Loft Living - establishing domestic spaces in buildings once constructed for industrial use - is now a social and cultural phenomenon. From their origins as part of a subversive 1950s Manhattan scene, where the avant-garde art community colonized huge, light-filled former workshops, lofts have become a constituent part of the regeneration of run-down industrial areas in cities as diverse as New York, Barcelona, Helsinki, London, Munich, Paris and Sao Paulo. In design terms, lofts provide a unique opportunity to juxtapose daily needs with the remnants of a now obsolete industrial typology. The traces of a bygone age (steel columns, exposed brickwork and expanses of glazing) initiate a dramatic architectural experience often lacking in all but the best examples of contemporary design. This book inspects the social themes and design trends of the loft movement. Benefiting from full-color photographs and plans, as well as interviews with architects, developers and lofts dwellers from around the world, Lofts offers both a critical history and an intriguing visual record of this singular building type.