Most Beautiful House in the World

This autobiographical tale is my personal favorite. In a compelling narrative, the architect and scholar describes how he started out to build a boat shed and ended up with a new home. Along the way, Rybczynski sweeps through 2,000 years of architectural history, hopping from ancient Greece to Renaissance Italy to 20th century America.
Look Inside An Architect's Mind
If you're looking for a quick course in architectural history, you may wind up a bit confused. "The Most Beautiful House in the World" is a story about the creative process --and creativity can be chaotic.

Peering inside Rybczynski's consciousness, we are taken on a giddy ride through childhood memories, adult passions, and conflicting desires. We leap from metaphor to mundane domestic decisions and back to metaphor. Moving back and forth through centuries, we explore ideas that influence the ways we build. Scattered through the text are a sketches which illustrate Rybczynski's thinking processes as he designs -- and redesigns -- his structure.

Witold Rybczynski is a professor and an architect who has published several best-sellers in recent years. His books include "City Life, Home: The Short History Of An Idea," and the Frederick Law Olmsted biography, "A Clearing In The Distance." Written in Rybczynski's usual, lyrical style, "The Most Beautiful House in the World" reads like a novel. This is a book that's sure to appeal to anyone who ever started building one thing and ended up with -- uh -- something else.