Question: when is a house not a house? Answer: when it's designed organically. For then it is more than a house, says David Pearson in his book New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave (University of California Press, $60, £40 (hbk); $35, £24.95 (pbk)) — it is “an organism, an indivisible whole, and humans are seen as part of nature, not above her”. The 'organism' shown here overlooks the ocean, and its flowing motifs are meant to reflect the sea's proximity.