Contemporary World Interiors

Contemporary World Architecture, Contemporary World Interiors is a thorough survey of the current state of international interior design, presenting some 450 projects around the world completed within the past 25 years. Organized into 11 chapters by building type, the book goes far beyond the traditional emphasis on residences and commercial spaces to include religious interiors, performance halls and cultural centers, civic spaces, restaurants, and hospitals and therapeutic spaces, among others.

Rather than simply charting passing trends, author Susan Yelavich, a veteran New York-based curator and critic, describes projects by famous designers and promising newcomers alike, in countries as far-ranging as Russia, China, Israel, Chile, and South Korea, as well as more familiar locales in Europe, Japan, and North America. More than 1000 color photographs and plans illustrates the book, all reproduced at a generous format.

Within the chapters, readers will find familiar names and places, such as the Tate Modern in London by Herzog & de Meuron; the New German Parliament in Berlin, by Foster & Partners; and Moonsoon restaurant in Japan, by Zaha Hadid; as well as new discoveries, such as the Psychiatrist Hospital in Zeeland, the Netherlands, by the Dutch firm Mecanoo; the Korean Presbyterian Church in New York, by Greg Lynn; and the Joyce Department Store in Taipei, by the New York firm Tsao & McKown.


The most comprehensive global survey available of interior architecture and design projects of the last 25 years
Vast in scope, featuring more than 450 projects and the work of more than 400 designers and architects, including such world-renowned figures as John Pawson, Philippe Starck, Marcel Wanders and Zaha Hadid and rising stars such as UdA, Atelier Bow-Wow and LOT-EK
Documents a wide range of styles and tendencies, from the clean white modernism of Richard Meier's houses and museums to the organicism of the Soft and Hairy House in Japan, by Ushida/Findlay, to a new sense of transparency in projects such as Foster & Partners' New German Parliament in Berlin


Susan Yelavich is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design Studies at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, and a freelance writer and curator specializing in architecture and design. From 1994 to 2002, she was the Assistant Director for Public Programs at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, where she produced 50 exhibitions and 16 publications. Yelavich is the author of numerous articles and books, including Design for Life, Pentagram/Profile (Phaidon, 2004), and The Edge of the Millennium: An International Critique of Architecture, for which she was awarded a 1997 Federal Design Achievement award.