LIVING OVER THE STORE: Architecture and Local Urban Life

Description

The shop/house – the building combining commercial/retail uses and dwellings – appears over many periods of history in most cities in the world. This book combines architectural history, cross-cultural understandings and accounts of contemporary policy and building practice to provide a comprehensive account of this common but overlooked building.
The merchant’s house in northern European cities, the Asian shophouse, the apartment building on New York avenues, typical apartment buildings in Rome and in Paris – this variety of shop/houses along with the commonality of attributes that form them, mean that the hybrid phenomenon is as much a social and economic one as it is an architectural one.
Professionals, city officials and developers are taking a new look at buildings that allow for higher densities and mixed-use. Describing exemplary contemporary projects and issues pertaining to their implementation as well as the background, cultural variety and urban attributes, this book will benefit designers dealing with mixed-use buildings as well as academics and students.

CONTENTS

Preface. Introduction: A Quintessential Urban Building

Part 1: The Shop/House as a Global Phenomenon

• Shophouses of Asia
• The Shop in the Palazzo: Rome, Southern Europe and Beyond
• Merchants’ Houses of Northern and Western Europe
• From London to Main Street

Part 2: The Fabric of Everyday Life

• Living and Working in the City
• The Geography of Mixed Uses
• Adaptable Buildings and Flexible Economics
• The Architecture of Hybrid Types

Part 3: The Death and Life of the Modest Shop/House

• The Gradual Separation of Family and Business
• The Building Culture of the Divided City
• Toward a Resilient Urbanism

Conclusion: Hybrid Urban Practice

264 pages, color & b&w ills / 17,5 x 24 cm / English