Traditional Indian Jewellery is a vast and detailed publication covering the rich heritage of Indian jewellery and its significance in past and present Indian society.

Jewellery plays an important part in the everyday lives, important moments, festivals and religious aspects of Indian culture. It is not only girls and women who wear jewellery, but also boys, men, temple statues and even animals. The book excels in its detailed descriptions, which accompany the sumptuous array of images. We discover why enamel is used in the north of India, the origin and significance of gold, the significance of setting gems in a certain order, and jewellery’s spiritual importance. The book covers in detail the meaning of the use of flowers and birds in Hindu influenced jewellery, looking through the eyes of 17th century European travellers who visited the rich Mogul courts.

This publication is the result of 35 years of research – travelling, studying, and talking to many people across the entire subcontinent of India, as well as having had unprecedented access to goldsmiths and enamellers; being shown techniques known only to one family, which have been transferred from generation to generation; and being granted access to beautiful and never before seen Royal collections.

Patrick Van der Stricht, author of this book, is an architect, illustrator and Belgian. He began drawing when he was a boy and has never stopped. This book is a collection of his best automobile illustrations, from the most realistic and romantic to the zaniest. His love of drawing and cars is nourished by his equally extensive knowledge of the history and technique of the automobile, spiced up with his boundless imagination and humour. Most of the drawings are accompanied by a short explanatory text or narrative.

Text in English, French and Dutch.

This is the long-awaited overview of the recent works of architect Stéphane Beel. As productive and versatile an architect as Stéphane Beel is, architectural criticism and reception of his work are never far behind – new works are followed almost immediately by new words. This combination of work and word has made Stéphane Beel into one of the most successful Belgian architects of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. From his oeuvre, eighteen projects have been selected that have never before appeared detail in a book. Each is described and commented on by one of the contributing authors. The book begins with an extensive introductory interview with the architect himself, in which – in eight thematic sections – the basic features of Beel’s approach are discussed. The interview is entitled An Intense Order, which at once reflects the structure and the concept of this book: without putting forward a single, all-embracing interpretative system, it systematically endeavours to offer a variety of opportunities for capturing the spark that invariably lights up the work of Stéphane Beel.

Text in English and Dutch.

Over the centuries, craftsmen have applied their creativity and technical skills to exploit the generous resources of Nature to marvellous effect. In this case they have employed seeds, leaves, flowers and fibres from the plant world, along with feathers, plain or iridescent shells, teeth, and fur from the animal kingdom to fashion objects of astonishing beauty, enhanced with the addition of elements in iron, copper, silver, and gold. Such materials have always provided the basis for magnificent headdresses of all varieties, including hats, caps, crowns, and headbands. In time, as the conditions of trade and pilgrimage routes improved, rare materials and manufactured products spread all over the globe, as well as new knowledge, techniques, and methods of fabrication. Each class of individual sported a distinct type of headdress: initiates and adults, hunters and warriors, religious dignitaries and healers, rulers and notables; unmarried girls, married women, and young mothers. In each case the author explains their opulence and symbolism to the reader.

This book is a complete overview of all thirty Belgian abbey beers. Where is the rich patrimony of Belgian abbey beers rooted? What are the remarkable stories about this authentic, labour-intensive product. In which way are Trappist beers different from the others? In Belgian Trappist and Abbey Beers, Jef Van den Steen unravels the different stages in the production process of the beers and talks very passionately about the origin and development of the various breweries within the walls or under the license of the abbey. Each brewery is presented with practical information, different types of beer, and the author always includes tips for tourists.

Phase 3 of digitalisation has started. A phase of artificial intelligence has revolutionised the buying behavior of customers: collecting information, the buying process and customer service have changed dramatically. This book explains the impact of the ‘internet of things’, virtual assistants, bots and client data. But first of all this is a book about customers. In a world of automatisation the most important question remains: how can I be customer-oriented? “Steven is a much asked for keynote speaker for our events, always a highlight. He has a unique and authentic style: with a combination of academic depth and well-built cases he spices up his presentations with a tremendous amount of humor.” – Anthony Belpaire, Google Website: stevenvanbelleghem.com Youtube: StevenVanBelleghem/videos Twitter: @StevenVBe

The unique selection of almost 300 paintings and drawings collected in The Realism of It shows the evolution of artist Rik Vermeersch and unveils an amazing coherence throughout his work. His earlier gestural paintings later make room for more objective work, the so-called ‘digital paintings’, nudes in particular. With texts by Paul Depondt and Matthijs Van Dijk.

Together Apart gives us new understandings of the role of architecture as a place to live, work and interact with, and as a podium for the arts and attempts to trigger emotions through its innovative architectural photography, its original lay-out and its rich and lyrical language. Ferran Adrià i Acosta is one the world’s greatest exponents of avant-garde cuisine of our time and the creative genius and engine of the historical restaurant El Bulli which closed its doors in 2012. He describes his cooking as as decontructivist. In 2004, the American magazine Time included him on the list of the 100 most innovative people in the world. He has published several books and gives lectures around the world. On 17 December 2007 the University of Barcelona awarded him an honorary doctorate. He will continue his work in an even more experimental way at the creative centre El Bulli Foundation that opens its doors in 2014. For nearly twenty years now Hedwig Van Impe has shown consistent ways to support and collaborate with artists, curators and architects. At the end of the nineties he commissioned a building to his friend, the remarkable Italian designer and architect Ettore Sottsass. As a self-proclaimed anarchitect he is the author of La Dividida, his latest accomplishment. The building is the result of a cross-fertilisation between himself and Ferran Adria. He developed inspiring and fresh ways of seeing and contextualising contemporary art through his performative sculptures, Statuements, a fusion of the words ‘statue’ and ‘statement’, which he has created for many years now. The contemporary aspects in Flemish and Spanish Renaissance art impassion him. In the creative spot, La Dividida, he goes on to formulate new proposals in which different artistic and art related disciplines are mixed, manipulated, reinterpreted etc… in order to imbue them with new meaning.

Together Apart gives us new understandings of the role of architecture as a place to live, work and interact with, and as a podium for the arts and attempts to trigger emotions through its innovative architectural photography, its original lay-out and its rich and lyrical language. Text in Spanish. Ferran Adrià i Acosta is one the world’s greatest exponents of avant-garde cuisine of our time and the creative genius and engine of the historical restaurant El Bulli which closed its doors in 2012. He describes his cooking as as decontructivist. In 2004, the American magazine Time included him on the list of the 100 most innovative people in the world. He has published several books and gives lectures around the world. On 17 December 2007 the University of Barcelona awarded him an honorary doctorate. He will continue his work in an even more experimental way at the creative centre El Bulli Foundation that opens its doors in 2014. For nearly twenty years now Hedwig Van Impe has shown consistent ways to support and collaborate with artists, curators and architects. At the end of the nineties he commissioned a building to his friend, the remarkable Italian designer and architect Ettore Sottsass. As a self-proclaimed anarchitect he is the author of La Dividida, his latest accomplishment. The building is the result of a cross-fertilisation between himself and Ferran Adria. He developed inspiring and fresh ways of seeing and contextualising contemporary art through his performative sculptures, Statuements, a fusion of the words ‘statue’ and ‘statement’, which he has created for many years now. The contemporary aspects in Flemish and Spanish Renaissance art impassion him. In the creative spot, La Dividida, he goes on to formulate new proposals in which different artistic and art related disciplines are mixed, manipulated, reinterpreted etc… in order to imbue them with new meaning.

During her studies, Julie Van den Kerchove completely changed her eating habits and has only used natural ingredients since. In doing so, she managed to put a stop to her health problems. In her second book, she again cooks delicious meals that don’t contain any gluten, dairy or meat. In addition, she only uses natural sugars. She does that in the most practical way possible, which makes this book a great fit for those who want to cook healthy in less than 30 minutes. See Julie in action on her own YouTube-channel, which includes many how-to videos in English: www.youtube.com/user/julieslifestyle also available: Vegan & Raw: Energizing Recipes ISBN 9789401434720

“‘The marvellous is always beautiful,’ reads a sign on the wall of the Scottish National Museum of Modern Art. This stirring slogan, by Andre Breton, from his Manifesto of Surrealism, sets the tone for this fascinating, mind expanding exhibition.” – BBC Arts “Outstanding… The finest spread of surrealist art – paintings and objects – to be seen in Britain since the momentous Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design show at the V&A in 2007.” – Sunday Times

This book brings together over 160 of the finest surrealist artworks by legendary artists including Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró and Man Ray. The works hail from the four renowned and extraordinary private collections of Edward James, Roland Penrose, Gabrielle Keiller and Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch, and together offer a superb overview of surrealist art. Ten essays explore the different origins, historical contexts and creative urges behind these collections. Artworks, perhaps more than anything else that one can acquire, are objects of desire and surrealist artworks even more so. The sheer quality of the works acquired (and, in the case of the Pietzsches, still being acquired) is astonishing and, while passionate about their private visions, all the collectors have been mindful of contributing something to the public good. The collections complement each other to an extraordinary degree and allow us to follow some of the artists’ careers from beginning to end. By uniting them, exciting new juxtapositions emerge along with a fuller and richer picture of the surrealist movement as a whole.

Imagine a site fifteen minutes from the heart of downtown Vancouver, able to capture in one view: snow-covered mountains and an archipelago, a lighthouse and the downtown skyline, the vegetation of a moderate rainforest and ocean waters. Imagine the same view transgressing national borders to include an active volcano. This is the site where the story of House Shumiatcher unfolds. As the son of Morris Shumiatcher, founder of Smithbilt Hats in Calgary, Judah spent his summers in high school and college learning the art of the hatter. Like so many other North American cities during this period, Calgary was experiencing a postwar housing boom. Judah developed an interest in the delivery of inexpensive, well-designed houses and began to consider an alternate career as a building contractor. After all, work in that sector was abundant and the lifestyle appealing. A scheduled stop in New York City altered the course of his career. There, by chance, he encountered Frank Lloyd Wright, first in an interview on television, and then, having gotten up the courage to request a private meeting, briefly in person in a temporary building on the site of the new Guggenheim Museum. Judah brought the knowledge and ambition he brought from his meeting with Wright to continue a storied career in architecture in his home country of Canada. After 38 years in a house he built specifically for his family, they had to struggle with the difficult decision to sell the property as Vancouver rates were increasing by 200%, even though they knew a developer would tear it down. This book then serves as the lasting testament to a brilliant home designed by one of Canada’s best unsung architects.

In Western culture, from an early age we are ingrained with the notion that weight in building construction equals strength as evinced even in children’s stories such as the ‘The Three Little Pigs’. This idea of the relative strength of mass pervades our culture as a fundamental truth, but heavy materials are not intrinsically stronger than lighter ones. While time will be needed to remove the biases that we carry in our cultural DNA, our perception of strength has begun to shift. If we look at the historical evolution of architecture – from the massive pyramids of Egypt to the framed structures of Greek and Roman construction, to the lighter Gothic vaulting and eventually modern architecture of the twentieth century – we see a continuous, almost linear progression from solid mass construction to diaphanous skins of glass and steel. This is our historic journey from mass to membrane.

Pratt Sessions presents a series of conversations between notable practitioners and thinkers. It is a distributed symposium that is curated and yet open-ended. Based on an ongoing lecture series at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Architecture and Urban Design programme, each session brings together two participants as a means of instigating discourse and dissolving and/or reinforcing the artifice of geographically-based discourse networks. Participants are carefully paired together based on the content of their work and the region in which they reside and/or practice. Participants frame their work around a disciplinary provocation in short, non-standard lecture presentations, and engage in an in-depth dialogue. Pratt Sessions is intended as a book series, each volume featuring six conversations, which originally took place over the course of two academic semesters. The six sessions are divided in two areas of focus, exploring and examining how new mediums and new contexts can be defined, redefined, and understood within the realm of architectural design.

Hilde Van de Walle (b.1957) is a multi-disciplinary artist. In a period of 30 years she created a vast and highly appreciated oeuvre consisting of graphic art, paintings, ceramics and monumental bronzes. She often explores the mystery behind the human façade. As an artist she wants to achieve maximum expression with a minimal number of visual clues. Her images are actions frozen in time. It is the task of the spectator to fill in the preceding action or imagine the continuation of the movement. Her imagery is wilful; the artist dislocates normal anatomy and forces it into a new shape. Parts of the body are deliberately eliminated to come to the purest expression. The subdued charisma of the figures stimulates a dialogue with the environment and the spectator. The residual space between the images is no blank space, but acts as a sound box that amplifies the expression. Capturing the intangible in an image remains Hilde’s passionate ambition. Text in English and Dutch.

For 35 years floral design company Oogenlust has been creating stunning floral compositions and interior designs inspired by the natural world. The entire spectrum of emotions is visited in beautiful creations that excite the senses and make those special moments in life simply unforgettable. Oogenlust is driven by a passion for nature and the changing seasons. Its strength lies in the meticulous use of all the materials that nature offers. But it is the sheer love for the craft of flower arranging so evident in every Oogenlust design that makes them so distinctive, original and captivating. Text in English and Dutch.

How much longer do you want to put it off? How long can you manage your organisation, your team or your life without making some fundamental change? Above all, how long can you avoid being overtaken by others because you stick to your method and your comfort zone? Our society is changing and crying out for a new model. We are living in a digital age where everyone and everything is connected, where competition no longer comes from the sector, and customers, users and citizens are in the driver’s seat. Data are gold and sharing is the new having. The digital age requires a new approach and a new model. This book beckons you to dare – dare to help build a different business world, with a balance between short and long term results, but just as much to help build a different society through personal choices, a society that is ready for the next generation.

The dahlia, a flower that was once thought of as old-fashioned, has surged in popularity over the past few years due to the development of new varieties and an uptick in appreciation from Royals and celebrities. They appear in a broad spectrum of beautiful colours and eccentric shapes, and thanks to their long flowering time they are garden crop favourites. This inspirational book explores every aspect of the dahlia from its history to its sustainable cultivation.

Freedom, simplicity and togetherness: that’s what life is all about according to happy campers Els Sirejacob and Bram Debaenst. Those values are the reason why they love the camper van life so much; they’re also qualities you’ll recognise in Els and Bram’s work as a food stylist and food photographer.

Camper Food & Stories is the result of Els and Bram’s shared passion for camper van travelling and slow cooking. It’s an ode to life on the road as well as to good, pure and flavourful food.

With this book you’ll travel from the Black Forest to Denmark and from Cornwall to the Balkans. You’ll discover the most beautiful unspoilt places in Belgium and the Netherlands, and you’ll be inspired by the wonderful, dreamy travel photos and personal stories.

This book is of course also about food. The recipes in it honour the local cuisine and products of each destination. The featured dishes are uncomplicated yet bursting with flavour, and made from fresh, local ingredients – like fire-baked veggies with yoghurt and mint, heart-warming slow-cooked stews, barbecued shellfish or easy and healthy breakfasts. Of course, these camper recipes are perfect for cooking at home too, with the added bonus of feeling like you’re on vacation.

The genesis, development and life-long occupation of the McIntyre house, built in 1972 as part of a multiple-dwelling subdivision, provides possible answers to some very pressing contemporary design questions. How might one live near the city and be respectful of nature? How might efficiently built dwellings also be spacious and dense site occupation still allow for privacy? This history is recounted through text augmented by photographs and site diagrams, house sections and plans. They reveal a modern architecture on the west coast that resulted from an interplay of both the physicality of the land and a culturally imbued landscape.