Josep Llinás

The seventeen projects generously illustrated in this book range from private dwellings to public institutions, and span both new construction and renovation. As a body of work, they depict an architecture that is intelligently attuned to context, and most particularly to the challenges of urban infill. In succinct narratives that accompany the project, Llinas outlines how he manipulates program and built form to make each building - and whatever fabric surrounds it - comprehensible to its users. Whether Llinas is operating on a "leftover" lot in the city or building in the open landscape, he strives to make sense of the site: creating a public space to conclude an urban axis in one location; deploying the volumes of his new construction to reconcile the disparate scales of neighboring buildings in another; using an inventive corner treatment to enliven a bleak street in a third. Llinas's versatile responses will be instructive for a diverse audience, including architects, urban designers, real estate entrepreneurs and students.