The branch of a sycamore grows through the opening of a wall in a Manhattan studio. A pool-house on Long Island becomes a sod-roofed tea house. An 18th Century farmhouse in Pennsylvania expands to echo the path of a meandering stream. Such are the measured designs of Phillip Smith and Douglas Thompson whose work stands out as an oasis of calm in an age of information overload. Their sources of inspiration vary widely from early European modernism to the stilted kampongs of Malaysia. Qualities of Duration is the first book to chronicle this firm's complete body of work with 350 stunning illustrations and a thought provoking text by architectural historian Alastair Gordon.