Artifice Press

Artifice Press Artifice Press propels new thinking in architecture, urbanism, and design. Part of

Artifice Press propels new thinking in architecture, urbanism and design.

Set against the stark landscape of Dungeness, Britain’s only desert, Pobble House draws its character directly from its ...
20/08/2025

Set against the stark landscape of Dungeness, Britain’s only desert, Pobble House draws its character directly from its surroundings.

Built from corten steel, larch and concrete, the house echoes the rusting boats, weathered woods, and industrial relics that define this extraordinary coastline. Less a building imposed on the land, it feels instead like a structure shaped by the desert itself.

Featured in From Now On, published by Artifice Press.

Ahm House, Hertfordshire — A Scandinavian Vision in the English CountrysideCreated from an initial design by Danish arch...
15/08/2025

Ahm House, Hertfordshire — A Scandinavian Vision in the English Countryside

Created from an initial design by Danish architect Jørn Utzon (who never visited the site) and brought to life in collaboration with civil engineer Povl Ahm, this house reflects the same care and precision that defined their work on the Sydney Opera House.

A long, low pavilion of yellow London brick, bold structural precast beams, and meticulous details, from teak fittings to white Swedish Höganäs floor tiles extending onto the terrace —bring harmony between interior and exterior. Together with his wife Birgit, Ahm filled the home with furniture and objects celebrating Danish heritage.

Completed in 1962, with a sympathetic 1974 addition by Ulrik Plesner, Ahm House remains a hidden gem in Hertfordshire, a testament to thoughtful design and collaboration between architect and engineer.

“It’s a fallacy that libraries are going away… They’re places to see and be with your neighbors.” Completed in 2020 by J...
13/08/2025

“It’s a fallacy that libraries are going away… They’re places to see and be with your neighbors.”

Completed in 2020 by Johnson Favaro, the 22,500 sq ft Donald Dungan Library transformed Costa Mesa’s Lions Park by consolidating facilities and unlocking an extra acre of public space. Inspired by Spanish Colonial and mid-century modern architecture, its luminous concrete plaster curves frame sweeping park views, while the park itself now functions as an outdoor extension for book fairs, film screenings, and community events — turning a once-derelict space into a vibrant civic anchor.

📚 Libraries are more than buildings — they’re spaces where young voices are nurtured, ideas are exchanged, and futures t...
12/08/2025

📚 Libraries are more than buildings — they’re spaces where young voices are nurtured, ideas are exchanged, and futures take shape.

Reading Room: New and Reimagined Libraries of the American West celebrates the enduring role of libraries as hubs of community, creativity, and knowledge — reminding us on International Youth Day of the importance of access to stories, learning, and shared spaces.

09/08/2025

Happy Book Lovers Day 📚
We asked AI to reimagine some of our book covers - and the results are ... definitely something.
Here’s what happens when you let a machine judge a book by its cover.

In 2014, photographer Lee Mawdsley was granted rare access to the BBC’s former Television Centre site just weeks before ...
07/08/2025

In 2014, photographer Lee Mawdsley was granted rare access to the BBC’s former Television Centre site just weeks before demolition began. What he captured was a space in limbo: vacant, echoing with history, and waiting to be reimagined.

This image is part of Thinking Outside the Box Artifice Press , where before-and-after diptychs explore the poetic tension between past and present, structure and reinvention.

Where play meets place in Kuala Lumpur.This semi-detached family home, featured in Essence of Place: Making Local Archit...
01/08/2025

Where play meets place in Kuala Lumpur.

This semi-detached family home, featured in Essence of Place: Making Local Architecture by Eleena Jamil, reimagines suburban living with an organic extension, circular courtyard, and even a metal slide for the children.

Stripped back to its bare concrete, exposed brick, and open structure, the remodel balances light, air, and playful design — reflecting EJA’s commitment to rooting architecture in its local context and materials.

Discover more in Essence of Place, available now from Artifice Press: https://artificeonline.com/products/essence-of-place-design-for-the-tropics?_pos=1&_psq=esse&_ss=e&_v=1.0

This house is over 100 years old.Built in 1911, this weatherboard cottage on the edge of Hepburn Springs has been carefu...
25/07/2025

This house is over 100 years old.

Built in 1911, this weatherboard cottage on the edge of Hepburn Springs has been carefully extended by Branch Studio Architects, preserving its history while anchoring it more deeply in place.

Originally home to local icon “Auntie T” for 75 years, the house is now reimagined with new living spaces, a master suite, and materials that respond to the bushland around it.

This excerpt is from Consolidation, published by Artifice Press — a title exploring contemporary architecture with depth, restraint, and context.

Discover more projects like this and get your copy here:
artificeonline.com/products/consolidation

Written in the wake of a transatlantic relocation and global uncertainty, Cocoon House is a meditative, formally precise...
23/07/2025

Written in the wake of a transatlantic relocation and global uncertainty, Cocoon House is a meditative, formally precise exploration of domesticity, dislocation, and the poetics of shelter. Through prose poems, sonnets, and notebook fragments, Edwards traces the quiet architecture of interior life — how we build, inhabit, and abandon both physical and emotional spaces.

Published in partnership with Autumn House Press.

Available now on https://artificeonline.com/products/cocoon-house?_pos=1&_psq=cocoo&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Doomscrolling got you feeling... disconnected?We get it. But not everything has to be disposable.As part of the SJH Grou...
22/07/2025

Doomscrolling got you feeling... disconnected?

We get it. But not everything has to be disposable.

As part of the SJH Group, we publish books worth slowing down for.

Art, culture, history, design — made to last, not to fade.

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About us

Artifice is an independent publishing house based in London that makes books about architecture, urbanism, and design. We work with an international selection of independent studios, larger firms, scholars, and institutions within a start-to-finish collaborative module to produce high quality books that transcend disciplinary constraints to address 21st century architecture's most topical concerns, including: urbanism and the landscape, environmental and ecological concerns, the arts and culture, as well as science, education, and technology.

We take pride in the accessibility of our books in the publishing trade, stocking our titles at not only general interest bookshops like Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and Foyles, but also specialist shops like Artwords, Rizzoli, Walther Koenig, and The Strand, as well as museums, institutions, and universities like the Louvre, MoMA, Serpentine, the New Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, Tate Modern and Britain, and the Whitechapel Gallery; the AA, RIBA, and more.

If you're interested in the idea of working on a book together, or if you'd like to know more, get in touch with [email protected]

Artifice is now part of the SJH Group. For more information please visit www.stjamess.org