Walls and Boxes

Spanning 25 projects in as many years, Walls and Boxes charts the remarkable commitment to Modernist design principles that characterise the practice of Guard Tillman Pollock Architects. Mark Guard, Steven Pollock and Keith Tillman present a body of residential work that combines contemporary technology with the ethos of the heroic period of Modern architecture. The practice builds contemporary homes that are full of space and light without compromising their function or form. This book chronicles the results, a transformable architecture of exceptional practicality and great beauty, with many bespoke details developed by the firm over the years. . Through a rich combination of photography, before-and-after plans, and axonometrics, Walls and Boxes illustrates 25 projects built between 1990 and 2015. Each demonstrates the application of the practice's rigorous design attitude to different building types, ranging from modest apartments to new-build houses. At a time when specialisation is being met with a general scepticism, Walls and Boxes presents a studio whose devotion to a particular aesthetic and sense of space shows an insight and building expertise that borders on the philosophical. The office's wealth of experience fuses British, North American and European training to bring about elegant residential projects on an international scale that are as functional as they are stylish. As much a nuanced exploration of Guard Tillman Pollock's practice as it is a powerful manifesto on the timeless principles of form, space and light, Walls and Boxes can be utilised as a guidebook into producing transformative residential spaces that resist the constraints and limitations so often imposed by twenty-first-century urban life. Walls and Boxes is about design for modern times, a book for anyone interested in both the creative process of architecture and in looking for new ways of improving the spaces we inhabit.