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book review

Art

Book Review: Best Years of Arts and Architecture 1945-49

Book Review: Best Years of Arts and Architecture 1945-49 – From the end of World War II until the mid-1960s, exciting things were happening in American architecture. Emerging talents were focusing on innovative projects that integrated at once modern design and low-cost materials. The trend was most notably embodied in the famous Case Study House Program, a blueprint for modern habitation championed by the era’s leading American journal, Arts & Architecture. See also: Book Review: GUCCI New Book – Blind For Love The complete facsimile of the ambitious and groundbreaking Arts & Architecture was published by TASCHEN in 2008 as a limited edition. This new curation—directed and produced by Benedikt Taschen—brings together all the covers and the highlights from the first five years of the legendary magazine, with a special focus on the Case Study House Program and its luminary pioneers including Neutra, Schindler, Saarinen, Ellwood, Lautner, Eames, and Koenig. A celebration of the first brave years of a politically, socially and culturally engaged publication, this special selection is also a testimony to one of the most unique and influential events in the history of American architecture. David F Travers is the former editor and publisher of Arts & Architecture,…

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Art

Book review: WorkScape New Spaces for New Work

Book review: WorkScape New Spaces for New Work – WorkScape reveals how trailblazing companies from around the world are redefining where we work and how we work together. The book showcases office spaces by innovators such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Monocle, KPMG, Red Bull, and Urban Outfitters that promote new forms of work, creativity, and collaboration. In addition to presenting architecture and interior design, WorkScape also explores more unconventional parameters that can make going to and being at work more attractive and satisfying. The forward-thinking offers featured here include company-run childcare facilities, bike share programs, communal vegetable gardens, and fully equipped health and wellness facilities. In WorkScape, office environments from global players are shown alongside compelling examples from smaller enterprises, temporary ventures, and freelance endeavors that all shake off the cubicle culture of the past. The book’s careful pairing of stunning images with in-depth project descriptions and detailed floor plans make it an invaluable reference for anyone looking to redefine their workplaces, impress their partners and clients, and inspire their staff to think outside the box. See also: Our House in the City: New Urban Homes and Architecture The way we work is currently undergoing fundamental changes. Thanks to globalization and…

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Interior Design

Book Review: Coffee Table Books to Offer this Christmas

Book Review: Coffee Table Books to Offer this Christmas – AD Style Director Jane Keltner de Valle rounds up her favorite art books to add to your list this holiday season. Grace, The American Vogue Years (Phaidon, $175) If you’re someone who judges a book by its cover, this one’s a no-brainer. The slipcased tome is beautifully oversized and dressed in Bordeaux red with a charming illustration of its heroine splashed across the cover. John Derian Picture Book ($75) Walking into a John Derian store is like entering a cabinet of curiosities. His decoupage collectibles sourced from 19th-century artwork illustrate flora, fauna, landscapes, and all manner of exotica—and are so vast you could get lost in them for days. Wanderlust: Interiors That Bring the World Home (Rizzoli, $50) Designer Michelle Nussbaumer fills her homes with exotic objets from around the world, and now her richly layered approach to decorating has been memorialized in this beautiful picture book. The Coveteur: Private Spaces, Personal Style (Abrams, $35) Voyeurism is nothing new, but the Coveteur is largely to thank for bringing it into the 21st century. The popular website gives us entrée into the closets and personal spaces of the fashion elite. Domus: A…

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Art

Book Review: The Shopkeepers and Small Stores Rebirth

Book Review: The Shopkeepers and Small Stores Rebirth – In the age of online shopping, opening a store and becoming a shopkeeper seems like a bold move. Yet from Vienna to Vancouver, storefronts are emerging once again as worthy opponents to commercial corporations. Customers embrace individual businesses that share the distinctive knowledge, personalities, vision, and humor of their owners. Whether brand new and based on innovative ideas or passed down for generations and revamped, the stores and their shopkeepers featured in this book stand out for the singular experience they provide to their customers and the personal selection of items they sell. The Shopkeepers: Storefront Businesses and the Future of Retail celebrates the diversity and creativity of brick-and-mortar businesses, telling the stories of the shops and their unique owners. See also: Get Inspirted by Contemporary Interior Designs at Interiors Now 3 Good stores still exist. In fact, their number is growing. Well-designed specialty shops that are inspired by the small manufacturers and mom-and-pop operations of the past are now sprouting up. These outlets are defying e-commerce and anonymous online shopping with outstanding products, original interior design, innovative concepts, and, first and foremost, friendly and competent customer service. See also: Book Review: Zaha…

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Interior Design

Book Review for Kitchen Kulture: a Place to Cook, Eat and Celebrate

Book Review for Kitchen Kulture: a Place to Cook, Eat and Celebrate – The kitchen is the new living room: a space for social gathering, collaborative cooking, event hosting, and communal dining. Undergoing immense transformation through time and continually adapting to current social and aesthetic trends, the room that used to be a service area relegated to the back of the house is now the multi-functional hub of the home. See also: Get Inspirted by Contemporary Interior Designs at Interiors Now 3 Kitchen Kulture is an inspiring visual feast that shines a light on all that the twenty-first century kitchen can be. The kitchens presented in this book are testing grounds for environmentally-friendly innovation as well as lively spaces that inspire a higher quality of life by prompting better eating habits and bringing together family and friends. From a vast, open-plan kitchen in a London townhouse to a kitchenette inside a student studio in Berlin, the professionals behind these designs uncover the full potential of today’s kitchen through their creativity. See also: Book Review: Zaha Hadid Complete Works 1979-today At home, the kitchen is where the best parties end, the wildest affairs begin, food trends are set, small culinary businesses are founded,…

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Art

Book Review: Interiors for Restaurants, Bars and Unusual Food Places

Book Review: Interiors for Restaurants, Bars and Unusual Food Places – Going out to a restaurant or bar is always about more than just eating and drinking. Whether we’re seeking the adventure of a once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience or the familiarity of traditional cuisine, atmosphere makes a difference and we increasingly want it to be all-consuming. Let’s Go Out Again is an eclectic showcase of atmospheric eating spaces from around the world. The featured projects represent state-of-the-art collaborations among architects, artists, designers, restaurateurs, and chefs that target not only all of our senses, but our identities and values too. Let’s Go Out Again is comprised of six chapters, each of which exemplifies an aesthetic and conceptual point of view: Understatement, Modern Musings, Rough and Local, Progressive, Graphic Spaces, and Dramatic. Each of these approaches goes beyond the visual to buoy and amplify the philosophies of the kitchens or bars that they help define. The result is a congenial synergy between flavor and atmosphere, place and taste. See also: Get Inspirted by Contemporary Interior Designs at Interiors Now 3 Eating is more than a basic physical process. It is a social, aesthetic, and cultural need. We go out to meet friends or business…

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Art

Book Review: New Approach of Architecture and Design by Josef Hoffmann

Book Review: New Approach of Architecture and Design by Josef Hoffmann  – Before aesthete, designer, and architect Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956) came along, Austrian architecture and design was suffocating under a surfeit of opulent ornamentation and bombastic flourish. With his radical new approach and a band of like-minded figures, Hoffmann was a founding father of the Viennese Secession and Wiener Werkstätte,andrevolutionized Western aesthetics with a brave new minimalism. See also: Book Review: Álvaro Siza Complete Works This essential introduction explores Hoffmann’s key ideas, projects, and designs to understand his radical aesthetics and their continued influence on European architecture and design, from monochrome interior schemes to the cutlery we put on the table. We explore his integral role at the center of both the Vienna Secession in 1897 and the Wiener Werkstätte, and his commitment to stylistic purity, including some of Europe’s first major modernist buildings, such as the Purkersdorf Sanatorium (1904) and the Palais Stoclet (1905–1911). See also: Book Review: Rooftops Design, Islands in the Sky The author August Sarnitz is a practicing architect and professor of history and theory of architecture at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna. His many publications include books on R. M. Schindler, Lois Welzenbacher, Ernst Lichtblau,…

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Interior Design

Book Review: Rooftops Design, Islands in the Sky

Book Review: Rooftops Design, Islands in the Sky – As urban living intensifies in density and numbers, the city landscape expands both outwards and upwards. Architects and urban designers craft new and experimental structures while also investigating existing buildings for potential reinvention or expansion. In particular, the roof of a building, once a perfunctory structural element, is now a city space in and of itself, beloved for the capacity to eke out further room for living or to craft inspiring refuges away from the bustle of the metropolis. See also: Tips to Decorate and Improve your Bookshelves This international selection of urban rooftops catalogs a new urban dimension. Through over 50 bars, restaurants, temporary art installations, and gardens, it testifies to the variety of intelligent and exuberant designs that grace city summits from Sydney to Hong Kong, Oslo to Chicago. Whether it’s the panoramic views, the exposure to the elements, or a slight giddiness that comes with height, we see just how the roof has nurtured not only architectural invention but a whole new facet and thrill to city living. Just like its predecessors Tree Houses and Cabins, Urban Rooftops features both brilliant photography and bright, contemporary illustration from Boyoun Kim. As…

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Art

Midcentury Masterpiece: American Architecture and Interior Design

Midcentury Masterpiece: American Architecture and Interior Design – With its pastel green and yellow interior, its dazzling collection of Impressionist paintings, and long, low sofas that look like vintage Cadillac convertibles, Sunnylands was a Versailles for the Space Age. In Palm Springs, the mecca of midcentury modern architecture, this immaculately preserved estate is considered the undisputed masterpiece, envisioned by A. Quincy Jones, one of California’s most important architects, and furnished by California’s great decorator-to-the-stars, William Haines. Built by media moguls, art collectors, and diplomats Walter and Leonore Annenberg, Sunnylands became a seat of power where politicians, movie stars, and corporate leaders could meet, relax, reflect, make deals, and run the world—all with nobody watching. For four decades, an invitation to New Year’s Eve at Sunnylands was the ultimate social prize. Exquisitely illustrated, Sunnylands is a must-have for every fan of midcentury design. See also: Stylish Reading Nooks that will Inspire You “Imagine what treasures await in this history of [Walter Annenberg’s] fabled midcentury modern house in Rancho Mirage, California, which is now restored and open to the public. Completed in 1966 by the architect A. Quincy Jones, with rare preserved interiors by William Haines, the 32,000-square-foot Sunnylands attracted presidents, royalty and Hollywood…

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Art

Book Review: Tate Modern Building a Museum for the 21st Century

Book Review: Tate Modern Building a Museum for the 21st Century – After opening its doors in 2000, Tate Modern quickly became the most popular modern and contemporary art destination in the world, welcoming more than five million visitors a year. Architects Herzog & de Meuron created a gallery of singular power and beauty, whose spaces articulate a rare affinity with contemporary art. See also: Stylish Reading Nooks that will Inspire You With the second major phase of the building now complete, Tate Modern presents a striking combination of the raw and the refined. In magnificent new photography and texts by leading architectural writers, this book describes the ideas behind the Tate Modern’s conception and construction, how it was designed and built, and how it has impacted the world beyond its doors. Conversations between Tate Modern director Chris Dercon and architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, as well as landscape architect Gu¨nther Vogt, interior designer Jasper Morrison, and graphic designer Ian Cartlidge, present the philosophy and interchange of ideas that drove this extraordinary project. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chris Dercon is director of Tate Modern. Nicholas Serota is director of Tate. See also: Tips to Decorate and Improve your Bookshelves Keep following…

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Art

Book Review: Fernando Botero, Assouline Special Edition

Book Review: Fernando Botero, Assouline Special Edition – Few artists have created a world as distinctive as that of Botero, who enjoys an exceptional position as one of the most successful contemporary artists. This spectacular hand-bound Ultimate Collection volume includes previously unpublished works and was curated in collaboration with the renowned artist himself from among Botero’s most important works from each period of his singular oeuvre. A special numbered limited edition of 100 copies, printed on cotton paper, features a tip-on illustration and hand-signed ex libris plate drawn by Botero especially for this publication. You may also like: Take a Tour of the World’s Most Beautiful Hotels with Chic Stays Cristina Carrillo de Albornoz Fisac is an author, curator, and critic whose work has been featured in publications including Vogue, The Art Newspaper, The European, The Observer, Beaux-Arts, Architectural Digest Spain, and La Reppublica. She has curated exhibitions on Balthus, Fernando Botero, and Frank Stella, and she has written books on Balthus, Botero, Mahatma Gandhi, and Satyajit Ray. In 2012 she curated a retrospective exhibition on Santiago Calatrava at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and she wrote the text for Assouline’s book on the architect in 2013. You…

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