Architecture books often rely on controlled images and polished interiors that present buildings as finished objects. Dream in Progress, the latest publication by URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR, proposes a different perspective. The book focuses on transformation, experimentation, and the creative decisions that shape architecture over time. Across 210 pages, the volume presents sixteen hotels and holiday houses throughout Europe, each chosen for its architectural clarity and for the story of change that produced it.
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URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR has built a strong reputation since its founding in 2007 as a curated platform dedicated to architecturally significant holiday accommodation. The organization selects projects based on spatial concept, architectural quality, and the ability of a place to offer a distinctive experience of travel. Dream in Progress extends that mission into book form. Instead of grouping projects through typology or geography, the publication examines how buildings evolve, how overlooked structures acquire new meaning, and how architectural ideas mature during the design process.
The projects featured in the book illustrate this theme through a diverse range of contexts. Trevarefabrikken on Norway’s Lofoten Islands stands out as a raw cultural landmark that transformed a former industrial site into a hybrid destination for music, hospitality, and design. In Tuscany, Colle ai Lecci near Siena presents a retreat shaped through a careful relationship with landscape and material. The El Paso hotel on the Canary island of La Palma carries a connection to music culture through its founder, a former Universal Music chairman, while Fowlescombe Farm in the Dartmoor landscape introduces a distinctive interpretation of rural hospitality through architectural intervention.
Many of the projects share a common origin. Former farmhouses, industrial buildings, and overlooked structures reappear here as contemporary retreats. The book presents these transformations as active architectural narratives rather than static results. Readers encounter buildings that grew through intuition, collaboration, and experimentation. The emphasis on process gives the projects a sense of life, suggesting that architecture continues to evolve long after construction ends.
The structure of the book reinforces this perspective. Dream in Progress encourages readers to explore intuitively, moving freely between projects instead of following a rigid sequence. Color threads appear throughout the layout, guiding the reader across pages and linking buildings through visual connections. This approach reflects the editorial concept that architecture emerges through layers of decision-making and discovery.
The publication also expands the format of an architectural monograph through its collaboration with artist Jana Gunstheimer. Her screen print titled Lost in Transformation accompanies the book as a limited edition artwork produced in Berlin. Elements of the artwork appear on the cover, which exists in eight different embossed and screen-printed variations. This collaboration introduces an additional dimension to the publication, where graphic design, art, and editorial content interact as parts of the same creative project.
Britta Krämer led the project while Bucharchitektur and Kathrin Schmuck developed the graphic design and art direction. Their work gives the book a tactile quality that reflects the editorial theme. Thread binding, large-format pages, and strong color compositions encourage the reader to experience the publication as an object rather than a neutral container for images.
Dream in Progress continues the series of architecture books produced by URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR, yet it shifts the focus toward transformation and optimism within contemporary design culture. The selected hotels and holiday houses demonstrate how architecture shapes the experience of travel by creating environments that carry identity and atmosphere.
For architects, designers, and readers interested in spatial narratives, the book offers an engaging study of how buildings change through time. Each project reveals how architectural ideas grow through risk, experimentation, and creative trust. The publication ultimately suggests that the most compelling architecture rarely arrives as a finished image. It emerges gradually through the process of making, adapting, and imagining new possibilities for existing places.
