What a resource this is! For real estate junkies, architecture buffs, blowhards, sightseeing completists, competitive trivia game players— really, everyone—this 824-page, 14.5-lb. monster of an atlas is the definitive, slightly aggressive, gift. Superceding Phaidon’s four-year-old Contemporary World Architecture atlas, its Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture includes 1,020 buildings by 656 architects in 75 countries on 5 continents. From private residences, such as Procter-Rihl’s cool, skinny Slice House in Porto Alegre, Brazil, with its glass-walled interior swimming pool, to huge public works like Grimshaw’s undulating Southern Cross Station in Melbourne, it’s got it all—at least until the next great building goes up.

"Everyhouse" originally appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of Culture+Travel. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Culture+Travel's Fall 2008 Table of Contents.