The expectations and demands on office buildings and workspaces have increased significantly in the course of the 21st-century digital revolution. In the Internet era, office work is playing an increasingly important and more creative role. An optimized work environment improves the motivation and performance of employees as the “human capital” of companies. This is reflected in a variety of innovative workplace types such as flexible combination offices, business clubs, or lounge workspaces, as well as spaces for informal communication and relaxation.

The suitable implementation of such concepts is based more than ever on the creative design abilities of architects and interior designers. This publication shows the most interesting solutions for contemporary offices. The selection ranges from small units consisting of two rooms, via office complexes in multifunctional buildings, to sprawling corporate skyscrapers. The book presents an exciting mix of the works of well-established architectural firms as well as promising newcomers.

From the contents:

- Dalian Twin Towers, China (gmp)
- CMA CGM Tower in Marseille, France (Zaha Hadid)
- World Trade Center in New York, USA (SOM)
- Center for Virtual Engeneering in Stuttgart, Germany (UNStudio)
- O-14 in Dubai, UAE (Reiser + Umemoto)

• Metal Shutter House in New York, USA (Shigeru Ban Architects)
• Rolex Tower in Dubai, UAE (SOM)
• Sonnenhof in Jena, Germany (J. Mayer H.)
• Solid 11 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Tony Fretton Architects)
• The Met in Bangkok, Thailand (WOHA)

As residing in cities is becoming increasingly popular among all social strata, multi-party residential buildings are gaining in prominence. While this building type focuses first of all on the design and conception of residential space, its height and façade design significantly influence the cityscape. Creating layered living spaces is therefore one of the most important and diverse tasks of contemporary architecture.

This volume presents a spectrum of apartment buildings with innovative interpretations of traditional layout types, and loft-style room divisions, up to individual solutions that vary from one floor to the next. The range of presented projects extends from small dwellings with three residential units up to apartment complexes with several hundred parties, from inventive low-cost one-room apartments to giant luxurious residences with more than ten rooms. In this way the selection shows the multifaceted possibilities of how contemporary apartment buildings can accommodate very different lifestyles on all levels.

Rapid advances in medicine coupled with increasingly aging societies have considerably changed the requirements of medical services. Today, the hospital sector must comply with more than norms and functions: Health care facilities are in a stage of transition from purely care-providing institutions to service-oriented health care providers. They are expected to offer environments that aid patients in their recovery and support them to stay healthy through state-of-the-art medical treatment on the one hand, as well as through a high quality of life and a sense of well-being on the other hand.

The projects introduced in this volume showcase the great variety of designs expressing the contemporary perception of hospitals whose architecture and design are integral components of healing and convalescence. Different conceptual takes meet the requirements of the growing and very diverse needs of the users, i.e. patients, doctors and nursing staff, as well as visitors. The presented hospitals all share a high degree of quality awareness and make the individual and the needs of the individual the key focus of the design.

From the contents:
- Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Nevada, USA (Gehry Partners)
- Psychiatric Hospital in Helsingør, Denmark (BIG)
- Diabetic Center in Dubai, UAE (Studio Altieri)
- Robert-Bosch-Hospital in Stuttgart, Germany (Arcass)
- Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, Great Britain (BDP)

Conferences and convention spaces are enjoying strong demand, with new concepts and approaches being constantly developed. The multitude of types, sizes, and context is almost endless: in addition to freestanding buildings, they can be located in hotels or airports, attached to a brewery or a sports arena. Depending on the occasion, there is an ideal event location, waiting to surprise the user with the most modern technical standards and creative designs.

This broad range opens up an exciting, diversified array of extraordinary design opportunities, which in combination with the latest communication and presentation technologies can contribute to the success of a convention center. The selected examples in this volume are by acknowleged specialists for convention centers as well as architects who approach this attractive planning task from different perspectives.

From the contents:

- Convention Center and Tower in Doha, Qatar (Murphy/Jahn Architects)
- National Convention Center in Hanoi, Vietnam (gmp)
- David Lawrence Center, Pittsburgh, USA (Rafael Viñoly Architects)
- Congress Center Zlin, Czech Republic (AI Design)
- Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall & Congress Center, Iceland (Henning Larsen)

Like in the past the towers of the cathedrals, skyscrapers became the defining features of cityscapes with the advent of the 20th century. Since the turn of the millennium, they are again among the most prestigious and coveted architectural challenges. The design freedom of contours and the plastic volume of blobs have long since superseded the purely orthogonal towers of the past.

Most current projects are being implemented in the Arab-Asian realm, such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's highest building. At the same time, in the USA, the native home of skyscrapers, new towers are also under construction – and also in Europe buildings are reaching for the sky. In addition to the key projects of this remarkable skyscraper renaissance, this volume presents the most spectacular towers still under construction as well as future-oriented experimental designs.

- World Trade Center in New York, USA (Daniel Libeskind / SOM)
- Poly Plaza in Shanghai, China (gmp)
- Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden (Santiago Calatrava)
- Doha High-Rise Office Building, Qatar (Ateliers Jean-Nouvel)
- Sunrise Tower in Kuapa Lumpur, Malaysia (Zaha Hadid Architects)

Playgrounds offer children the opportunity to slide, seesaw, swing, climb, skate, and do much more.

They enhance children’s motor skills along with their social interaction skills. Playgrounds are considered the most important areas for children and youths outside the home and school environment. The key to the success of this demanding design task is the productive cooperation of architects and designers, landscape architects and urban planners, educators, artists and play equipment manufacturers.

This illustrated volume is dedicated to today's "kidscapes", presenting the most innovative international concepts and current trends. The projects that were carefully selected for this volume all have one thing in common – they offer fantasy worlds and play oases that combine the highest levels of aesthetics and design, play, adventure and safety to provide children with room to unfold their creativity and share it with others.

 - Play Ship Playground in Herford, Germany (Zimmer.Obst Playground Design)
 - Vondelpark Towers in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Carve)
 - Crater Lake in Kobe, Japan (24° Studio)
 - Darling Quarter in Sydney, Australia (Aspect Studios)
 - Safe Zone in Grand-Métis, Canada (Stoss Landscape Urbanism)

Travel has become an integral part of modern life and the geographic setting in which travellers find themselves is constantly changing. To be far from home is at once an adventure and a necessary thing, and as such the expectations placed in the hostelries where travellers spend much of their time rise. Neither their otherness nor their individuality should be a barrier to travellers feeling at home in the foreign environment.

The establishments presented here measure up to these expectations in their own unique ways. The conceptualization and location of the hotels and the visions of developers or architects have resulted in places of character that reject ordinariness without sacrificing comfort and a sense of well being on the part of the guest. In this way, the hotel becomes the pioneer in the evolution of modern residential experiences.

Following the formula of earlier theme publications – Countryside Hotels, Designed Spaces, Historical Ties, Luxury Residences, Mountain Pastime, Urban Hideouts and Wellness Islands – this volume presents more than fifty luxury hotels, all of them remarkable examples of architecture and design. Detailed blueprint material and large photographs serve as dual invitations to readers to undertake a trip of their own to a foreign land.

The work environment is experiencing an upheaval – offices that com-bine personality, functionality and just the right atmosphere are currently in demand. To fulfill the demands of office design and construction, architects and interior designers have developed all kinds of ideas for places of business, setting new standards for corporate architecture.

The most recent volume of the series Architecture in Focus provides after a brief introduction, that gives an overview of the history of offices, a cross-section through the developments of ideas for the design both of office buildings as well as office spaces. The approximately 100 projects in Offices are presented with texts, facts, material descriptions, photos and plans and are structured according to trade sectors to which the different offices belong.

Landscape architecture today is a broad range of very different uses of free spaces: sometimes strict, sometimes playful, powerful or reserved, provocative or almost unnoticeable. The title reflects the aesthetic and also ecological effects of landscape architecture upon public spaces. The one thing all the landscape architects whose projects are in the book have in common is that they all create spaces for people. The title New Landscape Architecture that is published in the series Architecture in Focus presents a wide range of contemporary projects among these are landscape parks and horticultural shows, gardens and courtyards, squares and promenades, as well as open spaces for health, recreation and public life. The publication provides an overview of eighty ways of structuring and designing open spaces and illustrates these projects by means of texts, photographs, plans and drawings.