From a reused church in Texas to a restaurant in the Wisconsin wilderness, a recent book shows the breadth of architecture happening in small towns and remote locations across the United States.

Out There: New Architecture Across America showcases 50 architecture firms working away from the main American metropoles, illustrating the breadth of work happening across the United States.

Edited by scholars Robert Ivy, Cathleen McGuigan and Peter B MacKeith, it traces the unique, regional methods being deployed by architecture studios in the country they see as rapidly homogenising.

"Each of the 50 firms chosen for Out There came from the recommendations of distinguished architects, critics and our writing team," the editors told Dezeen.

"We sought design excellence, within a wide variety of contexts, places and building typologies – mostly located in the so-called 'flyover states' between the two coasts."

Rather than producing simple vernacular or traditional forms, the architecture studios in the book focus on innovation and material usage. And the editors believe that a high degree of collaboration also guides the practices featured in the book.

"Remote locations no longer limit an architect's ability to meet, collaborate, or share with their peers," the editors said.

Read on for eight projects defining US architecture between the coasts.

St Thomas Housing, by the Office of Jonathan Tate, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2017

"When is a housing complex also a new kind of block?

"Jonathan Tate combined a cluster of 10 single-story residences and one double unit into a sculptural urban wonder for New Orleans's Irish Channel neighborhood."

Big Cabin/Little Cabin, by Renée del Gaudio Architecture, Fairplay, Colorado, 2017

"Having experienced an epiphany on first seeing the Rockies, Renée del Gaudio determined to intervene with great care into their immensity."

"At Big Cabin/Little Cabin, she has perched a skillfully detailed main residence and an auxiliary sleeping structure up above a rocky outcropping, opening them up to the wildness that first attracted the architect to Colorado from the East Coast."

Alone House, by Bright Common, Philadelphia, Pennslyvania, 2018

"A twist on the city's row houses, the brightly-colored corner house has thick, double-stud exterior walls for energy efficiency and buffering urban sounds, with small street-facing windows."

"However, it opens up to light and air in the back."

All Saints Church, by Cunningham Architects, Dallas, Texas, 2019

"Creative reuse of pre-existing structures holds a key to a more sustainable future.

"Cunningham Architects took the radical step of re-envisioning a derelict 1920s automobile showroom near downtown Dallas into a worship center for an Anglican church, an action that points a new way forward while imbuing a new generation's consciousness with the textures and memories of the past."

Gallery and Studio, by Johnsen Schmaling Architects, Racine, Wisconsin, 2019

"Even at a small scale, good architecture can have a big impact, as these Milwaukee-based architects demonstrated in their design for a crisp new building in a moribund neighborhood of a fading small city."

"When the glass-fronted art gallery, showing the work of regional artists, opened on a street corner (with an artist's studio above), nearby buildings began to be revived and attract new businesses again."

Wild Rice Retreat, by Salmela Architect, Bayfield, Wisconsin, 2021

"What began as a destination restaurant in the wilds of Wisconsin beside Lake Superior has grown."

"Architect David Salmela drew on his inner Finn – he is an American of Finnish heritage – and flung thirty-five cabins including Rice Pods, Nests, Treehouses and communal spaces through the trees out across a new retreat center that nestles and gathers its visitors."

The Springdale Municipal Campus, by Duvall Decker Architects, Springdale, Arkansas, 2023

"Duvall Decker Architects is this year's AIA Architecture Firm Award winner."

"The Springdale Municipal Campus is a model for a contemporary civic center, bringing together police, courts and civic functions into one complex, with a strong exterior presence and light-filled interior public spaces."

Starlight Park Facilities, by Gray Organschi Architecture, the Bronx, New York, 2023

"Few public projects are as humble as restrooms."

"However in Starlight Park, the architects brought dignity to the design of this park-side amenity, with its distinctive form, skylit spaces, splashes of color and a garden irrigated by rainwater."