Lars Müller

Josef Müller-Brockmann

Josef Muller-Brockman's impassioned and sudden appearance on the stage of constructive graphic design in the early 50s, at the age of almost 40, gives pause. What biographical developments proceded this energetic statement? What context created the conditions for an abrupt change from a subjective and illustrative view of design to one that was objective and constructive? The answer takes us back to the 30s, to the formative days when MB, the designer, and Swiss Graphic Design were still separate paths.

Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design

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.

Homage to a Typeface

Helvetica

Hanspeter Kriesi

An Ongoing Challenge

Democracy

Black and white

Building Books gives insight into the process of creating a book. In seven thematic fields the author lays out the premises of his activity as a designer and publisher: vision, context, process, protest, object, duration, effect. The reference to the process of building and the parallels to architecture is in keeping with Lars Müller’s conviction that a book design emerges from an understanding of its content. The author describes the principles of his activity, settles accounts, takes stock after twenty-five years of Lars Müller Publishers, looks into the future, and speculates about the book’s chances in competition with rapid digital media.

Building Books

Integral Lars Müller

Akiko Miki

The islands of Naoshima, Teshima, and Inujima in Japan's Seto Inland Sea are places of pilgrimage for friends of contemporary art and architecture. Alongside works in public spaces as well as site-specific installations, the islands are also full of numerous museums and collections of contemporary art. This publication offers a comprehensive documentation of this unique cultural landscape surrounded by Japan's Inland Sea. The photographs by the Dutch photographer Iwan Baan, ranging from tiny details to giant panoramas, create a comprehensive portrait of the islands with their fluid transitions between nature, art, and architecture. Numerous texts introduce readers to the individual areas and projects that are either permanently on display on the islands or have taken place there temporarily. In addition, other essays deal with the island as a cultural concept and phenomenon. Among others, the book presents buildings by Kazuyo Sejima, Ruye Nishizawa, Tadao Ando, and Hiroshi Sambuichi. ILLUSTRATIONS: 300

Where Art and Architecture Conspire with Nature : Naoshima, Teshima, Inujima

Insular Insight

Jasper Morrison

Alessi, Alias, Cappellini, Flos, Magis, Vitra¦This publication provides a long-needed survey of the working methods and results achieved by one of the most influential European product designers. Morrison's name is not associated with spectacular consumer design products. In fact he represents an approach that many designers return to: simple and durable form, functional and true to its materials, Here Morrison has developed an unmistakable and excitingly modern formal language that is used by manufactures including FSB, Vitra, Cappellini or Flos. He developed a new design for the Hanover municipal rail system for Expo 2000.¦

Everything But the Walls

Cees Nooteboom

Martino Stierli

Iwan Baan

In 1960, Braslia was celebrated as the realization of an urban-planning vision based on designs by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer. At the same time, the city of Chandīgarh, rationally laid out in sectors was taking shape according to plans by Le Corbusier. The 'test-tube' city arose as an export of modernity from a Western planning euphoria that reveals utopian traits. Living with Modernity examines how modernism has been expropriated in the two cities. Commonalites and differences are identified while images of everyday urban life are showcased in photographs by photographer Iwan Baan.

Living with Modernity

Brasilia-Chandigarh

Varini explora los espacios arquitectónicos, transformando el acto pasivo de ver en una experiencia activa. Las formas que pinta en espacios cerrados o urbanos, coordenadas invisibles que rompen las líneas y escinden el espacio, revelando un punto de vista que los espectadores han de descubrir por sí mismos.

Points of View

Felice Varini

In what he called his illustrated guide to modern architecture, which starts off the Bauhausbucher 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. This first English translation of Volume 1 of the Bauhausbucher allows the reader to broaden his or her view of German architectural history by placing the achievements of the Bauhaus in an international context and by documenting and capturing its philosophy of reform in an illustrative way. It appears in original design and with separate commentary. AUTHOR: Walter Gropius (1888 1969) was the founder of the Bauhaus and a pioneer of modern architecture. In 1919, he was appointed to succeed Henry van de Velde as director of the School of Visual Arts in Weimar, which he renamed Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar . In 1924, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau; Gropius designed the school building and the masters houses for the new location. In 1928, Gropius passed on the title of director to Swiss architect Hannes Meyer and became a self-employed architect in Berlin before emigrating to the United States in 1934. As a professor of architecture, he taught at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he founded The Architects Collaborative in 1941. In his political efforts to industrialize construction and create desperately needed reseidential spaces, Gropius captured the spirit and influenced the work of numerous other architects. 100 illustrations

Walter Gropius: International Architecture

Kathrin Weiden

200 kleine Sticheleien für alle, die lieber einen guten Freund verlieren, als einen Scherz auszulassen

Nix gegen dich

Following the success of "Sleeves of Desire", a second publication is now being devoted to the cover art of the label ECM, Edition of Contemporary Music, focusing above all on sleeve design from 1996 to the present. The search for a cover motif from a storehouse of possible images is presented in a few examples that shed light on how these visual worlds are created and trace their significance for the music. An illustrated catalog of all of ECM's releases completes this publication.

The Visual Language of ECM

Windfall Light

Nccr Democracy

"Democracy is the worst form of government -- except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Challenging Democracy tries to get to the bottom of the dilemma expressed in this world-famous quote from Winston Churchill. Designed as a visual reader that makes targeted use of the communicative power of the image, the book constitutes a comprehensive compendium on the history, development, and current debates on democracy. Are democracies more capable than other forms of government? What role is played today by digital media in democracies and democratization processes? Is globalization conducive to democracy? What forms of democracy are there? The visual reader delves into both fundamental and more topical issues and thus provides the key to a comprehensive understanding and an in-depth engagement with democracy from its origins to the present day. With contributions by André Bächtiger, Thomas Bernauer, Daniel Bochsler, Florin Büchel, Francis Cheneval, Frank Esser, Regula Hänggli, Jürg Helbling, Erik Jentges, Hanspeter Kriesi, Daniel Kübler, Andreas Ladner, Sandra Lavenex, Wolfgang Merkel, Frank Schimmelfennig, Marco Steenbergen, Manuel Vogt.

Steven Holl

Built as a diary, the 365 watercolors reproduced in Written in Water represent the creative process of famed American architect Steven Holl. Holl's highly individual method of capturing in watercolors his initial ideas and sketches for all major buildings and competition projects was developed over many years. As an architect, Holl is known for the sculptural qualities he gives to structures and for his genuine use of light - two qualities which are in tune with the characteristics of the watercolor technique. Among the increasingly high-tech working methods common to his profession, Steven Holl's reliance on a highly artistic and resolutely low-tech process becomes spectacular and inspirational.

Written in Water

One hundred years after the founding of Bauhaus, it s time to revisit bauhaus journal as significant written testimony of this iconic movement of modern art. In this journal, published periodically from 1926 to 1931, the most important voices of the movement are heard: masters of the Bauhaus, among others, Josef Albers, Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, and Oskar Schlemmer, as well as Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Gerrit Rietveld and many more. They address the developments in and around the Bauhaus, the methods and focal points of their own teaching, and current projects of students and masters. At the time primarily addressed to the members of the circle of friends of the bauhaus, the journal published by Gropius and Moholy-Nagy makes tangible the authentic voice of this mouthpiece of the avant-garde. The facsimile reprint is intended to give new impetus to international discussion and research on the Bauhaus, its theories and designs. The exact replica of all individual issues are accompanied by a commentary booklet including an overview of the content, an English translation of all texts, and a scholarly essay which places the journal in its historical context. Includes 14 issues with seperate commentary in transparent slipcase.

Lars Müller

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