Holiday Homes

Interior design writer Niesewand (coauthor of Conran's Creative Home Design) offers less a practical guide than a vicarious tour of luxurious, eclectic international holiday getaways. Her advice on second-homeowning is general, and the brief chapter introductions innumerating the virtues of a given locale (countryside, seaside, mountainside and waterfront) are fluffy and conventional. Similarly self-evident are tips on buying and letting property abroad. Nonetheless, the houses themselves, triumphs of design and renovation, superbly photographed and smoothly described, are well worth a look by anyone with a penchant for architecture. Exotic countryside dwellings are brilliant examples of environmentally integrated structure: i.e., the stark, primitive appeal of a Catalan farmhouse is tempered by tranquil, sky-blue-washed walls. Among the geometric, postmodern seaside homes, the spanning porticos of a dome-shaped Mediterranean villa reverberate in a symphony of water and light. (September)