Warm, inviting, embracing the indoor-outdoor lifestyle with a touch of the exotic, tropical modern homes are a dream of paradise realized.

Contemporary tropical residential architecture has risen from a geographically specific homegrown aesthetic to a source of inspiration for the world's great modern architects and designers. Set in exotic locales, with pools, lush foliage, colorful gardens, these homes define a way of life. Frequently elegant and uncluttered, the houses serve as models of smart and beautiful design with lots of ideas for homeowners who do not necessarily live in a tropical or subtropical climate, but who wish to have something of that appeal and sensitivity in their own home.

This book presents some of the most innovative interpretations of the genre from the past five years by internationally recognized architects and interior decorators, such as Tadao Ando, as well the work of young up-and-comers of great talent, including German-born, Bali-based Alexis Dornier, and Mexico's Roof Arquitectos. Selected residences span the globe, from the southern United States, the Caribbean, and tropical regions of Latin America, to Southeast Asia, northern Australasia, and Africa. Modern Tropical explores the exotic material, color, cultural, environmental, and aesthetic choices of some of contemporary architecture's most beautiful residential properties. Each house is introduced with breathtaking interior and exterior photography and orientation plans, giving readers an in-depth glimpse of the rapidly evolving symbiosis between nature and shelter, indoor and outdoor, and rustic and polished, in a definitive examination of tropical modern living.