Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is known as one of the most beautiful cities in the world because of its perfect blend of nature, environment, architecture and people. With almost complete preservation of architecture from all historical periods, Prague is second to none among other World Heritage cities for its richness, integrity and diversity. The city is like a European open-air museum of architectural art, and one of the indispensable destinations for architects and architecture lovers to travel in Europe.

Based on years of field and literature research by the authors, this book showcases the achievements of Prague’s thousand-year urban architectural changes and the protection of complete heritage.

Through the interpretation of 43 historic buildings from different periods, this book explores Prague’s urban characteristics and changes. Though priceless, most of these built heritages are beyond the focus of Western architectural history research, and their status and significance need to be readdressed and reassessed.

Text in English and Chinese.

A landmark publication that invites New Yorkers to look up — and marvel at some of the city’s greatest unsung architectural treasures, its sheet-metal cornices.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the facades of many, if not most, residential and commercial buildings in America’s cities were crowned with sheet-metal cornices. These offered certain practical advantages over stone or brick cornices — for example, they were lighter and safer to install — but the easy workability of sheet metal also allowed for greater decorative possibilities. It was in the sheet-metal cornice, in fact, that the architectural eclecticism of the era found some of its most elaborate and impressive expression; in their complex play of geometric elements, of light and shadow, of multiple symmetries, the finest cornices can almost rival the ornament of a Gothic cathedral or a Moorish mosque. And of all the cities where these cornices were installed, New York may preserve the greatest number and variety — particularly in such Manhattan neighbourhoods as Chinatown, the Lower East Side, the East Village, and Harlem.

Henry C. Millman first became fascinated with New York’s sheet-metal cornices when, as a draftsman for a building preservation firm, he had the unusual opportunity to examine their remarkable workmanship close up, from scaffolding or a swing stage. Decades later, he surveyed nearly every building in Manhattan to select some one hundred examples that would showcase the artistry and variety of the sheet-metal cornice. He then orchestrated an ambitious drone photography campaign to document these cornices, and made a detailed elevation drawing of each one, to illustrate its scale, structure, and graphic patterns with the utmost clarity. This volume presents the fruits of Millman’s multiyear project, organised by neighbourhood, along with his incisive text exploring the history, construction, and design of these sheet-metal marvels.

Ornamental Cornices is an essential volume for architects, builders, and curious urban wanderers alike — but it is also an eloquent plea for the preservation of Manhattan’s metal masterpieces, which even now are falling victim to time and elements.

An interactive series helping children explore the world and expand their imaginative play. Each box of fun focuses on a famous city and includes: six card board pages of punch-out monuments, characters, and modes of transport, along with pedestals on which to stand them up. Bonus! Each box set also includes a large format poster-map of the city, with a search-and-find game for hidden elements amongst streets to be recognised, as well as a game-of-the-goose style board game that references the city’s most famous attractions. Ages 6+

Make the most of Norwich with this new guide to the sights and secrets of East Anglia’s premier city, from the unknown treasures of its magnificent cathedral to the legends and stories behind its historic pubs. It’s a place of numerous historical layers, with intrigue and interest lurking on every corner, from the black circus proprietor who inspired one of The Beatles’ most famous songs to remnants of England’s most notorious red-light districts. It’s eminently walkable, too, but you can also bike or even canoe your way around the centre, maybe even heading out to explore the natural beauty of Broads National Park which lies just beyond.

Discover Derby like never before with 111 Places in Derby That You Should Not Miss. Nestled along the River Derwent, Derby is a city rich in history, from its Roman roots to its prominence as a railway town, where rolling stock has been manufactured since the early 19th century. Visit the Museum of Making to explore this industrial legacy and much more.

Beyond railways, Derby boasts stunning Victorian architecture, a splendid cathedral, and serves as a gateway to the gentle, rolling landscapes of south Derbyshire with, its grand country houses and charming towns and villages like Melbourne, Ticknall and Dale Abbey. Learn about local heroes such as Florence Nightingale, football legend Brian Clough, and artist Joseph Wright.

With a mix of quirky history and local humour, this guide is a perfect blend of intrigue, charm, and fun. 111 Places in Derby is a must-read for anyone eager to explore this unique and versatile English city.

The fascinating connection between the impressive architecture of Stuttgart’s new main train station and the art of the Stuttgart Ballet comes to life in Station Stuttgart. On a grey November afternoon, a unique stage set was created on the construction site: an unfinished track bed and a majestic hall, which, with its chalice columns and skylights, evokes the grandeur of a cathedral.

Renowned photographer Dennis Orel captured the gifted dancers of the Stuttgart Ballet in this extraordinary setting. Their elegant poses and the architectural complexity of the structure merge to create a striking work of art. Station Stuttgart documents not only the creative process but also the tireless dedication of all those involved, who, in harmonious collaboration, created an impressive marriage of dance and architecture. This publication invites the reader to discover the beauty and magic of this one-of-a-kind production.

Text in English and German.

Kerry James Marshall: The Histories is the most extensive publication on the artist to date, celebrating half a century of his work. It reveals the complex ways in which he has transformed histories of Western painting, centering Black bodies in ambitious compositions set in barber shops, public housing projects, parks, and beauty salons. It charts his use of portraiture to memorialise individuals such as Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and Olaudah Equiano. A new series, illustrated here for the first time, looks at under-acknowledged aspects of the history of Africa. With lavish illustrations of all the works in the accompanying exhibition, it also includes chapters on Marshall’s Rythm Mastr project and his various public commissions including his stained glass windows for the cathedral in Washington D.C.. A survey by Mark Godfrey is accompanied by shorter essays by Aria Dean, Darby English, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Cathérine Hug, Nikita Sena Quarshie, Rebecca Zorach, and an interview between Kerry James Marshall and Benjamin H.D. Buchloh.

Tessa Hunkin’s Hackney Mosaic Project has been responsible for some of the most witty and imaginative mosaics of recent years. In a bold reinvention of the classical tradition, Tessa has assembled a passionate and diverse team of makers, creating beautiful mosaics that have become cherished landmarks, celebrating community and elevating the streets of East London.

This inspirational collection reveals the scope of Hackney Mosaic Project’s achievement for the first time, ranging from modest pieces in private gardens to expansive murals and pavements in public parks.

Chetham’s Library is the oldest surviving public library in Britain. It was founded in 1653, under the will of Humphrey Chetham, a prosperous Manchester textile merchant, banker and landowner. His legacy also established a school for 40 poor boys (now a specialist music school) and provided for five chained libraries to be placed in local churches.

The Library, in Manchester, England, is housed in a beautiful sandstone building dating from 1421, which was constructed to accommodate the priests of Manchester’s Collegiate Church (now the Cathedral). It remains one of the most complete medieval building complexes to survive in the northwest of England. The building and the magnificent library interior create a unique atmosphere for both readers and visitors.

The Inside series focuses on the mission and organisation of an institution – the context in which it operates and the people who make it work. It tells the story of how an institution has evolved through its people, history, architecture, purpose and practice.

England’s first capital, largest cathedral, and oldest college: Winchester is a city where ancient walls murmur stories of proud warriors and Wintonian pioneers, of brutal crimes and glorious successes.

Whether you’ve called Winchester home for years, recently moved here, or are just visiting for a short time, these 111 places will captivate, enchant, and amaze you. Try the sparkling wine which rivals champagne or the renowned striped ice cream and visit Europe’s first wasabi grower. Feel a shiver in the Red Room, cross the bridge that predicts the weather and find the garden built by a spy. Amble where Russel Crowe rode and the real Countess of Downton Abbey resides. Defend the city against a Viking invasion and meet the policeman who solved the first-ever train murder.

Amid it all, you’ll be immersed in Winchester’s stunning architecture, lively atmosphere, and warm energy – a city no longer ruling a kingdom, yet still brimming with power, scandal, secrets, and life.

History of Italian Watchmaking takes readers on a centuries-long journey that begins with the marking and measuring of time in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the apex of modern watchmaking revived by ‘Made in Italy’ stylistic trends and precision craftsmanship. Italy’s peninsula occupies only 0.5% of the world’s surface but has given birth to 70% of the world’s art. Italy’s pursuit of art, beauty, and elegance is a defining trait of Italian watchmaking. Italians have always been voyagers to far away lands, from Marco Polo on, poets, artists, and creators of iconic fashion brands and car design. It is not surprising that this genius has been applied to clocks and watches as well. Hourglasses, sundials, and church bells marked time over many centuries. Illustrious geniuses such as Dante Alighieri, Galileo Galilei, Giorgio Vasari, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Leonardo da Vinci were intensely interested in the measuring of time passing.

Taking the most existential question, ‘What is the Meaning of Life?’, this publication dissects creative expression, considers the place for frivolity, and unpacks the rhythms and rules of the everyday to address how we might live more meaningfully.

In this highly illustrated book, John Kenneth Paranada looks at how creativity can offer a greater sense of purpose, and the role of art in resetting the tempo of a distracted culture. Ben Highmore and Sam Tacconi explore how embracing play and a gaming approach to life can bring value and make sense of behaviours, both on an individual level and across communities, while Ed Krčma and Jessica Barker address the evolving daily routines and societal rules by which we live our lives, examining how these impact our sense of purpose and belonging. Finally, Rosy Gray reflects on how grief can offer pause and how we can find solace in the multiverse, urging us to re-consider the meaning and value of our (many) lives.

This book accompanies a season of exhibitions and projects at the Sainsbury Centre.

Michel Buffet is known as a pioneer in the mid-century industrial design movement in France. His work embodies the aesthetics of the ‘Thirty Glorious Years’ of French design from 1945 to 1975, which he expressed elegantly in his signature shapes and colours. His career includes a 30-year association with Raymond Loewy at CEI (Compagnie d’Esthetique Industrelle), the founding of his own company (Vector Industrial Design), a range of elaborate public works and transportation projects, and his signature interior and lighting designs.

His transportation projects include design work for planes (the Dessault Group Falcon and the Concorde) and trains, for the Caracas metro, the Hong Kong subway, the Channel Tunnel, Shell International service stations, and the French Navy.

In the realm of furniture, he notably designed a modular kitchen, DF 2000, hailed by the Italian review Domus. His lighting fixtures from the 1950s – including the floor lamp B211 and wall sconce B206 – were initially issued by Luminalite, and have become popular classics which have been reissued by the company Lignes de démarcation.

Text in English and French.

Athens can be noisy and crowded and confusing, but it’s spontaneous and always surprising. A cable ride up Lykavittos rewards with an incredible panorama but veer off the track to discover the hill’s secret links to Parnitha. The beauty of Kaisariani Monastery’s architecture is matched by the ‘organised wilderness’ of its incredible gardens.

Ancient relics, great and small, mirror a glorious past that remains an example to the world, but they are only the start of what’s great about Athens today. There are the mountains that surround it, busy with climbers, runners and picnic-lovers during the weekends. The ubiquitous graffiti, some admirable, some abhorrent, that reveal what’s bugging the Athenians’ psyche. Bars, cafés and restaurants thronged with broke Greeks who refuse to stay inside. Stores where you can find vendors as venerable as their antiques and others that are up to date with the edgiest demands. And many surprising, sometimes downright dark, dank and mysterious pockets. Athens is changing day by day. This book will take you to places that are beyond touristy or trendy; whether hundreds of years old or contemporary, their tales are timeless.

Ecologies of Prosperity for the Living City is a collection of writings, interviews, and projects exploring themes introduced during the 2016 Woltz Symposium: Novel Synergies, the Instrumental Commons, and Dispersed Concentrations. With new material from speakers Philippe Rahm, Nina-Marie Lister, Marina Alberti, Paola Viganò, Niek Hazendonk, Albert Cuchí, and Jedediah Purdy, the dialogue is framed by a series of seminal texts from the 20th century and reimagines existing urban challenges through exemplary design projects of today. Structured as a reader for students and design practitioners, it promotes urban design as a catalyst for cultural, social, and environmental transformation within cities, towns, and for communities, institutions, and individuals faced with today’s most pressing urban challenges.

The Monochrome of the Sala delle Asse is a portion of wall decoration left at the drawing stage and represents the roots of one of the sixteen mulberry trees that, regularly spaced on the walls of the room, intertwine above to create a polychrome arboreal pavilion on the vault. The decoration of the room, which was never completed, is historically tied to the name of Leonardo da Vinci by a letter written in April 1498 by Gualtiero da Bascapé, the secretary of Ludovico il Moro, to the duke of Milan, explaining that Lunedì si desarmarà la camera grande da le Asse c[i]oè da la tore. Magistro Leonardo promete finirla per tuto Septembre. The room was subjected to radically changing fortunes over the centuries, and was later the object of two complex restoration campaigns, the first carried out between 1893 and 1902 by Luca Beltrami and the second between 1955 and 1956 by Costantino Baroni. This volume provides an account of the result of these restorations. It describes the complex diagnostic research and the technical assessments that form the foundations of a broader project for the conservation of the painted area.

Text in English and Italian.

Graphic artist, painter, sculptor, designer of wall textiles,… the artistic achievements of Herman van Nazareth, alias of Herman van Aerden, are manifold. Van Nazareth’s abstract-expressionist imagery is unpretentious, rough and powerful, faceless but with a distinct voice. His pictorial and sculptural language is restrained and universal and goes back to the basic shapes, sometimes hinting at ethnic art. It is especially his works from the South-African era that are a testimony of the artist’s personal sentiments and engagement in the social and political debate of the time. He sculpts anonymous witnesses, suffering people, numbed and powerless in a society ruled by aggression and exclusion. His pictorial work taps into the same vein, but in his paintings of people with mask like expressions and abstract landscapes, his use of colour is more exuberant, sometimes strangely bizarre. Herman van Nazareth’s work is internationally acclaimed and for the first time his extraordinary output has been collected in a comprehensive catalogue.

This book is every foodie’s dream cookbook, a book like no other: a secret almanac of sorts of the themed degustation nights that have featured in Isadora Chai’s venue, Bistro à Table, in Kuala Lumpur – a hole-in-the-wall venue that remains as the only restaurant in Malaysia to have themed degustation dinners every month.

Resplendent with stunningly detailed photography, Isadora Chai’s cookbook explores her gastro gourmand’s take on a delicious array of superbly satirical but infinitely edible recipes. She details many sophisticated, very passionate, and innovative culinary surprises, including a wide range of dishes directly reversed, such as the Reversed Sushi and the Reversed Root Beer Float, where the proportions of the components and the composition of well-known dishes are reversed. Other menus reflect the heady worlds of politics, love and war no less. The book also includes a beautifully illustrated Manga graphic novel – by the author’s own hand – which presents an exquisite collection of dishes from the degustation combining modern Japanese food, subculture and art. Intrigued? This book is unique and spectacularly expressive snapshot of a culinary expert whose star continues to be on the rise.

With his trusted 35mm camera, Ron Hoffer plunged into the turbulent post-Soviet world of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In a myriad of images, he captured the beauty as well as the daily challenges, friends and strangers alike had to face in Czechoslovakia or East Germany, while trying to cope with the adventurously new economic and political realities. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Ron Hoffer’s vignettes of women, the youth, everyday culture, and devastated landscapes turn this book into a very personal memento and photographic tribute to this astonishing time of global optimism.

“Moonwatch Only is certainly one of the best books ever written about a single watch model.” – William Massena – Timezone.com “It is an indescribable reference work and a true must-have for every Speedmaster collector.” – Forbes “This book sets a new standard. Not only for books on the Omega Speedmaster, but for watch books in general. I’ve never seen anything like it, and believe me when I tell you that I could fill an impressive sized wall with books on watches. Authors of other books or publishers should take a look at Moonwatch Only as well to see how it should be done.” – Robert Jan Broer – FratelloWatches “The OMEGA Speedmaster Professional – the Moonwatch – has done things that no other timepiece has done and it’s been worn in places that only a few human beings have been.” – Captain Eugene Cernan, ‘Last man on the moon’ There are very few timepieces in the world that deserve a definitive and comprehensive book such as this one. The OMEGA Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch is one of them. Initially designed for automobile racing teams and engineers, the Omega Speedmaster embarked on a very different trajectory when NASA chose it to accompany astronauts heading for the Moon in 1965. Its involvement in the space adventure has propelled the Moonwatch to the top of the list of celebrated timepieces. After years of research and observation, the authors present a complete panorama of the Moonwatch in a systematic work that is both technical and attractive, making it the inescapable reference book for this legendary watch. This third edition has been enriched with numerous new features including a 16-page gallery of astronauts and their Speedmaster, QR codes to extend your exploration and a detailed story of a vintage Speedmaster.

This two-volume publication illustrates the evolutionary history of the pendulum clock from the early Age of Metternich and provides detailed explanations on their engineering. In addition, it contains a catalogue with almost 400 wall and longcase clocks, most of which have never been published, and a unique index with over 14,000 entries on clockmakers from all over the Austrian Empire, including a vast amount of previously unknown masters and workshops. It also includes biographical information on the makers, locations of the workshops, masterpieces and exhibits from trade exhibitions, inventions, characteristic features of the pieces, sales outlets, and the prices of the time. An indispensable compendium on classic longcase and wall clocks of the Austrian Empire and a major reference work for all those with an interest in clocks!

Text in German.