January’s Design Book List is filled with new and upcoming book releases on subjects such as architecture, engineering, landscape, textile and design movements.
Included in this month’s Design Book List are: “An Anthology of Decorated Papers: A Sourcebook for Designers,” “City Living: Apartment Houses by Robert A.M. Stern Architects,” “Country Parks,” “Christian Menn – Bridges,” “Wiener Werkstätte,” “Dream Houses on the Water” and “Textile Technology and Design: From Interior Space to Outer Space.”
“An Anthology of Decorated Papers: A Sourcebook for Designers”
“An Anthology of Decorated Papers: A Sourcebook for Designers” contains a collection of reproduced decorated papers alongside a researched history of this often-overlooked art form. Rich in ornamentation, decorated papers have been in use for centuries―as wrappers and endpapers for books, as the backing for playing cards, and even as linings for chests and cases. Yet despite the many contexts in which they can be found, they often go unnoticed. This new book not only showcases several hundred of the most exquisite examples of decorated paper but also provides a fascinating introduction to its history, traditions, and techniques.
Drawing on the Olga Hirsch collection at the British Library, one of the largest and most diverse collections of decorated papers in the world, this anthology will educate and inspire designers, bibliophiles, and anyone with a love of pattern and decoration. Includes 256 illustrations.
BASIC FACTS: “An Anthology of Decorated Papers: A Sourcebook for Designers” is written by P.J.M. Marks. Published by Thames & Hudson. Release Date: January 11, 2016. Hardcover; 256 pages; $60.00.
“City Living: Apartment Houses by Robert A.M. Stern Architects”
In “City Living,” Paul L. Whalen, Daniel Lobitz, and Michael D. Jones, partners at Robert A.M. Stern Architects, present sixteen completed apartment complexes and a portfolio of sixteen further projects in progress in New York and major cities across the United States and in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Over the past fifteen years, the high-rise residential apartment house has emerged as the focus of contemporary architectural practice, challenging the commercial office building for pride of place on city skylines around the world. Drawing on the rich heritage of apartment house design in New York City from the 1920s and 1930s, the RAMSA partners bring a unique perspective to this building type. These designs extend the classical tradition while inflecting toward the simplicity and abstraction of modernism.
BASIC FACTS: “City Living: Apartment Houses by Robert A.M. Stern Architects is written by Robert A. M. Stern, Paul L. Whalen, Daniel Lobitz and Michael D. Jones. Published by The Monacelli Press. Release Date: January 12, 2016. Hardcover; 360 pages; $75.00.
“Country Parks”
Traditional country parks, which originated in the United Kingdom, are very different to the country parks we know today. With the development of urbanization and the improvement of living standards, city dwellers were no longer satisfied with small urban green spaces, and a new style of country park was born. Conveniently located in the outer city suburbs, with tranquil, natural environments, this new type of park met society's desire to return to nature, and these spaces have since become hotspots for tourism and leisure.
“Country Parks” includes detailed theory and case studies showcasing outstanding international country park design; analyzes and promotes the current status and development of the country park and its role in urban development; and provides valuable guidance for professional designers working in the field today.
BASIC FACTS: “Country Parks” is written by Luis Paulo Faria Ribeiro. Published by Images Publishing Dist. Ac. Release Date: January 12, 2016. Hardcover; 240 pages; $49.95.
“Christian Menn – Bridges”
Christian Menn is a renowned structural engineer, he is known in particular for his remarkable bridges, such as the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Boston. This book is the first to document Menn’s work in detail, alongside his vision, philosophy, and thinking on design and engineering.
Presenting around thirty of his designs—both built and un-built—via full-color photographs, plans, and drawings, the book celebrates Menn’s creative solutions to challenging engineering problems and his constant rethinking of the fundamentals of his profession. Menn’s own writings on his work are accompanied by essays from fellow engineer David P. Billington, scholar Werner Oechslin, writer Iso Camartin, and others, all of whom offer different takes on Menn’s work.
BASIC FACTS: “Christian Menn – Bridges” is written by Christian Menn and Caspar Scharer. Published by Scheidegger and Spiess. Release Date: January 15, 2016. Hardcover; 320 pages; $99.00.
“Wiener Werkstätte”
The Wiener Werkstätte (“Vienna Workshop”) bears many hallmarks of a modern creative movement. Founded in 1903 by Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, and Fritz Waerndorfer, this progressive alliance of artists and designers was particularly interested in challenging the industrialized society with individual handcraftsmanship, and bringing different facets of life into one unified, elegant artwork. The workshop began life in three small rooms, but soon expanded to fill a three-story building with special departments for metalwork, leatherwork, and woodwork, as well as a bookbinder and a paint shop. Artists experimented with various materials such as gold, precious stones, and papier mâché and applied their simple, often geometric, designs across ceramics, textiles, typography, interior design, furniture, and fashion.
Though the workshop lasted only 30 years, it enjoyed major commercial success, with outlets in Karlsbad, Marienbad, Zurich, New York, and Berlin. It also garnered designs from many of the leading artists of the epoch, including Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele. Today, the Vienna Workshop is recognized for its comprehensive approach to artistic practice and its stylistic influence on Art Deco and Bauhaus.
BASIC FACTS: “Wiener Werkstätte” is written by Gabriele Fahr-Becker. Published by Taschen. Release Date: January 20, 2016. Hardcover; 240 pages; $29.99.
“Dream Houses on the Water”
How do architects treat the drama of water and nature? Do they defer to it with a simple dwelling that grows out of the land, or make a statement with bold materials and forms? From the sleek, low-slung Water Villa de Omval in Amsterdam, to the House on the Greenland Sea, this book takes us on an in-depth tour of 30 private residences by leading architects in locations dedicated to waterfront leisure.
The houses are situated along rivers, mountain lakes, Atlantic beaches, or on the Norwegian cliffs overlooking the fjord. Their sites' climate, topography, and morphology is varied, and the text addresses the architects' response, as well as the challenges of building on the water. Included here are dream villas, elegant huts, hermetic buildings, and minimalist temples. Each is accompanied by plans, sketches, and diagrams.
BASIC FACTS: “Dream Houses on the Water” is written by Alexander Hosch. Published by Schiffer. Release Date: January 28, 2016. Hardcover; 192 pages; $50.00.
“Textile Technology and Design: From Interior Space to Outer Space”
“Textile Technology and Design” addresses the critical role of the interior at the intersection of design and technology, with a range of interdisciplinary arguments by a wide range of contributors: from design practitioners to researchers and scholars to aerospace engineers. Chapters examine the way in which textiles and technology – while seemingly distinct – continually inform each other through their persistent overlapping of interests, and eventually coalesce in the practice of interior design.
Covering all kinds of interiors from domestic (prefabricated kitchens and 3D wallpaper) to extreme (underwater habitats and space stations), the book features a variety of critical aspects including pattern and ornament, domestic technologies, craft and the imperfect, gender issues, sound and smart textiles. People interested in textile technology, textile design and interior design will enjoy this book.
BASIC FACTS: “Textile Technology and Design: From Interior Space to Outer Space” is written by Deborah Schneiderman (Editor) and Alexa Griffith Winton (Editor). Published by Bloomsbury Academic. Release Date: January 28, 2016. Paperback; 224 pages; $34.95.
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