Successful interiors tell stories - be they of an industrial loft, a luxury penthouse, or a grand old villa. When presented together, as in this book, they tell us much more besides, providing insights into how the world of the early 21st century chooses to live. What does a Zurich dining room look like? Or a bathroom in Niigata, Japan? How might a Miami art collector paint his bungalow''s walls? And what awaits you in a St. Petersburg apartment? We went inside a hundred homes around the globe and found answers that amazed, intrigued, and enchanted us.

The locations could hardly be more diverse - nor could the views. They range from the urban skyline seen from a Singapore tower block to the idyllic island landscape of rocks, pine trees, and water surrounding one family''s holiday home near Stockholm. Whatever the topography, the external environment inevitably influences the ambience inside. It''s with good reason, for example, that Sylvia Avontuur describes her windows overlooking Amsterdam''s docklands as the most important picture in her apartment. Just as crucial to the character of an interior is the era of its architecture.

From Instanbul via Paris to Barcelona, a great many of the spaces featured are in apartments dating from the late 19th century, whose occupats-cum-curators have breathed new life into old walls. Elsewhere, we find others taking similar care of Modernist houses built in the revolutionary spirit of the International Style. And then there are the contemporary homes, with all their clever technical innovations, designed to meet the specific needs of their owners -such as the riverside villa in Dresden of the house on stilts in Nagano. But whether their shells are historic or brand-new, interiors all over the world exhibit the effects of an aesthetic evolution that has been shaping our built world for over a hundred years.

Includes interiors in Argentina, Brazil, China, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, the USA, and many more countries.