Search results for ""lars muller publishers""

Point and Line to Plane can be seen as a continuation of Wassily Kandinsky’s seminal treatise On the Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky’s thesis is that different constellations of point, line and surface have different emotional effects on the viewer. Starting from the point (which represents the most concentrated and minimal graphic form), he understands all painterly forms as being a play of forces and counterforces: of contrasts.

Read more less

In the context of the World Economic Forum (WEF), an absurd practice has emerged in Davos over the last few years: for the short time of the event, the main street is almost entirely rebuilt. Thus, a pop-up industry has grown up that generates an enormous short-term demand for reusable spaces, blank walls and empty rooms. The street scene of the alpine city is altered in favor of the self-representation of companies, corporations and organizations. The existing infrastructure is transformed, at horrendous prices, into a space of communication for the respective agenda. In his most recent series Davos Is a Verb, the Swiss photo artist Jules Spinatsch focuses on something that is typical of events around the world: the temporary appropriation of local spaces and infrastructures by major international corporations. In view of the debates over the WEF’s future, this photobook gains its relevance and presents itself as a contemporary witness of the WEF in Davos. By using photo-essayistic, conceptual and investigative artistic strategies, Spinatsch documents the aesthetics and actions of the financial, technological and new media industries as well as the various political agents. The British ecological economist Tim Jackson, known for his critical attitude towards growth, comments on the hegemonic practices in Davos and the world in an extensive essay.

Read more less

The Bauhaus sought to unite life, craftsmanship, and art under one roof. In this volume, Walter Gropius provides a comprehensive overview of the Bauhaus workshops. He explains the basic principles guiding the teaching, describes contemporary developments in architecture, and illuminates the Bauhaus point of view on household utensils, which was geared toward finding the most suitable form for the respective object. Here, Gropius presents the Bauhaus workshops in Weimar devoted to furniture, metals, textiles, and ceramics, among other subjects.

Read more less

When in 2014 Swiss people voted in favor of a federal popular initiative “against massive immigration,” Salvatore Vitale, an immigrant living in Switzerland felt the need to research this phenomenon in order to comprehend where the motives for this constant need for security originate and how they became part of Swiss culture. In How to Secure a Country Vitale explores this country’s national security measures by focusing on “matter-of-fact” types of instructions, protocols, bureaucracies, and clear-cut solutions which he visualizes in photographs, diagrams, and graphical illustrations. The result is a case study that can be used to explain the global context and the functioning of contemporary societies Essays by political scientists Jonas Hagmann (ETH Zurich) and Roland Bleiker (University of Queensland, Australia) provide an analysis of the structure of the Swiss security system and a view on the politics of photography. Lars Willumeit, curator and social anthropologist, will discuss attitudes, behaviors, and codes in 21st Century statehood.

Read more less

In what he called his “illustrated guide to modern architecture,” which starts off the Bauhausbücher series, Gropius gives an overview of the international architecture of the mid-1920s. A preface by the author explores, briefly but in detail, the guiding principles that unite the avant-garde in all countries. This statement is followed by an extensive illustrated section showing examples of architecture from around the world. According to Gropius, these illustrations bear witness to the “development of a consistent worldview” that disposes of the prior role of the architect and expresses itself in a new language of shapes.

Read more less

The Greek island sequence montaged by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy into his legendary documentary Architects' Congress can be interpreted, like his provocative photoplastiks, as a "message in a bottle" thrown into the sea that "might take decades for someone to find and read." Capturing the incomparable Greek light, it presents a compelling glimpse of the four days and nights in August 1933 when the elite of the European architectural and artistic avant-garde-in Greece for the 4th International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM)-took to the Aegean in a barely-seaworthy "nut shell" that would bring them close to the brink of disaster. The "motley crew" included Le Corbusier, Fernand Leger, Amedee Ozenfant, Sigfried Giedion, Cor van Eesteren, and Otto Neurath. Crucial to the success of the surreal odyssey were members of the Greek avant-garde. Drawing on previously unpublished material-Moholy's poetically ironic letter to his wife Sibyl, Ghika's candid Memoirs of Le Corbusier, and forensic examination of the architect's sketchbooks-the authors reconstruct the epiphanies, debates, and, inevitably, estrangements at this critical moment in European history.

Read more less

'City Riffs' traces the changing perspectives of urban design within an ever-changing global context. Moving between sixteen cities, the book also considers trans-disciplinary aspects of urbanism; formal and informal growth in Kumasi and Caracas, post-colonial structures in New Delhi and Prague, post-urban phenomena in Detroit and Brussels; cultural transitions in Antwerp and Salzburg; the changing nature of place in Seoul and Mostar; and new ecological realities in New York and Rome. Urbanism is viewed as the production of space-integrating aspects of design, ecology, and engineering, as well as other influences on urban cognition such as social, economical, and psychological interactions. As it covers a wide range of places and methods, this book will be an asset to anyone who works on, lives in, or thinks about cities. AUTHOR: Richard Plunz is Professor of Architecture and Director of the Earth Institute's Urban Design Lab at Columbia University, where he has also chaired the Division of Architecture and directed the Urban Design Program at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. SELLING POINTS: . Interlinks various disciplines of urbanism 30 illustrations

Read more less

The publication explores the different yet corresponding architectural concepts of Umberto Riva and Bijoy Jain. On the basis of building visits and ongoing conversations, the author Mirko Zardini interprets Umberto Riva's and Bijoy Jain's motivations and inds unlikely resonance in their complementary approaches. The publication accompanies the exhibition held under the same name at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

Read more less

For most people locations that hold a particular importance for the development of our society and for the advancement of science and technology often remain hidden from view. They are separate and protected, such as CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, close to the city of Geneva. CERN is best known for its giant particle accelerator. Here researchers from around the world take part in a diverse array of fundamental physical research, in the pursuit of knowledge that will perhaps one day revolutionize our understanding of the universe and life on our planet. The Swiss photographer Andri Pol mixed with this multicultural community of researchers and followed their work over an extended period of time. In doing so he created a unique portrait of this fascinating underworld.A" The cutting-edge research is given a human face and even if we don't fully understand the processes at work, the pictures allow us to perceive how in this world of the tiniest particles the biggest connections are searched for. With an explanatory text and scientific-philosophical essay.

Read more less

The history of posters is rich in variations on the hand. In consumer posters, a hand presents desirable products. But the hand can also take the form of a symbolically charged gesture in the political poster. In cultural posters, the hand then becomes the emblem of the creative individual. Just as versatile as the rhetoric of the hand are its diverse uses as a design element. In this volume, photographic, illustrative and abstract graphic images add up to a small cultural history of the hand as an eloquent conveyor of messages.

Read more less

The Austrian typographer Helmut Schmid was a master of his craft. He put his own spin on Emil Ruder’s teachings at the Basel School of Design while remaining faithful to the principles of clarity, simplicity and elegance. Blending eastern and western influences, Schmid honed his skills and put them into practice in the fields of editorial design, packaging of ethical drugs and visual identity of brands such as Pocari Sweat sports drink (Otsuka Pharmaceutical), Maquillage (Shiseido) and IPSA. He also produced independent publications in parallel, such as Typographic Reflections. Helmut Schmid Typography explores the typographer’s oeuvre in its entirety. The book’s generous design allows each image to breathe, and the accompanying texts narrate Schmid’s life and career in an informative but pleasant manner. Complementing the publications Weingart: Typography and Ruder Typography, Ruder Philosophy, this bilingual monograph completes the Basel school of typographic thought.

Read more less

Cleanliness is a core value of societies around the globe. So much so that cleaning seems to be an inherent part of human nature and how we interact with and domesticate our environment. This book explores the concept of cleaning in all its various aspects and illustrates each cleaning method, thus expanding our conception of an activity that is such a big part of our daily lives. From a child sorting its toys, to the meticulous work of a clockmaker and an impressive deep-clean of a ship, each process is treated with the same gentle fascination. Short texts add a semi-poetic dimension. The portable book format invites readers to take this publication out into the world with them as they look at everyday processes with fresh eyes. Flipping through the pages of Cleaning is as enlightening as it is entertaining.

Read more less

The Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa (1919–2003) fused sensitivity for local context with the technological discoveries and design principles of modernism in his work. Accordingly, Bawa often incorporated materials (local stone and timber) and layouts (high roofs, cross-ventilation, vast overhangs) specific to Sri Lanka’s monsoon climate and storied architectural history – from the cave monasteries of the Anuradhapura period to the feudal Walauwa style of manor houses – into his modernist designs. Gathering essays by scholars and writers across a multitude of disciplines – including architecture, photography, geography, urban design and art history – this volume spotlights Bawa’s exceptionally beautiful architectural drawings, delving into the central, multipronged role of the medium in his practice, from ideation to instruction to post-construction review. The anthology also explores the identity of post-independence Sri Lanka, which Bawa helped to shape – aesthetically and, less overtly, ideologically. Featuring over 200 lush drawings and photographs, many of which have never been published before, the book promises to engage both general and scholarly audiences with interests in architecture, drawing and archives.

Read more less

In the 1890s, Berlin artist, sculptor and teacher Karl Blossfeldt started to photograph plants, seeds and other illustrative material from nature for the purpose of teaching his students about the patterns and designs found in natural forms. His close-ups of the smallest plant parts, magnified up to thirty times their natural size, are startling as the plants appear geometric and sculptural. Published in 1928, his first collection of photographs Urformen der Kunst (later translated into English as Art Forms in Nature) became an international bestseller and remains one of the most significant photo books of the twentieth century. Karl Blossfeldt: Variations is the first book-length monograph to examine the reception of Blossfeldt’s work. Drawing on unpublished materials, it analyzes the photographs’ replication in teaching mate- rials, pattern books and art books, and also in the pages of the illustrated press. The six chapters of the richly illustrated study trace the paths Blossfeldt’s legendary plant motifs described as specimens, illustrations, patterns, analogues, models and abstractions from 1890 to 1945. Thematic excursions into the present, illustrating the rediscovery of Blossfeldt’s motifs in design and architecture over the past twenty years, offer a contemporary perspective on the famous German photographer.

Read more less

'Designing Japan' presents renowned designer Kenya Hara’s vision of how his industry can support Japan in crafting a future founded on a unique philosophy of beauty as well as crowd-sourced wisdom from around the world. A master collaborator, meticulous organiser, and globally conscious innovator, Hara draws on more than three decades of participations in design work and exhibition curating, as well as deep professional interaction with creators from many fields. In 'Designing Japan' Hara reveals methods that make publicly accessible aesthetic inquiries of how this island nation will proceed as its population ages, other nations take over manufacturing, and technology develops. Illustrations and examples recognise successful problem-solving through design, proving that it is a living, changing industry that remains relevant not in spite of, but as a partner to, advancing technology.

Read more less

What do outer space capsules, submarines, and office buildings have in common? Each is con- ceived as a closed system: a self-sustaining physical environment demarcated from its surroundings by a boundary that does not allow for the transfer of matter or energy. Contemporary discussions about global warming, recycling, and sustainability have emerged as direct conceptual constructs related to the study and analysis of closed systems. From the space program to countercultural architectural groups experimenting with autonomous living, this publication documents a discipli- nary transformation and the rise of a new environmental consensus in the form of a synthetic naturalism. It presents an archive of 39 historical living prototypes from 1928 to the present that put forth an unexplored genealogy of closed resource regeneration systems. Prototypes are presented through unique discursive narratives with historical images, and each includes new analysis in the form of a feedback drawing that problematizes the language of environmental representation by illustrating loss, derailment, and the production of new substances and atmospheres.

Read more less

The celebrated and much sought-after issue of the magazine idea focusing on a towering gure in Swiss graphic design is now in print again.idea is a renowned Japanese magazine on international graphic art and typography. Its 333th edition lent 226 pages to Emil Ruder, showcasing his work, in uence, and legacy in the world of typography and beyond-yielding a comprehensive survey of Ruder's accomplishments. It brings together essays, discussions, and appraisals from fellow designers, typographers, and artists.It engages with Ruder's many years of work and teaching in Basel, his thirty years as publisher of the famous Typographische Monatsblatter, as well as his posters, fonts, and philosophy.The extraordinary and comprehensive presentation of the life and works of Swiss typographic legend Emil Ruder sold out shortly after coming off the press and will now be available in a facsimile reprint.

Read more less

In contrast to tabula rasa urbanism, this book considers strategies for tabula plena-urban sites that are full of existing buildings of multiple time periods. Such dense sites prompt designers to work between the fields of architecture, historic preservation, and urban planning, developing methods for collaborative authorship and interlocking architectural forms. The book grew from a collaboration between the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation on the planning of the government quarter in Oslo. Emerging from this process, the book asks larger questions about how we practice, teach, and theorise engagement with existing architecture on an urban scale. It contains a compilation of short essays addressing theoretical questions, a sampling of design projects offering different formal strategies for architectural design, and a series of discussions about pedagogical strategies.

Read more less

Old things, historic things, smelly dirty things, all the things that were considered the very opposite of "contemporary," have suddenly irrupted forcefully into architecture and art, blurring their bound- aries. This book takes stock of the emerging generation behind this turn, and examines their experimental engagements with the preservation of culturally charged objects. Structured around a series of interdisciplinary dialogues among practitioners and thinkers, and illustrated with recent projects, the book provides a window into the unfolding intellectual frameworks, aesthetic modes, cultural ambitions, and political commitments that are the basis of experimental preservation.

Read more less

Through a series of photographs, Ahmed Mater charts the city's origins to its more recent history over the last 5 years. It is a study of the site's recent transformation - Makkah, until recently, embodied a unique urban tapestry, layered with histories that are stitched together by an abundance of organically rooted communities and cultures. It is a place that accommodated not only sacred structures and sites but also huge fluctuations in population during Ramadan (up to 3 million visitors a year travel to Makkah for Eid and Hajj). More recently, these sites and communities have been eradicated and are being replaced with five-star-studded high rise developments, transforming it from an active metropolis to the world's most exclusive, yet most visited religious tourist destination, reflective of an unprecedented experimentation with architecture and its possible impact on social stratification. This photographic essay is a celebration of Makkah's real and projected or imaginary states. It provides singular access to this site and its associated social and religious rituals, along with its architectural urban planned and proposed development.

Read more less

Sutnar's brilliant structural systems for clarifying otherwise dense industrial data placed him in the pantheon of Modernist pioneers and made him one of the visionaries of what is today called "information design." Visual Design in Action is a snapshot of Sutnar's American period (1939-1976), and includes graphics for Carr's Department Store, advertisements for the Vera Neumann Company, identity for Addo-X, and other stunningly contemporary works. He is best known for his total design concept for the Sweets Catalog Service and lesser known for introducing the parenthesis as a way to typographically distinguish the area code from the rest of a phone number. Visual Design in Action is a testament to the historical relevance of Modernism and the philosophical resonance of Sutnar's focus on the functional beauty of total clarity. This reprint of Visual Design in Action (originally published in limited quantities in 1961) is as spot-on about the power of design and "design thinking" as it ever was.

Read more less

With Apple, Ken Miki playfully presents a complete basic course in visual communication - all based on a simple and familiar object: the apple. First, all five senses are activated in a step-by-step analysis of the apple by touching, looking at, smelling, tasting and listening to the sound of eating it. The apple is then used to illustrate the topics of form, color, size, surface, texture, writing, line, body and text - the fundamental elements a designer works with. Addressing each theme based on this everyday object enables a playful approach that also makes for highly effective learning. A unique textbook that offers inspiration and food for thought for both experienced graphic artists and those less familiar with the world of design.

Read more less

The works of Sou Fujimoto resist any form of conventional categorization. This young Japanese architect stands for unconventional buildings that cannot be described by standard criteria and definitions such as inside/outside or public/private. Clear divisions such as between floor levels and rooms are shattered by his complex ground plans and interlocking structures which - in a reference to the idea of the cave - he describes as "primitive future." With this approach he creates forms that are committed to a playful interaction between user and space. Alongside private residences, such as the well-known N House, his library for Musashino Art University has achieved particular recognition. In addition he was represented at the 2010 Venice Biennale with a design for a house. In his personal sketchbook Sou Fujimoto offers insights into his design process. Through the sketches, drawings, and notes readers can trace how his complex concepts are made manifest and develop on paper.

Read more less

Photographs, newspaper cuttings, postcards, drawings, and slides: on entering the studio of Eduardo Souto de Moura, winner of the Pritzker Prize 2011, one is confronted with a variety of images on the walls that engage in a dialogue. How do these photos, drawings, and illustrations impact his design practice? What is the relationship between the image and the completed building? Floating Images: Eduardo Souto de Moura's Wall Atlas uses this question as an opportunity to examine the architect's visual universe. He has added images from his extensive collection of drawings and project sketches and reorganized them in this atlas. Complex relationships are formed between the individual illustrations and projects. Essays by Pedro Bandeira, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Diogo Seixas Lopes, and Philip Ursprung round off the publication and provide a contextualization in terms of the history of art and images.

Read more less

Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface. It is simple and clean, and commonly seen in advertising, signage, and literature. The R has a curved leg, and the i and j have square dots. The Q has a straight angled tail, and the counterforms inside the O, Q, and C are oval. It is an all-purpose type design that can deliver practically any message clearly and efficiently. It is one of the most popular typefaces of all time. Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface presents 400 examples of Helvetica in action, selected from two diametrically opposed worlds. Superb applications by renowned designers are juxtaposed with an anonymous collection of ugly, ingenious, charming, and hair-raising samples of its use.

Read more less

Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was an architect, engineer, geometrician, cartographer, philosopher, futurist, inventor of the famous geodesic dome, and one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time. For more than five decades, he set forth his comprehensive perspective on the world's problems in numerous essays, which offer an illuminating insight into the intellectual universe of this renaissance man. These texts remain surprisingly topical even today, decades after their initial publication.While Fuller wrote the works in the 1960's and 1970's, they could not be more timely: like desperately needed time-capsules of wisdom for the critical moment he foresaw, and in which we find ourselves. Long out of print, they are now being published again, together with commentary by Jaime Snyder, the grandson of Buckminster Fuller. Designed for a new generation of readers, Snyder prepared these editions with supplementary material providing background on the texts, factual updates, and interpretation of his visionary ideas.Initially published in 1969, and one of Fuller's most popular works, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth is a brilliant synthesis of his world view. In this very accessible volume, Fuller investigates the great challenges facing humanity, and the principles for avoiding extinction and "exercising our option to make it." How will humanity survive? How does automation influence individualization? How can we utilize our resources more effectively to realize our potential to end poverty in this generation? He questions the concept of specialization, calls for a design revolution of innovation, and offers advice on how to guide "spaceship earth" toward a sustainable future.And it Came to Pass - Not to Stay brings together Buckminster Fuller's lyrical and philosophical best, including seven "essays" in a form he called his "ventilated prose," and as always addressing the current global crisis and his predictions for the future. These essays, including "How Little I Know," "What I am Trying to Do," "Soft Revolution," and "Ethics," put the task of ushering in a new era of humanity in the context of "always starting with the universe." In rare form, Fuller elegantly weaves the personal, the playful, the simple, and the profound.

Read more less

The designers Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa have compiled 204 everyday objects in search of "super normal design": alongside examples of anonymous design like the Swiss Rex vegetable peeler or a simple plastic bag, there are design classics like Marcel Breuer's tubular steel side table, Dieter Ram's 606 shelving system, or Joe Colombo's Optic alarm clock of 1970. With products by Newson, Grcic, the Azumis, and the Bouroullec brothers, it also represents the generation to which Morrison and Fukasawa belong. The phenomenon of the super normal is located, as it were, beyond space and time; the past and present of product design both point to a future that has long since begun. The super normal is already lying exposed before us; it exists in the here and now; it is real and available: we need only open our eyes; Fukasawa and Morrison make it visible for us. 264 illustrations

Read more less

To explain the desperate state of our world, its functioning and malfunctioning, is the ambitious goal of this book by Ruedi and Vera Baur. To achieve this goal they have joined forces with the globalization-critical organization Attac, which has provided them with the data. The publication is a formal homage to the sociologist Otto Neurath and the graphic designer Gerd Arntz, who created the Isotype (International Education System by Typographical Images) in the 1920s. Ruedi and Vera Baur also recycled a figurine system originally developed for Manifesta 11, the European Biennial for Contemporary Art in Zurich. Our World to Change! not only explains figures related to economics, finance, ecology, nutrition, and immigration, but also presents suggestions and alternatives from specialists in these fields and from Attac. Visually deciphering the functions of our world system helps to show that another world is possible and necessary.

Read more less

What is the role of a museum in contemporary society? Recognising that a museum is a mediator between art and life, Snohetta's expansion to Mario Botta's 1995 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reimagines SFMOMA both as a new art experience and as a gateway into the city of San Fran- cisco itself. No longer an inward-looking shrine to the art object, a museum today must engage with its local conditions in a proactive way. This book presents Snohetta's most recent investigation into how architecture can nurture social engagement, foster relationships between art and people, and support the museum's mission to remain vital and magnetic. Accompanied by behind-the-scenes sketches, drawings, and photographs that detail the design and construction process, this book is in itself an intimate engagement with the building, its directors and curators, its inhabitants, and its creators.

Read more less

Despite the historical significance of form in architecture, the subject is frequently undervalued in debate. This book relates a variety of ideas regarding form, not only through aesthetic and techno- logical approaches, but also from social and political positions. The contents underline the cultural and technical relevance of architecture to society. The Form of Form condenses the debate occa- sioned by the 4th Lisbon Architectural Triennale (2016), presenting to a wider international audience the idea that form is an autonomous subject in ongoing architectural debates. It aims to foster new thoughts in architectural approach as we reach the dawn of a rapidly changing society driven by fast access to information.

Read more less

Based on the idea that creativity and curiosity are fundamental to both art and science, PARS presents their third work in their "Findings on..." series. It presents works centered around the topic of "Light." Every living organism needs light to live and survive-the body's circadian rhythms, neurological and biochemical processes, they all need light to function. A collection of fascinating, and sometimes unbelievable, research, this book joins the series after "Ice" and "Elasticity."

Read more less

Over the now more than forty-five years that he has been studying and exploring photography, Christian Vogt has discovered new visual vocabularies again and again. In his new work, consisting almost exclusively of contrasting pairs of pictures, he continues to question the relationship between visible reality and its photographic reproduction, between image and text, between seeing and knowing. Using a pinhole camera and modern technology without the intervention of digital manipulation, he deals with the "necessary nonsense," with unifying opposites, with actual and supposed paradoxes, defining some things through exploration and allowing others to remain undefined.

Read more less

Is democracy spatial? How are the physical aspects of our cities, houses, streets, and public spaces - the borders, the neighborhoods, the monuments - bearers of our values? In a world of intensifying geo-economic integration, extreme fi nancial and geopolitical volatility, deepening environmental crises, and a dramatic new wave of popular protest against both authoritarian government and capitalist speculation, cities have become leading sites for new claims on state power and new formations of political subjectivity. This volume brings together perspectives from history, sociology, art, political theory, planning, law, and design practice to explore the urban spaces of the political. A selection of contemporary photography from around the world offers a visual refl ection of this timely investigation. Contributors include: Michael Arad, Diane Davis, Keller Easterling, Gerald Frug, Mohsen Mostafavi, Chantal Mouffe, Erika Naginski, Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett, Loic Wacquant, Krzysztof Wodiczko.

Read more less

The Air from Other Planets introduces an architecture built and controlled by amplifying and designing the energy within our electromagnetic, thermodynamic, acoustic, and chemical environment. This approach to design exchanges the walls and shells we have assumed to be the only type of attainable architecture for a range of material energies that develops its own shapes, aesthetics, organizational systems, and social experiences. Energy emerges as more than what fills the interior of buildings or reflects off its outer walls. Instead, it becomes its own enterprise for design innovation: it becomes the architecture itself. The Air from Other Planets is a book nostalgic for the future, rooted in the belief that the architect's greatest attributes lie in the execution of the imagination, through speculations and projections of worlds and environments yet to exist.

Read more less

This visual reader sheds light on climate change on the basis of reportage, case studies, and striking image sequences. Presented alongside chapters on the history of the earth and of climate and on the 'climate engines' (solar energy, greenhouse gases, and global warming) are both the consequences of climate change and the political strategies designed to combat it. In the foreground are existential problems as formulated by the Millennium Developmental Goals: poverty and hunger, health and underdevelopment, but also the interdependency between climate change, economics, and politics. Unavoidable in this context as well are problems related to migration, megacities, and ethical questions of human rights, equity, and solidarity. 'For Climate's Sake!' addresses these questions rationally, at the same time evoking an emotional response.

Read more less

This publication helps fill the void of writings regarding the field of engineering and its advances and collaborations. Essays on structural engineering, architecture, design, and seismic research

Read more less

How does light transform the objects it shines upon? What are the consequences of such meta- morphoses on architectural thought? Book of Hours seeks to answer these questions. To this end, it presents the architect Frida Escobedo's research on the transformative effect of light on matter. Time lapses show the process in action and translucent paper mimics the permeable barrier between light sources and objects and enacts the mutability of matter.

Read more less

Wolfgang Laib (born 1950 in Germany) is considered to be one of the most important artists of today. His work is characterized by a profound relationship with nature and a declared belief in simplicity. Eastern philosophies from India have also shaped his life and his artistic practice since the 1970s. The artist continues today to concentrate on just a few cyclical groups of work. Ever since his journeys to India as a young man, Wolfgang Laib has been inspired by the idea of seeing humans as part of a larger whole. He also follows this way of life in his art: he tracks down the universal, the eternal, and works with natural materials such as pollen, rice, milk or bees wax. At the Bündner Kunstmuseum, he presents an extensive, room-sized installation made up of thousands of tiny rice mountains. An important foodstuff, rice symbolizes vitality and is fundamental for our earthly existence. The process of creating this work of art is revealed in the book and is related to a conversation between Wolfgang Laib and the internationally renowned Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. With this book, Wolfgang Laib reveals the spiritual dimension of art and leads us directly to the sources of his poetics.

Read more less

A doomed painter on his last walk, a barefoot girl in front of a school blackboard, a charismatic politician as an advocate for the simple life: 99 Photographs presents images that touch, seduce or confuse. Since 1971 the Fotostiftung Schweiz has been collecting archives of photographers and outstanding works of photographic history. Now its 50th anniversary gives rise to a curated look at this collection – an invitation to discover the rich language of photography and to see the world through different eyes. Well-known icons stand next to unknown trouvailles, pioneers of color photography next to Netcam photographers. The short accompanying texts point to a reality that lies behind the facts and beneath the surface. Ninety-nine times, editor Peter Pfrunder stops time to look inward and outward at once – until the invisible emerges in the visible and images turn out to be a wondrous mixture of facts and fantasies.

Read more less

The Alpine region is characterized by a great diversity in all spatial dimensions and qualities. This circumstance is not to be read primarily as the result of administrative drawing of borders, but first of all as an expression of the alpine topography, determined at the same time by intensive cultivation by humankind. However, the assumption that this configuration, seen against a background of massive rocks and steep ridges, is a steady formation would be misleading. For the Alps are not a stable structure, but a dynamic and sensitive organism. Here, boundaries are ceaselessly overcome and continuously shifted. This goes hand in hand with a change in perception and is conditioned by natural dynamics, transforming cultural practices and the bridging of topographical obstacles, whereby the Alps are not only opened up internally, but at the same time integrated into an overall European context. Thus, over a long period of time, a space was created in which the most diverse things came together and were interwoven with the local. However, this principle of interaction is increasingly giving way to a one-sided claim from the outside. At the same time, the nature and manner of human access have themselves taken on geological dimensions. In the context of the 17th Venice architecture biennial, contributions by Vogt Landscape Architects and the Chair of Günther Vogt at ETH Zurich, Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies illuminate individual manifestations of this dynamic landscape with a view to hydrological, biological and geological aspects. Moving Borders documents the contributions at the Biennale and complements them with scientific essays, artistic works and comprehensive photographs taken during fi eld trips to the Alps.

Read more less

Dutch architect and designer J. J. P. Oud participated in the Bauhaus Week and the International Architecture Exhibition. His writing, beginning with a personal confession, is a summary of theoretical and practical findings in the field of architecture, specifically using the example of Dutch architecture. He thus looks to the future and reflects on the potential of architecture without forgetting to reveal his relationship with the past.

Read more less

The Swiss population is called upon to participate actively in political decision-making processes through regular campaigns. These campaigns are often concerned with issues that heat up the emotions and lead to ideological battles. Swiss campaign posters, which have influenced opinion making since the beginning of the 20th century, bear testimony to direct democracy. This special form of political propaganda—prominently associated with Switzerland—is a sensitive indicator of socio-political moods and reflects both national mentalities and global tendencies. Yes! No! Posters for Democracy reveals the visual argumentation strategies and rhetorical approaches that have shaped the Swiss campaign poster from 1918 to the present. Clichéd exaggerations, undifferentiated simplifications, a repertoire of drastic motifs and abridged slo- gans correspond to the laws of the medium, which is oriented towards a manipulative appeal to the masses. Appeals to a sense of unity focus primarily on emotionalization, hardly on rational enlightenment. Subtly condensed messages or a graphically innovative language are hardly to be found in Swiss campaign posters. And yet many renowned designers created works that have inscribed themselves in the collective visual memory of the Swiss population and became icons of Swiss poster design.

Read more less

In The Intimacy of Making Swiss French photographer Hélène Binet takes us on a visual journey through a world of stone, walls and gardens that define and celebrate the Korean art of making. In pure and calm photographs we discover traditional Korean architecture through a Western lens. The purity of the motifs sharpens one’s eye for the often-overlooked beauty and harmony in our own environment and history, as well as for the care of craft and composition. This book is a reminder against our often fleeting and careless perceptions. In her photographs, which were taken over the course of the last three years, Binet looks at three typologies of traditional architecture in Korea: the Confucian school and sacred place Byeong- san Sewon; garden and tea house Soswaewon; and the Jongmyo Shrine. Her camera combines both the nature and the built structures and reveals the soul of the three sites. The photographic essays are accompanied by two texts: Korean architect, Byoung Soo Cho, offers insight into the cultural and architectural history, while art and design critic and teacher, Eugénie Shinkle, focuses on the “making.”

Read more less

Under the direction of Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, thirteen architecture studios and students across the United States and Mexico undertook the monumental task of attempting to capture the complex and dynamic region of the US/Mexican border. 'Two Sides of the Border' envisions the borderland through five themes: migration, housing and cities, creative industries, local production, tourism, and territorial economies. Building on a long shared history in the region, the projects covered in this volume use design and architecture to address social, political, and ecological concerns along the shared border. Featuring essays, student projects, interviews, special research, and a large photo project by Iwan Baan, 'Two Sides of the Border' highlights the distinct qualities of this place. Altogether the book uses the tools of architecture, research, and photography to articulate an alternate reality within a contested region.

Read more less

Interdisciplinary and intercultural experience coupled with sophisticated knowledge and skills are required for devising appropriate, differentiated design solutions for the global context. Ruedi Baur and his research team investigate and analyse visual graphics from different cultures and identify their specific principles of depiction. The research was preceded by a comprehensive case study on the coexistence of Chinese and Latin as well as Arabic and Latin writing. The study culminates in an examination of the conditions under which the coexistence of diverse writing systems can enhance intercultural visual communication. This theme occupies designers in all cultures whose goal it is to promote global understanding while preserving the diversity of languages and writing systems.

Read more less