Best-Selling Design Books, International: November 2013

#1 Design Seller at Swipe Design | Books + Objects, Toronto (November 2013). From the Publisher. Looking through an atlas has always been a fascinating way to explore the world. Around the World is a contemporary evolution of an atlas tailored to our information age. With eye-catching graphics, current topics, and clear texts, the book is for anyone who is curious about the state of our planet and how we live today.

Alongside classic facts about nature, history, population, culture, and politics, Around the World’s compelling information graphics thoroughly explain complex processes that impact our lives such as global trade and changing demographics. The book gives added insight into our modern world through its visual exploration of subjects such as eating habits, overfishing, and internet providers, as well as events that have left indelible marks on our collective conscience including September 11, the Olympic Games, Japan’s Fukushima disaster, and the sinking of the Titanic.

#1 Design Seller at Pro qm, Berlin (November 2013). From the Publisher. Arseniusz Romanowicz (1910-2008) and Piotr Szymaniak (1911-1967) designed some of the most striking buildings of modern Warsaw, mainly train stations: Central, Eastern, Ochota, Powiśle, and Stadion. Until recently it was difficult to appreciate the beauty of these buildings, concealed beneath layers of dirt and DIY extensions. Their architects were not good at self-promotion and remained in the shadows for a good part of their lives. AR/PS is a tale composed of essays by 8 different authors, as well as interviews, highlighting various aspects of Romanowicz and Szymaniak's careers, spanning from the 1930s to the 1990s. Their legacy is documented on some 200 pictures, including hitherto unpublished material from their private archives.

#1 Design Seller at RIBA Bookshop, Portland Place, London (November 2013). From the Publisher. Sir David Alan Chipperfield CBE, RA, RDI, RIBA is one of Britains most lauded architects. Uncompromisingly modernist in outlook, his practice is driven by a consistent philosophical approach, rather than a house style. Chipperfield first made his reputation in Japan in the 1980s. Among his early projects in England that revealed his rigorous and elemental approach to design included a shop for Issey Miyake on Londons Sloane Street in 1983, and a house for the fashion photographer Nick Knight. Later, Chipperfield designed the award-winning “River and Rowing Museum” in Henley-on-Thames using green oak cladding, concrete and glass. Since then, Chipperfield has moved on to become one of the commanding figures in the design of cultural and civic buildings across Europe and in the United States. Chipperfield was the architect for the reconstruction of the destroyed Neues Museum in Berlin, which reopened in October 2009. In addition to the Neues Museum, Chipperfield was the architect behind Turner Contemporary in Margate.

# 1 Design Seller at Mzin, Leipzig, Germany (November 2013). From the Publisher. The poster festival catalogue is a project in its own right, a printed trace of one of the most important international events for the graphic design community. Much more than an assembly of images, this book documents the 2013 edition of the event through numerous outstanding examples of graphic design, from classic posters to contemporary works and competition entries, as well as texts from graphic designers and critics alike.

#1 Design Seller at do you read me?!, Berlin (November 2013). From the Publisher. In Never Modern, Irénée Scalbert explores the role of narrative, history, and appropriation in the works of the London-based firm 6a Architects, whose recent projects include the South London Gallery, Raven Row, and the new fashion galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Scalbert examines the unique approach of the members of 6a, wherein they avoid style and signature in favor of what Scalbert calls a premodern sense of metis, or “flair, wisdom, forethought, subtlety of mind, deception, resourcefulness, vigilance, opportunism, varied skills, and experience.” Scalbert’s analysis is accompanied by a striking visual essay of archival photographs, artworks, film stills, and recent projects by the firm. In the end, Scalbert argues that like contemporary society in general, the architecture of 6a Architects is fundamentally a work of bricolage, creating art composed of various objects on hand, drawing from history and the everyday to create something new and vital.

#1 Design Seller at CCA Bookstore, Montreal (November 2013). From the Publisher. Melvin Charney (1935-2012) spent his career working on the border between art and architecture. His internationally celebrated art employed a variety of media including photography, montage, painting, sculpture, and temporary and permanent installations, relentlessly pursuing the meaning of architectural images in the age of mass communication. A long career as an educator was punctuated by several high-profile and contentious interventions into debates about architecture and urban life in Montreal. In spite of his renown, few realize that his legacy is also that of a prolific architectural critic. Beginning in 1962, Charney published essays assessing the state of contemporary architecture. Assembled here for the first time, these texts place Charney among the most original architectural critics of his generation. Broaching topics as diverse as the Trulli houses of Italy, grain elevators, low income housing, and "The Montrealness of Montreal," they show Charney working through a constantly changing set of preoccupations: the value of everyday and vernacular architecture, the liberatory potential of innovations in building materials and technologies, the dangers of elitist and repressive understandings of formalism and architectural monumentality, the necessarily political nature of architecture, the creation of a built environment by and for people, and a socio-cultural understanding of urban architecture. This volume includes an astonishing visual archive of over three hundred illustrations, many of which served as source material and inspiration for Charney's intellectual and artistic work, and set up a dialogue between his criticism and his landmark projects. Essays from established architectural scholars provide critical assessments of Charney's body of work as well as new perspectives on many of the key issues he grappled with and that have transformed architecture since the 1960s. A comprehensive and revealing collection, On Architecture presents the extraordinary scope and lasting relevance of one of Canada's leading architectural minds. Contributors include Georges Adamczyk, George Baird, Rejean Legault, and Louis Martin.

# 1 Design Seller at Papercup Store, Beirut, Lebanon (November 2013). A superstar in the world of design, Patricia Urquiola’s portfolio of architectural projects and product designs is as diverse as it is intensely personal—from a house for Patrizia Moroso, to the interiors of boutique hotels, to industrial design, and with products that include chairs, watches, and cutlery. Since the opening of her own design practice in Milan in 2001, Urquiola has taken on an ever-expanding number of projects, and has worked with all the great international design houses, including Moroso, De Padova, B&B Italia, Bisazza, Alessi, Driade, and Flos, to name a few. Urquiola’s distinctive works straddle the boundary between architecture and design, the product of a rigorous, interdisciplinary education. Her products and spaces have won her acclaim for combining a bold, passionate imagination with an innate practicality. Drawing inspiration from historical precedent, her designs are often characterized by their clear lines and formal simplicity, and their irrepressible sensuality. This inspiring book captures the fervid energy of Urquiola’s life and work, in an unprecedented and striking design object as innovative and intimate as her body of work.

#1 Design Seller at Beautiful Pages, Sydney, Australia (November 2013). From the Publisher. PsychoGames, by Mel Gooding and Julian Rothenstein, is a fascinating compendium of playful picture tests, questionnaires and tests that holds a revealing mirror up to your inner self. A follow-up to the hugely successful Psychobox, this new production includes five sets of testing cards, questionnaires and a frustration test, a poster……. and in the bottom of the box: a mirror.

#1 Design Seller at Shakespeare and Company, Paris (November 2013). From the Publisher. With over 200 new and updated entries, this indispensable book provides information about typographers, journals, movements and styles, organizations and schools, printers and private presses, art directors, technological advances, design studios, graphic illustrators, and poster artists from the mid-19th century to the present day. More than 550 illustrations, extensive cross-references, and a chronological chart outlining the relationship between movements, technology, and individual designers make this an invaluable reference for students and professionals alike.