus and other leading publications.

Also of interest
Living West: New Residential Architecture in Southern California

American Art and Architecture
50 Favourite Houses by Frank LLoyd Wright