Book excerpt: Dirk Denison reflects on the diverse influences that have shaped his practice over 30 years in a volume featuring 10 remarkable houses designed in a broad range of modernist vocabularies ? each finely tuned to its site and occupants. Taking the form of an in-depth conversation between architect and educator Dirk Denison and journalist Fred A. Bernstein, this volume chronicles Denison?s childhood in Detroit, travels and early encounters with the arts and architecture, and his education at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. For design professionals and students of architecture, 'Dirk Denison 10 Houses' draws attention to the manifold ways in which life experiences at all scales nurture and shape a career in the field, but the book is an engaging read for anyone interested in the gratifying process of building one?s own home.