10 x 10 - Aaron Betsky

10 x 10 is a kaleidoscopic view of new architecture in the world today. 100 emerging architects have been selected by 10 leading international architecture curators and critics. Each critic has also selected and listed 10 cultural references - including designed objects, books, films, themes, and movements - to reveal a dynamic range of influences in today's design environment.

The book is unique in architectural publishing and provides a truly global view of the most imaginative and important architects not only of today but also of the future. This monumental book is itself architecturally designed, with a plastic lenticular three-dimensional cover and an innovative shifting grid page design, which packs in over 1,500 striking images in 468 pages. The absorbing tome is presented alphabetically by architect in a dynamically direct A-Z format that results in arresting sequences with the turn of each page, making 10 x 10 an invigorating examination of contemporary architecture and culture.

The book features over 250 buildings and projects dating from 1990 to the present. These consist of recently-built works, as well as projects currently under construction. 10 x 10 journeys around the globe from multi-million dollar schemes such as the Yokohama International Port Terminal in Japan by Foreign Office Architects; through projects such as the tiny timber summer house in Risr, Norway designed by Carl-Viggo Hlmebakk; to the digital world of the Guggenheim Virtual Museum by Asymptote Architecture.

From traditional to conceptual, this book mirrors the immensely diverse factors that form and fuel architectural practice and experimentation, to illustrate the most innovative responses to changing technologies and social conditions. Encompassing environmental, industrial, urban, technological, and virtual dimensions, 10 x 10 showcases an abundance of homes, workplaces, religious centres, and places of entertainment.

This is a vigorous battlefield of architectural ideas: each critic has been specially commissioned to write an essay supporting their selection of architects, in some cases challenging the selections of other critics, and also giving their own view on contemporary trends in architecture.

10 x 10 is not only an essential source book, but the ultimate design object celebrating the architectural future.