Architect Max Strang, known for his luxurious subtropical modernist homes, has released the second monograph of his work, this time featuring how many of his designs have been inspired by the Sarasota School of Architecture. In the postwar era, the Sarasota School was an avant-garde architectural testbed in a small town on Florida’s gulf coast that melded the work of pioneering modernist and International Style architects with the realities of Florida’s warm, humid climate. Both the work of the Sarasota School and his own work explores that distinction and dichotomy between aesthetics and climate, celebrating the natural and built environments of Southern Florida. The Big Bubble also covered his first monograph when it was published in 2018. As the back cover of the impressively large book states:

The work of [STRANG] is beautifully explored in this robust monograph which highlights the firm’s site-specific and climate-driven designs. The ability to create stunning architectural designs while maintaining an acute awareness of the surrounding environment has come to define their work. Under the creative direction of Max Strang FAIA, the Miami-based firm continues to advance many of the timeless concepts set forth by the famed Sarasota School of Architecture. Strang’s early exposure to that mid-century modernism movement resulted in a deep respect for structures that are intimately connected to their surroundings as they celebrate the Florida climate.

This second monograph of Strang’s contains a collection of conceptual drawings, text, and professional photography that underscores the ongoing relevance and importance of regional modernist design. It is the architectural responses to site and climate that infuse the specific designs with character and identity, resulting in a uniquely Floridian version of modernism.