Book excerpt: In this sumptuously illustrated volume, architect Jean-Claude Delorme explores ten exceptional houses constructed by the precursors and pioneers of twentieth-century architecture. Each of these extraordinary residences is utterly unique and affirms the strong individual vision of its creator. Ranging from the iconoclastic house Sir John Soane built for himself in London in the 1790s to the austere yet dramatic villa Adalberto Libera constructed for writer Curzio Malaparte atop a rocky spur on Capri in the 1930s, Architects' Dream Houses tells the compelling stories of these dwellings, of the visionaries who conceived them, and of the shifting aesthetic environment in which they were built.