The buildings selected for this book have little in common-they come from different cities across the globe and represent the work of some of the world's most accomplished architects, who often have vastly different outlooks, each radically defying convention and producing innovative alternatives for residential spaces.

Each project is profiled with images of the completed construction, reproductions of the layouts and floorplans, and a description of how the design came to be. Some architects highlight the obstacles inherent in working with a particular site, while others discuss how the clients and their lifestyles were the chief elements around which they designed the house. Each profile demonstrates what makes the project unique and what source provided the impetus or inspiration for designing the house in that particular way. All these houses defy expectations and explode the notion of what "experimental" means in residential architecture.