10 Notable Design Books of 2013: May Reviews
By Steve Kroeter May 2, 2013
Our May reviews are in. Designers & Books is posting its second monthly roundup of Notable Design Books of 2013, selected by members of our Book Board. You can also view the complete list of Notable Design Books of 2013, in our signature grid format.
Book Board members who have participated in selecting titles for our May post are John Hill, Mark Lamster, and Norman Weinstein. They have weighed in on titles that include a collection of unique drawings of New York City buildings, a homage to the late architectural visionary Lebbeus Woods, and a luxurious volume of Japanese ornamental textiles from the Meiji era.
The ten books featured this month are listed below, followed by review comments from our Book Board members. Clicking on a book title or cover image will take you to a full bibliographic profile of the book.
- All the Buildings in New York *That I’ve Drawn So Far by James Gulliver Hancock (Universe Publishing)
- Architectural Guide Japan by Botund Bognar (DOM Publishers)
- Architecture of Santiniketan: Tagore’s Concept of Space by Samit Das (Niyogi Books)
- Building Seagram by Phyllis Lambert (Yale University Press)
- D&AD: 50 Years Rod Stanley, editor (TASCHEN)
- Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture after Images by Edward Dimendberg (The University of Chicago Press)
- Encounters 2: Architectural Essays by Juhani Pallasmaa (Rakennustieto Publishing)
- Italian Liberty Style by Irene de Guttry and Maria Paola Maino (24 Ore Cultura)
- The Light Pavilion by Lebbeus Woods and Christoph a. Kumpusch for the Sliced Porosity Block in Chengdu, China 2007–2012 Christoph a. Kumpusch, editor (Lars Müller)
- Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan by Hiroko T. McDermott and Clare Pollard (Ashmolean Museum)
![]() James Gulliver Hancock |
All the Buildings in New York *That I’ve Drawn So Far by James Gulliver Hancock Reviewer: Book Board member John Hill (Archidose) |
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Flatiron Building, New York, from All the Buildings of New York. Courtesy of Universe Publishing (Rizzoli) |
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New Museum, New York, from All the Buildings of New York. Courtesy of Universe Publishing (Rizzoli) |
![]() Botond Bognar (Photo: L. Brian Stauffer) |
by Botond Bognar Reviewer: Book Board member John Hill (Archidose) |
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Water Temple, Higashiura-cho, Awaji Island, Japan, designed by Tadao Ando, 1991. From Architectural Guide Japan, courtesy of DOM Publishers |
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Prostho Museum and Research Center, Kasugai, Japan, designed by Kengo Kuma, 2010. From Architectural Guide Japan, courtesy of DOM Publishers |
![]() Samit Das |
Architecture of Santiniketan: Tagore’s Concept of Space by Samit Das Reviewer: Book Board member Norman Weinstein (ArchNewsNow.com) |
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Shyamali, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. Unusual mud house at in which Surendranath Kar translated Tagore’s vision from his poem of the same name. Photo: Samit Das, 1994. From Architecture of Santiniketan, courtesy of Nyogi Books |
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Studio at Kala-Bhavana, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. Photo: Samit Das, 2009. From Architecture of Santiniketan, courtesy of Nyogi Books |
![]() Phyllis Lambert (Photo: Monic Richard) |
by Phyllis Lambert Foreword by Barry Bergdoll Reviewer: Book Board member Mark Lamster (Dallas Morning News, Design Observer, Architectural Review) |
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Seagram Building, Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, architects; Kahn and Jacobs, associate architects; Phyllis Lambert, director of planning, view from northwest at dusk, 375 Park Avenue, New York, 1954–58, Photo: Ezra Stoller, 1958. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. Ezra Stoller © Esto. From Building Seagram, courtesy Yale University Press |
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Philip Johnson, interior architect, Seagram Building’s fifth-floor executive office with Jens Risom executive desk and Hans Wegner chairs. Photo: Ezra Stoller, 1958. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. Ezra Stoller © Esto. Conrad Marca-Relli, St. Cyprian’s Day © Courtesy Archivio Marca-Relli, Parma. From Building Seagram, courtesy Yale University Press |
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Philip Johnson, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Phyllis Lambert in front of an image of the model for the Seagram Building, New York, 1955. Fonds Phyllis Lambert, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. © United Press International. From Building Seagram, courtesy Yale University Press |
![]() Ron Stanley |
by Ron Stanley, editor Reviewer: Book Board member Norman Weinstein (ArchNewsNow.com) |
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Poster for the Health Education Council, UK, designed by Brian Byfield and featured in the 1970 D&AD Annual. From D&AD: 50, courtesy of TASCHEN |
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“Heinekken—Illogical” designed by Alan Parker for Whitbread and featured in the 1976 D&AD Annual. From D&AD: 50, courtesy of TASCHEN |
Not every D&AD head honcho in his free-form espousing (good old boys club self-congratulatory solidarity prevails here) is particularly profound. So it would be no sin to treat this book chiefly as a wildly stimulating and nervy eye-candy collection displaying a dazzling high artistic order of advertising creativity. Think of this as a tonic for old-timers in graphic design needing a fresh jolt of inspiration, or for students starting their careers.
![]() Edward Dimendberg |
Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture after Images by Edward Dimendberg Reviewer: Book Board member John Hill (Archidose) |
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Diller + Scofidio, Eyebeam rendering, 2001. Reproduced by permission of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. From Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture after Images, courtesy of The University of Chicago Press |
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Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Grandstand and Harborwalk of Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2006. Photo © Nic Lehoux. Reproduced by permission of the photographer and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. From Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture after Images, courtesy of The University of Chicago Press |
![]() Juhani Pallasmaa (Photo: Adolfo Vera) |
Encounters 2: Architectural Essays by Juhani Pallasmaa Reviewer: Book Board member John Hill (Archidose) |
Any book by the Finnish architect, educator, and writer Juhani Pallasmaa is cause for celebration, be it part of his trilogy on the senses, a history of architecture, or a collection of essays. This second volume of Encounters collects 26 articles and lectures from 1998 to 2011 on subjects local and international, physical and abstract; it is a mélange anchored by Pallasmaa’s familiar and nuanced views, most easily described as phenomenological. The essays exhibit the remarkable consistency of his ideas, his conceptual rigor, and his use of writing as a studied means to explore the essential tasks of architecture. Like the first Encounters, I find myself returning to the essays to get grounded and be reminded of what is really important in architecture. |
![]() Encounters 2 by Juhani Pallasmaa, 2013 (Rakennustieto Publishing) |
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Hindu temple decorated with erotic sculptures, Kajuraho, India, from Encounters 2. Photo: Juhani Pallasmaa 1969. Courtesy of Rakennustieto Publishing |
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Pages from Encounters 2 showing (clockwise, from left to right) Karnak temple, Luxor, Egypt. Photo: Juhani Pallasmaa; astronomical clock of Orloj on the Old City Hall of Prague, 1410; cover of Alan Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams, MIT Press, 1992. Courtesy of Rakennustieto Publishing |
![]() Maria Paola Maino and Irene de Guttry |
by Irene de Guttry and Maria Paola Maino Reviewer: Book Board member Norman Weinstein (ArchNewsNow.com) |
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Galileo Chini, Ad Vivendum, decorative panel, oil on canvas, partially embossed and gilded, c. 1908. Private Collection. © Archivi delle Arti Applicate Italiane del XX secolo, Rome. From Italian Liberty Style, courtesy of 24 Ore Cultura
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The “Liberty” in the book’s title refers both to the Arthur Liberty’s department store—exploding with Art Nouveau decorative items for the homes of the emergent 19th-century middle class—and the spirit of “liberty,” a new political, social, and aesthetic freedom emerging after Italy’s 19th-century national unification. That explains why even the few imitative decorative works on display in these pages—those William-Morrising themselves into plant-rich but peat-dense wallpaper—still maintain charm. Giovanni’s glass panel of the mythic Medusa could have been created yesterday. And advertising posters exude an exotic romanticism easily confused with 21st-century waves of neo-psychedelic graphics marked with Botticellian flair.
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Duilio Cambelotti, conca dei nuotatori (basin of swimmers), c.1912. Archivio Cambelotti. © Archivi delle Arti Applicate Italiane del XX secolo, Rome. From Italian Liberty Style, courtesy of 24 Ore Cultura
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![]() Christoph a. Kumpusch |
by Christoph a. Kumpusch, editor Reviewer: Book Board member John Hill (Archidose) |
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The Light Pavilion. Photo: Iwan Baan. From The Light Pavilion, courtesy of Lars Müller |
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Renderings of the Light Pavilion at dusk. Images from The Light Pavilion, courtesy of Lebbeus Woods and Christoph a. Kumpusch, and of Lars Müller |
![]() Hiroko T. McDermott Clare Pollard |
Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan by Hiroko T. McDermott and Clare Pollard Reviewer: Book Board Member Norman Weinstein (ArchNewsNow.com) |
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Embroidered wall hanging. Peacock and peahen with flowering plants. Satin and silk brocade with embroidery in silk and metallic threads. Late 1800s to early 1900s. From Threads of Silk and Gold, courtesy of Ashmolean Museum
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Peacock and peahen, probably by Nishimura Sozaemon, Chiso. Silk with embroidery in silk and metallic thread; wooden frame with lacquered decoration, 1900 to c. 1910. From Threads of Silk and Gold, courtesy of Ashmolean Museum |
All images are taken from the books reviewed and are reproduced by permission of their respective publishers.
View all Notable Design Books of 2013
Related posts: 10 Notable Design Books of 2013: April Reviews
10 Notable Design Books of 2013: June Reviews
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