More than ever before, architecture at the beginning of the 21st century is changing and evolving at lightning speed. Appropriated, chewed up, mulled over, digested, contemplated, and contorted - gathering up along the way fashion, ecology, politics, and art - architectural concepts become veritable things unto themselves in the present tense. As astoundingly diverse as contemporary architecture is, most importantly it is a reflection of what's happening right now all over the world, in people's minds and in the global collective consciousness. The many faces of world architecture today make for a mind-expanding book. Here you'll find the most recent work of over 60 architects and firms, including familiar names such as O. Gehry, Meier, Ando, Foster, and Starck, as well as a host of newcomers sure to be the architecture-celebrities of future generations. Highlights include Jakob & MacFarlane's morphological Restaurant at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Diller & Scofidio's "Blur Building" proposal for the International Expo 2001 in Switzerland (an ovular structure suspended over a lake, encapsulated by a fine mist of water, creating the look of a cloud hovering over the lake), and Herzog & de Meuron's remarkable Tate Modern. Proving that contemporary architecture is not limited to physical building design, New York firm Asymptote's Guggenheim Virtual Museum is also included, a place where visitors can take a cyber-stroll through rooms that are designed to be "compelling spatial environments." Presented alphabetically by architect or firm, Architecture Now! can be used like a reference guide, with extensive photographs and illustrations, biographical and contact information for designers, and a careful selection of today's most influential architects. From the Publisher: Here are just a few of the projects that are featured in the new book: · A shelter for the needy made out of sandbags · "Nomadic Museum" made by Shigeru Ban out of shipping containers · A tree house in Germany · Extraordinary museums that will never be built in Lausanne and Guadalajara · New Museums that have been built by Gehry, Mansilla and Tuñón, or Richard Meier · BMW Central Building in Leipzig by Zaha Hadid · Allianz Arena by Herzog & de Meuron · Wedding Chapel in Japan · Design hotels in Berlin and Saõ Paulo or Cerro Paranal, Chile · Library in Seattle by Rem Koolhaas/OMA · Houses in Mexico City, Saõ Paulo, Corsica, Hiroshima, or Great Mackerel Beach, Australia · Spoon des Neiges by Patrick Jouin · A tower that will grow like a tree in New York · With-it architects like David Adjaye, Caramel, Graftlab, Jakob +MacFarlane, Asymptote or Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis · Artists who take on architectural space like Frank Stella or Bill Viola, or architects who are interested in art like Peter Eisenman · The E-House, architecture that is greener than green · From the Minimal (David Chipperfield and John Pawson) to the decidedly exotic (Longitude 131, Uluru-Kata National Park, Northern Territory, Australia)