A volume dedicated to the most beautiful castles and royal residences in the world. Dive into the historical period in which each palace was built – brought further to life by biographies of the queens and kings, as well as the nobles and ladies who lived there.

All further illuminated by the rich frescoes and paintings commissioned by royals and created by some of the world’s best talents. Not to miss is also the unique decorations, furnishings and style in each. Step outside to be filled with awe by the gardens and floral arrangements, truly diverse in each culture.

Dive into the enchanting city of Paris. With the New Mags City Guide, you can make the most of your time, whether you’re seeking a memorable meal, a stylish hotel stay, the perfect croissant, or an unexpected encounter with art. The New Mags City Guide offers a curated selection of the best hotels, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, retail concepts, and cultural landmarks. Paris is the epitome of elegance, where timeless charm meets cutting-edge creativity. You’ll never run out of things to see, taste, and experience—and yet you’ll likely leave craving more. Because that’s Paris: a city where FOMO isn’t just real, it’s part of the magic.

With the New Mags City Guide, you can make the most of your time, whether you’re chasing a great meal, a bold new art experience, a design-driven hotel, or a late-night bar that never seems to close. The guide features a curated selection of the best hotels, restaurants, cafés, shops, and cultural landmarks — all reflecting Berlin’s raw energy and constant reinvention.

Berlin is a city like no other — layered with history, shaped by creativity, and driven by freedom. From underground galleries to Michelin-starred kitchens, every corner hums with possibility. You’ll leave inspired, maybe a little restless, and already planning your return. Because in Berlin, the story is never finished — it’s always being rewritten.

With the New Mags City Guide, you can make the most of your time, whether you’re searching for a world-class restaurant, a hidden cocktail bar, an unforgettable hotel stay, or an inspiring gallery visit. The guide offers a curated selection of the best hotels, restaurants, cafés, shops, and cultural landmarks — all carefully chosen to reflect the city’s ever-evolving spirit.

London is a city of contrasts — where history and modernity coexist in perfect tension. From centuries-old pubs to avant-garde design studios, every street tells a story. You’ll leave filled with impressions, ideas, and the sense that there’s still so much more to discover. Because in London, curiosity isn’t just rewarded — it’s required.

With the New Mags City Guide, you can make the most of your time, whether you’re searching for a refined meal, a hidden design gem, an inspiring hotel, or the perfect espresso between fashion shows. The guide presents a carefully curated selection of the best hotels, restaurants, cafés, boutiques, galleries, and cultural landmarks — all reflecting Milan’s effortless sophistication.

Milan is Italy’s beating creative heart — where fashion, architecture, and gastronomy meet in perfect harmony. From historic palazzos to contemporary design studios, every street exudes style and intention. You’ll leave inspired, a little dazzled, and perhaps just a touch envious. Because in Milan, beauty isn’t a luxury — it’s a way of life.

Jeffrey Sun travelled the world collecting nearly 7,000 hats and hat-related pieces. Amassing these beautiful creations made him realise that collecting is not just about preserving the past, but about collecting designs from the present for the future. It is this belief that led Sun to curate the 101 creations in this book, celebrating top headwear designers from around the world. The result is a celebration of the art and craft of millinery through one man’s passion for hats, his dedication to collecting, and his vision for connecting headwear designers across cultures and continents.

“When one is tired of London, one is tired of life.” – Samuel Johnson London has long been a centre of the literary world. From Shakespeare to Amis, Byron to Blake, Plath, Thomas, Christie and Rowling; many of the greatest names in literature have made this metropolis their home. Writers’ London guides the reader through homes, bookshops, pubs and cemeteries, in search of where literary greats loved and lost, drank and died. Discover the Islington building where Joe Orton was murdered by his lover, the Soho pub where Dylan Thomas left his manuscript, the Chelsea hotel where Oscar Wilde was arrested, and the Bank of England where Kenneth Graham was shot at (and missed) three times. Gathering hundreds of famous and less-well-known anecdotes, this meticulously researched volume will entertain any lover of literature. Also in the series: Vinyl London ISBN 9781788840156 Rock ‘n’ Roll London ISBN 9781788840163 Art London ISBN 9781788840385 London Peculiars ISBN 9781851499182

This title features a stunning array of residential design, from a simple cottage on a remote island to a luxurious home set in a spectacular landscape. The private homes featured in Paradise Found boast a rich variety of different architecture and interior styles, but they all share a similar spirit. Fusing traditional European design with Asian, African, and Caribbean influences, the resulting unique homes reflect a keen sense of style. Featuring full colour photography, Paradise Found visits a selection of glorious houses and hideaways that are guaranteed to enchant and inspire.

Along with 150 full-colour glossy illustrations of the terracotta, earthenware, stone, silver, and copper objects, a Pre-Columbian art lover and prestigious curator journey into a fine art collection, describing the rich cultural context and artistic merits of each work. On his part, the acclaimed author, explorer, and filmmaker Hugh Thomson gives a detailed, exciting narrative – based upon extensive research – of the role art played in the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés and of Peru by Francisco Pizarro. It is rare that a collector takes such a personal, descriptive part in publishing his treasure trove, but in this lavishly illustrated book, Stuart Handler describes why he gathered Pre-Columbian art, what attracted him to the individual pieces, and what artistic attributes make these objects outstanding works. Contents: The Collection and Patrimony by Stewart Handler; Introduction: Beginning the Journey, by Stewart Handler; Traveling with Cortés, by Hugh Thomson; Traveling with Pizarro, by Hugh Thomson; The Stuart Handler Collection; Index.

This richly illustrated publication explores the work of contemporary artist Nathan Coley. It offers a detailed look at three of his most significant sculptural works: The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh 2004, 2004; Paul, 2015; and Tate Modern on Fire, 2017, which is reproduced and discussed here for the first time. In a newly commissioned text, award-winning novelist, screenwriter and director Ewan Morrison focuses on these three sculptures to explore the complexity and ambiguity of Coley’s artistic practice. Morrison brings into play different narrative forms and voices to draw attention to the realms of history, art history and politics that Coley’s work inhabits, as well as the deeply personal responses that Coley’s work can generate.

This book challenges the conventional idea of what constitutes the physical form of the contemporary city. Observing the absence of extended urban fabrics – the missing urbanism – in the new global cities developed today, it argues that these cities are merely statistical accumulations of density that lack the positive attributes of a genuine urban condition. Cities as urban places cannot be made by individual buildings alone but rather depend on the intertwined combination of an architecture that is bound to the creation of public spaces and streets, and engaged in the structure of urban blocks to form a complex field pattern of interactive solids and voids. Broad in scope, the book explores the nature of the fundamental relationship between architecture and urbanism as one of spatial formation. As an independently designed entity, the city forms the ordering framework in which architecture is partially subordinated to the mutual sustainability of the overall urban fabric. If a new urban architecture is to be an integral constituent of public place making, it must be composed using a radically different paradigm of positive, figurally constructed ‘space’ rather than the indefinite background of ‘anti-space’ as exemplified in the chapter on Mies van der Rohe’s architectural quest for the ineffable modern void. These two different spatial models are explored in depth in the eponymous article, ‘Space and Anti Space,’ first published in the Harvard Architectural Review in 1980, which forms the core of the book and postulates that the underlying attitudes toward spatial formation, at both domestic and urban scales, determine our ability to shape place and human experience. In a series of essays, articles and urban projects extensively illustrated by plans, analytic diagrams, and dramatic images, this book makes a visual and verbal argument for the steps that need to be taken to re-urbanise the city in order to achieve an urbanity consisting of multiple discrete places that depend on the essential concept of contained geometrical space. These spatial ideas are illustrated in this book in three proposals: for Rome, in ‘Roma Interrotta,’ 1979; Paris, the ‘Consultation Internationale pour L’Aménagement du Quartier des Halles,’ 1980; and New York in the ‘World Trade Center Site Innovative Design Study,’ 2002.

For centuries artists and designers have recorded places, people, and life in travel sketchbooks. Over a period of fifty years, Laurie Olin, one of America’s most distinguished landscape architects, has recorded aspects of France: its cities and countryside, streets and cafés, ancient ruins, vineyards, and parks – from humble to grand, things that interested his designer’s eye – taking the time to see things carefully. Paris in its seasons, agriculture in Provence and Bordeaux, trees, dogs, and fountains, all are noted over the years in watercolour or pen and ink.

Originally intended for the pleasure of merely being there as well as self-education, this personal selection from his many sketchbooks is accompanied by transcriptions of notes and observations, along with introductory remarks for the different regions included: Paris, Haute Loire, Provence, Haute Provence, Normandy, Aquitaine, and Entre des Meures.

Our Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture is an exciting advance in the field of architecture offering multiple indigenous perspectives on architecture and design theory and practice. Indigenous authors from Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and the USA explore the making and keeping of places and spaces which are informed by indigenous values and identities. The lack of publications to date offering an indigenous lens on the field of architecture belies the rich expertise found in indigenous communities in all four countries. This expertise is made richer by the fact that this indigenous expertise combines both architecture and design professional practice, that for the most part is informed by Western thought and practice, with a frame of reference that roots this architecture in the indigenous places in which it sits.

Like all mega-cities around the globe, São Paulo faces huge challenges. Yet despite these manifold and daunting tasks, the Brazilian metropolis has since the 1960s maintained a prudent policy of investing in communal infrastructure, thus providing inclusive places and spaces for all of its 20m-population. While many cities aim for a ‘Bilbao-effect’ by funding iconic, tourist-orientated projects such as museums or theatres, São Paulo persistently supports programs and usages that serve its permanent residents. This book, published in conjunction with an exhibition at A.M. Architekturmuseum der TU München, features a selection of these buildings and programs from five decades. Ranging from a simple canopy over a public park to vast multifunctional buildings, they provide spaces for sports and culture, education, healthcare, or gastronomy. Rather than merely serving a specific purpose, their key role is to be places for people spending time together. With contributions by Renato Anelli, José Tavares Correia de Lira, Fraya Frehse, Vanessa Grossman, Andres Lepik, Ana Luiza Nobre, Daniel Talesnik, and Guilherme Wisnik; and a conversation with Paulo Mendes da Rocha and Marta Moreira by Enrique Walker. Photographs by Ciro Miguel Also available: Wherever You Find People ISBN 9783038600268

All across Switzerland, in smaller towns like Schaffhausen or Biel as well as in larger villages such as Altdorf or Buchs, there are local public theatres, restaurants with a stage, or multi-purpose halls. This part of the country is second home to Beat Schlatter, actor-comedian, playwright, and the person behind one of Switzerland’s most famous faces. For some thirty years, he has travelled Switzerland in every direction to perform his own programmes and to appear in shows, and he has rested, changed, and made-up his face in hundreds of these places that offer some form of a back-stage.

When on tour, Schlatter takes photographs of these usually dull transitional spaces where A, B, and C celebrities and local stars and starlets await their appearance. This new book, featuring around 300 of Schlatter’s images, is a testimonial to the moderate tristesse and the well-intended fruit bowl inherent to all these spaces, no matter how conventional or hilariously extravagant they may seem.

Text in English and German.

The book presents the artistic project conceived by Carlo Valsecchi for the M.A.N. n.3 gasometer of Bologna, object of a recent restoration that, in returning it to the city, has given new strength to the landscape of which it is part. As the curator explains, in the architectural spaces that Valsecchi portrays, on the one hand one perceives the deepest mystery and fascination of these places, on the other one feels the sacredness of representation – subtle though evident in the scale adopted by the artist – and the sometimes coercive strength that these places bring with them. The volume includes an interview by Luca Massimo Barbero with the photographer, along with a biographical apparatus.

Text in English and Italian.

Faith Flowers is a guide to arranging flowers in places of worship. The book starts with the fundamentals of flower arranging and works up to advanced designs for festivals. Step-by-step instructions and photographs clearly show how to create many different arrangements. Flower recipes are included describing what is needed for each design. Lots of inspiration for new ideas and colour combinations. Flower designs are provided for regular services, weddings, funerals, Christmas, Easter and much more. Learn how to create a volunteer group to provide flowers for your worship services. Author Laura Larocci shares her knowledge from 16 years as Flower Guild Chair of one of the largest cathedrals in the country. Over the years she has organised, led and taught hundreds of volunteers at the cathedral and churches across the US. She shares the triumphs and struggles of creating beautiful flowers within budget and volunteer flower guilds. The book has good reference guides with photos of flower varieties, greenery and materials needed, sample ordering forms, budgets and tips for saving money. Sources for flowers and materials are also discussed.

French-Brazilian Elizabeth de Portzamparc designs buildings that serve as architectural symbols and powerful urban landmarks, which skilfully structure and inhabit the places where they are built. With characteristic innovation and through her dual sociological and architectural approach, Elizabeth de Portzamparc combines the requirements of the social, urban, and ecological scope with construction of optimal forms, a coherent approach that is legible on every scale of her work. This monograph is a collector’s volume within IMAGES’ renowned Leading Architects series, and showcases the extraordinary award-winning designs of this brilliant Paris-based architect. Lavish full-colour photography and intricate, detailed drawings help to illuminate her process and international achievements across a wide range, including architecture, interiors and urban planning projects, as well as design objects, museography, and scenographic works.

Text in Brazilian Portuguese.

French-Brazilian Elizabeth de Portzamparc designs buildings that serve as architectural symbols and powerful urban landmarks, which skilfully structure and inhabit the places where they are built. With characteristic innovation and through her dual sociological and architectural approach, Elizabeth de Portzamparc combines the requirements of the social, urban, and ecological scope with construction of optimal forms, a coherent approach that is legible on every scale of her work. This monograph is a collector’s volume within IMAGES’ renowned Leading Architects series, and showcases the extraordinary award-winning designs of this brilliant Paris-based architect. Lavish full-colour photography and intricate, detailed drawings help to illuminate her process and international achievements across a wide range, including architecture, interiors and urban planning projects, as well as design objects, museography, and scenographic works.

Text in French.

Urban planners have paid more attention to the concept of the pocket park as modern cities become denser and buildings taller. As the pace of urbanisation accelerates and populations increase, particularly in larger cities, there becomes much less park space available for people to enjoy. With less investment and area required, ‘Pocket Parks’ could provide a solution. They fulfil the need for highly sought-after leisure spaces, which can operate in high-density city environments, bypassing the hurdle of space. These beautiful green areas increase the ecological benefits of the urban environment, helping to enrich and satisfy the local residents’ lives. Pocket Park Design introduces the outstanding landscape architects and designers who create pocket parks.

Pocket parks should be located where they are safe and convenient to access, as well as providing open spaces that are comfortable, functional, and pleasant for park visitors. While the areas of a pocket park will generally cater to a variety of demographics, specific spaces or activity areas may be provided for dominant user groups, such as children, workers, or the elderly. This book studies the pocket park’s characteristics, as well as the relationship between humanity and the surrounding landscape. It will be a great source of inspiration to landscape designers.

Luis Bustamante has a refined and very sophisticated style, and has been working for over thirty years. This book shows his latest projects from the last five years, in places such as London, Miami, Madrid, Aspen, Cantabria, Marbella, Mexico City, Barcelona, The Hamptons and St Moritz, among others. His passion for art has developed a style that fits perfectly with art collectors around the world.

Luis Bustamante’s fundamental concern has always been to generate relationships. Not only are the spaces he designs intended to achieve this but he himself aspires to it with his clients. Bustamante understands design in the best posible way: as an extraordinary living art.

From the ruins of Palmyra in the Syrian desert to the ghost town of Bodie, the painted churches of Sucevita in Romania, and a fire festival in a Japanese village: Michael Webb has ventured far afield in search of the rare and beautiful. He recalls memorable experiences of people and places over eight decades of travel around the world, and some of the buildings and landscapes that have left a lasting impression. It’s getting harder to find places that have not been commercialised and overwhelmed by mass tourism, but they can still be found, even in the most popular destinations. Webb’s recommendations should inspire you to get off the beaten track and make your own discoveries.