Martine De Maeseneer and Dirk Van den Brande, principals of Brussels-based practice Martine De Maeseneer Architects (MDMA), are “not compulsive builders.” From the outset in 1988, they have advanced an architecture self-consciously embedded in text, oscillating between theorisation and realisation. In their award-winning built and conceptual work, MDMA’s interest is in spatial organisations that initiate nonlinear stories and shift identities.

The first of two intended volumes—the second one to present MDMA’s design work— A Register of Wording assembles the practice’s text-based production to show how writing establishes a fertile—if unstable—ground for design. The book is more than a representation of words: it unfolds thinking expansively, across pages and decades, meandering yet distinctively committed to the search for a wide field of motives and plots for architecture.

It offers previously published essays conjuring the energy of the 1990s and early 2000s alongside unpublished explorations that extend, recast, and complexify earlier lines of thinking. Departing from an early analysis of existing buildings, MDMA’s texts become more autonomous over time, invoking an unexpected array of visual, creative, and philosophical references. Sources are sampled, interrogated, circled around, juxtaposed, elided, played with. Pieces developed as lectures seize the theme, time, and place of the invitation to provide a distinctive perspective, without shying away from provocation.

Real Life is introduced and curated by Wells Fray-Smith. It is published in collaboration with Gallery Sofie Van de Velde on the occasion of the group exhibition Real Life. The publication gathers works by Ilse D’Hollander, Lois Dodd, Christopher Colm Morrin, Jesse Murry, Heidrun Rathgeb, Peter Shear, Trevor Shimizu, and Frank Walter, presenting a dialogue across generations and geographies around painting’s enduring engagement with lived experience. The book explores how these artists, much like Ilse D’Hollander herself, use paint to address reality in its most porous, poetic, and capacious sense. Whether working through figuration or abstraction, their practices blur the boundaries between pigment and picture, illusion and observation, the tangible and the transcendental. At its heart Ilse D’Hollander’s quiet yet profound vision. Through sketchbooks and paintings from 1988 onward, she offered intimate glimpses of her daily surroundings — a window frame, a stairway, a cat — each rendered with the same precision and restraint that define her painting. These drawings were not preparatory studies but complete reflections on perception itself, acts of seeing that transformed the ordinary into the contemplative.

While many books focus on either strategy or culture, Van Den Bosch presents an evidence-based model demonstrating that strategy only succeeds when it is embedded in the culture, teams, and daily practices of an organisation. This book translates the dynamic interplay between strategy and culture into practical actions aimed at building an organisation that consistently delivers results. It provides leaders with a concrete framework to systematically activate performance, including the Performance Blueprint for identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks. Combining scientific insights with inspiring real-world examples from a variety of organisations, it also offers practical tools and actionable guidance that leaders can immediately apply in their own context.

This book takes you behind the scenes of modern equestrian sport and breeding, where passion and love for horses go hand in hand with performance. Author Katrien Van Miert engages in conversations with leading riders, grooms, breeders, veterinarians, and other experts in the sector. She compiles the knowledge, routines, tips, and experiences of seasoned horse people into a richly illustrated book. From daily care and stable management to equipment selection, training, and keeping foals, breeding horses, and sport horses healthy and happy: this practical and varied book offers accessible basics as well as unique practical insights for every enthusiast and professional who wants to get the best out of themselves and their horse.

At their core, both architecture and ikebana are exercises in looking, selecting and leaving out. With a minimum of elements, architects and ikebana artists shape space and give meaning to emptiness.

Ikebana Meets Architecture brings these two worlds into dialogue. Inspired by five visionary architects – Frank Gehry, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando and Santiago Calatrava – ikebana artists from around the world explore how architectural ideas can be translated into natural materials and spatial compositions.

Each creation is a personal interpretation of architectural principles, rather than an imitation of iconic architecture. Architecture is thus reinvented in every arrangement – transformed into a temporary, living form. Gehry’s fluid forms, Hundertwasser’s organic irregularity, Hadid’s sense of movement, Ando’s serene use of space and light, and Calatrava’s expressive structures are translated into natural materials, line, balance, rhythm and void. Together, they form an inspiring collection of ephemeral ‘architectures’, carefully captured in photography.

It has long been a dream of art director Iris Rombouts to produce an art book that sheds new light on our familiar surroundings and our daily food in particular. And what better way to do that than with the bee, the most important creature to humans on earth? Not only is this small insect indispensible to our food chain – it pollinates over 80% of all flowering plants and 70 of the top human food crops – but it is also a source of inspiration for architects, writers, artists and even whole cities. This book celebrates the bee in all its humble glory, and does so in a completely original way. With a preface by author Jeroen Olyslaegers.

We see the bee represented by old masters and contemporary artists, by insectobsessed Renaissance man Jan Fabre, by Joseph Beuys and his Honey Pump and by Tomás Libertiny with his beeswax sculptures. There is the ceramic piece of art ‘The Wall’ by Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen, with its repetitive structure that reminds of a honeycomb. Fashion, too, is represented: designer Harm Van Zwolle chose the bee as his muse, proving that the beekeeper s outfit can become a covetable piece of clothing.

The book is as multi-faceted as the eye of the bee. It pays homage to Maurice Maeterlinck, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, who tells the most inspiring tales about the life and death of the bee. It explores the mythical powers of the Apis Mellifera, and invites passionate beekeepers from all over the world to share their vision and show that there is much more to the bee than honey. The book also explains how the beehive inspired architects Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright to create stunning buildings that will impress many generations to come. As readers, we explore the feather-light steel building ‘The Hive’ by Wolfgang Buttress, and travel to Manchester, the city that chose the bee as its symbol and has shown to be every bit as courageous and resilient as the insect itself. All these weird and wonderful stories are accompanied by the work of talented photographers such as Stephen Mattues, Diego Franssens, studioEAST, Mark Haddon, Stephen Goodenough, Joao Sousa, Filip Van Roe, Wout Hendrickx and Iris herself. With this book, Iris Rombouts has created a joyful, brilliant mix of stories, photography and art, with the bee as the well-deserved star of the show.

European fashion was profoundly influenced in the early decades of the 20th century by the style, textiles, patterns and colour combinations of Asian clothing. The discovery of the kimono, in particular, with its loose cut, fluid lines and broad range of decorations, captivated the great couturiers of the period. It enabled adventurous women in the Roaring Twenties to cast out their corsets and social straightjackets, while offering a new, daring kind of elegance with exotic overtones. From the meeting of these two sartorial cultures has sprung an exhibition and this catalogue, in which the drawings of Paris fashion designers are compared with examples of contemporary East-Asian textiles from the Baur Foundation in Geneva. The wonderful garments discussed include the collections of kimonos and other Japanese clothes gifted by Sato Mariko (2008) and Sugawara Keiko (2015), as well as Chinese textiles that are the pride of the Foundation.

The demand for agile organisations has never been higher than in today’s fast-moving economy. This book puts forward the framework and techniques that will allow your organisation to withstand turbulence and adapt to such a volatile environment. The Agile Leader’s Scrapbook is an inspiration in finding the logics of management that suit the particular needs of your organisation perfectly. By laying out the basics of what it means to create an ‘agile’ working environment, it provides clues to a better approach to co-creation, and to letting self-sufficient teams make better decisions, among other practical insights. This book is a radical plea to abandon the mantra of hierarchic management and embrace co-creation.

His photographs are of an old-fashioned beauty and at the same time radically contemporary. Flower by flower Bas Meeuws composes his floral still lifes, but digitally: the basis for Meeuws’ monumental works are digital photographs of individual flowers. They allude to the Dutch masters of the seventeenth century with their sense of luxury and their eye for the ephemeral. Meeuws strikes a chord in the art world with his flower still lifes. He is represented by Dutch, American, Taiwanese and Indian galleries and exhibits from Amsterdam to New Delhi.

“Flowers represent the circle of life for me as well as the short time of real beauty – Carpe Diem” – Bas Meeuws.

“Meeuws’ assortment of flowers, seem to emerge yet elapse into their inky black backdrops, reveling in sharpness, flaunting texture, pore and vein.” – Newspaper The Hindu.

Text in English and Chinese.

We are living in an age of accelerated change. The internet has washed away all limitations on time and space. Entrepreneurship has been democratised, and economies have globalised. Innovation has rendered entire sectors irrelevant in the blink of an eye. This is the reality any manager has to take into account in order to keep his company viable. Disruption@WORK taps into the roots of disruptive change, and offers a guide in recognising disruption, defining the ways in which it has already had an effect, and what awaits us in tomorrow’s board rooms. In doing this, Disruption@WORK provides a view on the factors we have to deal with in bridging the gap between the individual, his work and corporate strategy, in order to face the future of our companies.

This catalogue features a selection of fifty exquisite European drawings dating from the 16th to the early 18th century in the Print Room of Musea Brugge. It brings together the most relevant findings of recent research, including new attributions and significant new insights into the drawing and workshop practices of the period. The selection includes drawings by important Flemish and Dutch artists such as Frans Floris and Govaert Flinck, as well as by Italian masters like Federico Zuccari and French artists Jacques Callot and Pierre Mignard. In addition to these well-known names, significant works by lesser-known draughtsmen like Jan van Mieris, Johan van Lintelo and Louis de Deyster are represented.

‘Invisible social security’ is a term coined by Jos Berghman in his early work to draw attention to those aspects of social security that easily tend to be neglected in an instrumental perspective that conceives of social security merely as a particular set of instruments that national welfare states deploy to guarantee basic living standards to their citizens. Among others, Berghman emphasised that social security should rather be conceptualised in a situational sense, that is, as a state of being in which citizens feel confident about themselves and about their future lives. This book, Invisible Social Security Revisited, is a collection of essays published at the occasion of the retirement of Jos Berghman as Professor of Social Policy at KU Leuven – University of Leuven. Taking the notion of ‘invisible social security’ as a point of reference, nearly thirty years after it was coined, the authors address a series of contemporary issues in social security research and policy-making. One can read about social protection in the past and in the future, about prevention and activation, about European and local policies, about poverty and social exclusion, about feelings of insecurity and failing protection of informal workers, about social values in relation to social policies, and so on. The wide range of issues that are thus covered goes to show that over the years the concept of ‘invisible social security’ has retained its academic appeal, as well as its significance for the conceptual and empirical understanding of social security policies and realities. Taken together, the essays provide the reader with up-to-date and innovative ideas and information on important questions regarding the social protection of citizens. This Liber Amicorum for Jos Berghman is published at the occasion of his retirement as Professor of Social Policy at the Centre for Sociological Research of the KU Leuven – University of Leuven, 1 October 2014.

The digital revolution has made customers more demanding than ever. Speed, transparency and hyper-personalisation are the new norm. More and more brand manufacturers are now selling in their own stores and webshops are selling directly to consumers in increasing quantities. In the meantime, new technologies are heralding the next phase of seismic change. In this book, Gino Van Ossel introduces the concept of optichannel, which will guide retailers, brand manufacturers and service companies through and beyond the current wave of digital hysteria. Using recognisable examples, he offers a realistic view of the retail landscape of the future and sets out a practical framework for a successful strategy that combines profit, competitiveness and customer focus.

Apart from a handful of art historians no one has ever heard of the Brussels painter Hendrick De Clerck (1560-1630). Nevertheless, De Clerck was a contemporary of Peter Paul Rubens, the latter having gone down in history as an artistic trailblazer and painting powerhouse, while Hendrick De Clerck has quietly faded into oblivion. Yet the subtly coded, vibrantly coloured pictures that De Clerck painted for Archduke Albert of Austria and his wife Isabella are political propaganda of the highest order. In creating a mode of archducal representation that could help to gain an empire, the sky is quite literally the limit. De Clerck represents Isabella as wise Minerva, chaste Diana, the Virgin Mary. And that’s nothing compared to her husband, for in De Clerck’s paintings Albert is transformed into the sun god Apollo or even into Jesus Christ himself. Hendrick De Clerck’s mastery of ingenious pictorial strategy made him a leading player in one of the most ambitious projects history has ever seen. For those who know how to read them, his paintings tell a story of power, political promises, and grandiose ambition. Most of all, they are supreme examples of image-building; for as the Archdukes were well aware, even as a monarch you’re only as important as you make yourself. Text in English and Dutch.

Every stakeholder has his own objectives, interests and sensitivities. Trying to align all these things with your own agenda is no easy matter. The difference between success and failure is often to be found in your use of diplomatic skills. Searching with respect for solutions that can benefit everyone involved is the key. Stakeholdering shows you how to play this game to maximum effect. Based on the series of practical examples, questionnaires and checklists contained in the book, you can learn how best to understand and influence your relations with stakeholders. In this way, you can allow people’s competence and expertise – including your own – to be used to their full potential.

“It’s a must-have art collection gathering dust on the coffee table, and it’s just that.” – NY Journal of Books on Street Art Today 1
“One of the best books on Street Art” – Amazon.com “It is a beautiful aggregation, and certainly many of these artists have been interviewed and regularly featured on websites and other free cultural outlets like this one providing depth, context, analysis, information, and exposure. Having a hard copy of this collection of fifty in your hand will help freeze this moment for posterity as the scene/s continue to evolve.” – brooklynstreetart.com on Street Art Today 1
Going beyond the cliché of street art as artistically responsible graffiti, this Who’s Who of the international contemporary street art scene features 50 of the top street artists working today, complete with exclusive interviews. More than a revised edition of Street Art Today (2015), this book offers a completely new and updated roster of artists, and highlights the evolution of street art in all its multi-faceted complexity. Street Art Today is beautifully presented and written, in the main, in straightforward language accessible to all.

“Because of her long experience with the East, both in travel and in study, the eastern element is much stronger and more authentic in her work than it is in the works of other artists. The East is not merely a touch of varnish, it is something that defines her art.” – Prof. Dr. Willy Vande Walle. In her first monograph, Nicole Halsberghe provides an extensive overview of her oeuvre of the past 50 years. During her many travels to the East she always had a sketchbook and camera at hand. She captures everything she sees, everything that inspires her, and transforms it into acrylic paintings, drawings and lithographs. Traces on the Way shows how she ‘abstracts’ subjects, interprets them and makes them come to life. She portrays mankind and their surroundings in an impressive and unique way, from intimate rooms and train compartments to the immense, vast Japanese landscape. Text in English and Dutch.

“… pieces are beautifully crafted” – Net-a-porter.com
Birds of paradise, exotic flowers, the Garden of Eden, Gustav Klimt, Art Nouveau and Les Ballets Russes are sources of inspiration for the fantastic and exclusive oeuvre of Belgian lingerie and nightwear designer Carine Gilson. She transforms Calais lace and silk from Lyon into ‘haute lingerie’ with masterly finesse, and her designs catapult the imagination into a dream world of sensuality and elegance. This book explores her philosophy and work, focusing on her designs, the luxurious material she sources, and the craftsmanship of the atelier that has been transforming lace and silk into exquisite and luxurious lingerie, robes, and nightgowns for nearly 30 years. Carine Gilson’s couture lingerie is sold in her own stores in Paris, London, Taipei and Brussels and in famous couture houses around the world.

Beauty and drama come together in a true and compelling story set in the colourful, turbulent world of late-15th-century Florence. The talented son of a successful banker and the beautiful daughter of an influential patrician: their marriage seemed made in heaven, but they were both to meet untimely and tragic ends. This book tells the story of two forgotten protagonists of the Florentine Renaissance: Lorenzo Tornabuoni (1468-97) and his wife, Giovanna degli Albizzi (1468-88). Unpublished documents from family archives allow us to glimpse their daily lives, while poems and works of art offer insight into their notions of love, marriage, birth, death and hopes of eternal life. The contradictions of Italian Renaissance culture clearly emerge, such as the tendency to combine a highly principled intellectual life and aesthetic refinement with self-glorification and political ruthlessness. The author shows how life and art were completely interwoven in this period, and explains the significance of works of art by the likes of Botticelli and Ghirlandaio and their place in the lives of Lorenzo and Giovanna.

This book offers a beautiful exploration of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s works in lithography. It explores the new artistic approach to the poster at the end of the 19th century, which bridged visual and popular culture and turned the relationship between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art on its head. Technical innovations in lithography pioneered by Lautrec and other artists produced larger sizes, more varied colours and new effects and launched the role of the poster as a powerful tool for communication and marketing in fin de siècle Paris. Lautrec’s embrace of celebrity helped to define the famous hotspots (theatres, cabarets and café-concerts) of fin de siècle Paris and made their stars recognisable figures across the whole city.

Works by contemporaries such as Pierre Bonnard, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen and Jules Chéret also feature, and Lautrec’s influence on British, and particularly Scottish, artists of the period will be explored. These include Walter Richard Sickert, Arthur Melville, John Duncan Fergusson and William Nicholson.

South of Geneva, Switzerland, the River Aire runs across a plain that for centuries has been agricultural land. From the late 19th century, the waterway has been embanked for flood protection, also causing the gradual loss of habitat for a large variety of plants and animals. In 2001, decisions were taken to re-naturalise the river. Yet rather than to merely reconstruct its former natural bed, Superpositions, the association of firms commissioned with the project, applied ‘topographic imagination’, a method termed by American landscape designer Elissa Rosenberg. It combines the embanked channel with a newly designed pasture landscape. The channel indicates a work in progress and serves as a reference line that makes ‘before’ and ‘after’ traceable.

This new book documents this much recognised, award-winning re-naturalisation project with drawings, images of construction work and of the new waterway. Essays and comments by international contributors Jean-Marc Besse, Lorette Coen, Gerorges Descombes, G. Mathias Kondolf, Elissa Rosenberg, Gilles A. Tiberghien, and Marc Treib demonstrate how the restored River Aire has been upgraded to become again a characteristic feature of this landscape on the fringe of the city.

Text in English, French and German.

Chicago has long captured global imagination as a place of tall, shining buildings rising from the fog, the playground for many great architects – from Mies van der Rohe to Frank Lloyd Wright – and a surprising epicentre for modern construction and building techniques. Chicagoisms brings together contributions by a diverse pool of curators, artists, architects, historians, critics, and theorists, forming a multifarious portrait of the “Second City”. The essays cover a vast range of topics, from Chicago’s relationship to contemporary global trends to tracking the boom-and-bust cycle of the city’s commitment to architecture. They look back at the Chicago’s architectural history and connect it to the “digital project”. Studied is also the impact of Chicago’s architecture and grid system on immigrants, such as Mies van der Rohe, and how they again influenced the next generation of architects. In addition, historical events that linked the city to the emerging discourse of global modernism and phenomena like the introduction of Chicago’s park designs to Europe are explored. Complementing the essays, the book presents some twenty iconic projects that demonstrate Chicago’s power as an instigator of ideas.

Over the course of three years, the Institute of Architecture and Planning at the University of Liechtenstein, the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, and the Academie van Bouwkunst, Amsterdam, cooperated on an international research project dedicated to the design of façades. Crafting the Façade presents the results of this productive co-operative study, which cut across disciplines to look at historical developments in the design and building of façades, the theoretical underpinnings that can explain these developments, the common materials and their main characteristics, and the techniques used in assembly. The project also prompted a great deal of innovative design work, including detailed drawings at a scale of 1:10 and the design and construction of life-size prototypes in stone, brick, and wood – all of which are reproduced here among the book’s two hundred illustrations. Through their leadership roles with the project, editors Urs Meister, Carmen Rist-Stadelmann, and Machiel Spaan also reflect in Crafting the Façade on the learning processes that emerged from the project and offer guidance and resources for others looking to delve into this topic in depth.