Big Shed

A brilliantly illustrated survey of the colossal and highly engineered structures that have become landmarks around the world.

Exhibition centers and sports arenas, factories and warehouses, airports and railway stations, modern museums and concert halls—Big Sheds are at the heart of the modern world. Yet despite their ubiquity and the challenges they present to architects, the story of this branch of architecture has not been told.

This book features work by leading architects such as Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel, Daniel Libeskind, and Toyo Ito in a geographically diverse set of locations and settings. From the urban demands of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to the heroic engineering of Kansai Airport in Japan, each of these monumental buildings tests the ingenuity of architects and engineers.

Following an introduction to the origins of the Big Shed in nineteenth-century greenhouses and railway architecture, the book is organized into chapters according to the function of the building, ranging from the simplest Big Shed, the exhibition center, to modern museums and concert halls.

Featuring dramatic, specially commissioned photographs by Will Pryce plus detailed technical drawings, the book will inform, delight, and inspire architects, architectural students, and anyone who marvels at these feats of modern engineering. 300 illustrations, 250 in color.