The automobile has shaped the appearance of our streets for 100 years now. At the same building types have been created to serve it. Parking garages and gas stations as new species of architecture and showrooms whose exhibition spaces and display windows are markedly different from the usual businesses have decisively changed the cities. This book is dedicated to this type of architecture, showing esthetic and technical solutions of the past few years. Not a few architects have been unmistakable car freaks (Frank Lloyd Wright), or been occupied with the automobile (Le Corbusier: Maison Citrohan), or have actually designed cars (Walter Gropius for Adler). This fascination of the profession can also be seen in the architecture built for the automobile today.

Museums are some of the great architectural hallmarks of any place. Since the discovery of the Bilbao Effect, triggered at the end of the last century by the Frank O. Gehry's building, new museums have been emerging all over the world. The volume presents the most varied forms of exhibition buildings of the last decade and reveals their varied spatial and architectural concepts: from the white cube idea that exists chiefly to display the exhibit itself, to a flamboyant freestanding structure, which enriches the image of the city and involves the works in its dynamic spatial configuration. A broad diversity of museums is considered: museums of businesses and institutes, of technology and toys, of literature and architecture.

Street furniture is the secret star of urban outdoor design. Though rarely noticed at first glance, it significantly contributes towards the urban experience. Benches, fountains, street lamps, rubbish bins, post boxes, tourist information signs, bus stops as well as public toilets are items that reoccur in various urban spaces. Just like outstanding monuments and landmarks, they determine the identity of a square, street or town. This volume introduces 100 exceptional examples of contemporary street furniture, presenting both items that are one-of-a-kind as well as objects that are part of a product series.