Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains (Hardcover)
**Book listings on our website do not always reflect the current availability of books on our store shelves. Check a book's in-store availability above the "add to cart" button. Or to be certain that a book you've found on our website is also here on our shelves, feel free to call us at 615-953-2243**
Winner of the AIGA'S International Competition for Notable Graphic Design.
“It’s both an architecture and movie fan’s dream.” - Los Angeles Times
"Strikingly designed." - Publishers Weekly
“Explores the cinematic tradition of antiheroes with architecturally significant private spaces." - Architectural Digest
“A fascinating gift for that highbrow nerd in your life.” - Syfy Wire
Why do bad guys live in good houses? From Atlantis in The Spy Who Loved Me to Nathan Bateman's ultra-modern abode in Ex Machina, big-screen villains often live in architectural splendor. From a design standpoint, the villain’s lair, as popularized in many of our favorite movies, is a stunning, sophisticated, envy-inducing expression of the warped drives and desires of its occupant. Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains, celebrates and considers several iconic villains’ lairs from recent film history.
From futuristic fantasies to deathtrap-laden hives, from dwellings in space to those under the sea, pop culture and architecture join forces in these outlandish, primarily modern homes and in Lair, which features buildings from fifteen films, including:
Edited by acclaimed architect Chad Oppenheim with Andrea Gollin, Lair includes interviews with production designers and other industry professionals such as Ralph Eggleston, Richard Donner, Roger Christian, David Scheunemann, Gregg Henry, and Mark Digby. Contributors include director Michael Mann, cultural critic Christopher Frayling, museum director Joseph Rosa, and architect Amy Murphy. Architectural illustrations and renderings by Carlos Fueyo provide multiple in-depth views of these spaces.
“It’s both an architecture and movie fan’s dream.” - Los Angeles Times
"Strikingly designed." - Publishers Weekly
“Explores the cinematic tradition of antiheroes with architecturally significant private spaces." - Architectural Digest
“A fascinating gift for that highbrow nerd in your life.” - Syfy Wire
Why do bad guys live in good houses? From Atlantis in The Spy Who Loved Me to Nathan Bateman's ultra-modern abode in Ex Machina, big-screen villains often live in architectural splendor. From a design standpoint, the villain’s lair, as popularized in many of our favorite movies, is a stunning, sophisticated, envy-inducing expression of the warped drives and desires of its occupant. Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains, celebrates and considers several iconic villains’ lairs from recent film history.
From futuristic fantasies to deathtrap-laden hives, from dwellings in space to those under the sea, pop culture and architecture join forces in these outlandish, primarily modern homes and in Lair, which features buildings from fifteen films, including:
- Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Star Wars
- The Incredibles
- Blade Runner 2049
- You Only Live Twice
- The Ghost Writer
- Body Double
- North by Northwest
Edited by acclaimed architect Chad Oppenheim with Andrea Gollin, Lair includes interviews with production designers and other industry professionals such as Ralph Eggleston, Richard Donner, Roger Christian, David Scheunemann, Gregg Henry, and Mark Digby. Contributors include director Michael Mann, cultural critic Christopher Frayling, museum director Joseph Rosa, and architect Amy Murphy. Architectural illustrations and renderings by Carlos Fueyo provide multiple in-depth views of these spaces.
Chad Oppenheim is a Miami-based architect whose work has been praised for its ability to transform the prosaic into the poetic. A graduate of Cornell University and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Oppenheim has lectured widely and has taught at several architecture schools, including Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In 1999, he founded Oppenheim Architecture (Miami, Basel, New York), which has garnered global recognition for large-scale urban architecture, hotels and resorts, private residences, interiors, and furnishings.
“It’s both an architecture and movie fan’s dream.”
— Los Angeles Times
“Lair…dissects 15 fictional evildoers’ quarters from the 1950s to the present. Bad guys seem to feel most powerful and secure while burrowed into island caverns or perched on cliffs.”
— New York Times
“Strikingly designed.”
— Publishers Weekly
“For the movie buff and design aficionado, Lair offers an unforgettable tour of top-secret retreats of exceptional taste.”
— Shelf Awareness
“Explores the cinematic tradition of antiheroes with architecturally significant private spaces."
— Architectural Digest
“This handsome tome…takes the architectural high road in looking at some of cinema’s grandest lairs.”
— The Hollywood Reporter
“The volume explores the beauty in the bad and asks a simple question: who wouldn’t want to live—or even spend a night—in places like these?”
— Elle Décor Switzerland
“A long overdue interrogation of the architecture of movie villainy.”
— Metropolis
“Movie villains…they’re just like us.”
— Urban Daddy
“A fascinating gift for that highbrow nerd in your life.”
— Syfy Wire
“Architecturally speaking, how feasible would it be to build an evil headquarters inside a volcano?”
— Hunker
“Futuristic, and utopian architecture has long been associated with amorality.”
— CNN Style
“An intellectual look at the genre of architectural villainy.”
— Curbed
“A critically and visually compelling work.”
— designboom
The 10 Books That Got Us through the Madness: "From futuristic fantasies to deathtrap-laden hives, the book revisits dangerous dens from 15 films . . . all of which receive Carlos Fueyo’s striking black-and-white illustrative treatment. As the pandemic has almost everyone doom scrolling and Netflix binging, these envy-inducing environs offered momentary delusions of grandeur."
— Surface
“World domination never looked so good.”
— Dwell
"Perfectly tailored for enjoying the finer points of what winter holidays are about . . . Chad Oppenheim’s Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains celebrates and explores the architecture of evil by examining the designs of bad-guy bases from 15 iconic films."
— Canadian Interiors 2020 Gift Guide
— Los Angeles Times
“Lair…dissects 15 fictional evildoers’ quarters from the 1950s to the present. Bad guys seem to feel most powerful and secure while burrowed into island caverns or perched on cliffs.”
— New York Times
“Strikingly designed.”
— Publishers Weekly
“For the movie buff and design aficionado, Lair offers an unforgettable tour of top-secret retreats of exceptional taste.”
— Shelf Awareness
“Explores the cinematic tradition of antiheroes with architecturally significant private spaces."
— Architectural Digest
“This handsome tome…takes the architectural high road in looking at some of cinema’s grandest lairs.”
— The Hollywood Reporter
“The volume explores the beauty in the bad and asks a simple question: who wouldn’t want to live—or even spend a night—in places like these?”
— Elle Décor Switzerland
“A long overdue interrogation of the architecture of movie villainy.”
— Metropolis
“Movie villains…they’re just like us.”
— Urban Daddy
“A fascinating gift for that highbrow nerd in your life.”
— Syfy Wire
“Architecturally speaking, how feasible would it be to build an evil headquarters inside a volcano?”
— Hunker
“Futuristic, and utopian architecture has long been associated with amorality.”
— CNN Style
“An intellectual look at the genre of architectural villainy.”
— Curbed
“A critically and visually compelling work.”
— designboom
The 10 Books That Got Us through the Madness: "From futuristic fantasies to deathtrap-laden hives, the book revisits dangerous dens from 15 films . . . all of which receive Carlos Fueyo’s striking black-and-white illustrative treatment. As the pandemic has almost everyone doom scrolling and Netflix binging, these envy-inducing environs offered momentary delusions of grandeur."
— Surface
“World domination never looked so good.”
— Dwell
"Perfectly tailored for enjoying the finer points of what winter holidays are about . . . Chad Oppenheim’s Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains celebrates and explores the architecture of evil by examining the designs of bad-guy bases from 15 iconic films."
— Canadian Interiors 2020 Gift Guide