The Fantastic Seashell of the Mind: The Architecture of Mark Mills (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781939621399)

Mark Mills was a visionary architect, a Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice whose innovative designs grow beyond Wright's work to uniquely blend structural principles and the organic forms of seashells.

When he heard Wright say that seashells are Nature's perfect architecture, Mark made that idea the foundation of his life's work. As seashells change their forms to meet the needs of their inhabitants, so Mark adapted structural roof systems to shelter his clients, and he made them spectacularly beautiful. If the sky is Nature's umbrella above us, Mills's ceilings were the umbrella over his clients' lives in their homes. The ceiling revealed the skeleton of the building, exposed, visible from every part of the interior, since the interior walls were partitions that did not interrupt the view of the ceiling system. He used to joke (joking but not kidding) that he put so much thought and care into his roofs because the clients couldn't hang their knick-knacks on it and wreck its design.

From any place within Mark's houses, there is a sense of being under the entire shell of the roof. We may be in the living room, but we are also in the entire house at all times. They are, for him, shells for humans.

The Fantastic Seashells of the Mind, winner of the IPPY silver medal in Architecture and the PubWest Book Design silver medal award for adult trade books - Illustrated, is thoughtfully illustrated and brings together Mark Mills's own thinking behind his houses along with the insights of his wife, colleagues, and original clients and owners of Mark Mills houses. It is written to appeal to both architects and a general readership.

Author: Janey Bennett
ISBN-10: 1939621399
ISBN-13: 9781939621399
Publisher: Oro Editions
Language: English
Published: 08/01/2017
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.35lbs
Size: 10.90h x 7.00w x 1.00d