A decade after the Swiss National Bank had opened its neo-baroque building in Berne, the bank’s Zurich-based Governing Board moved into its own grand office building in 1922. This major work of the local firm of Otto and Werner Pfister is a prime example of neo-classicism in Switzerland and provided Zurich with an architectural landmark at the top end of its famous Bahnhofstrasse.
Marking its centenary, this book celebrates the Zurich home of the Swiss Franc. It describes in detail and lavishly illustrated the architecture and building history from planning stage until today. This is supplemented by essays on bank architecture since the Middle Ages, the urban formation of Zurich and the city’s development into a financial centre in the late 19th century. In his contribution, the renowned Canadian-British architect Adam Caruso compares it from today’s perspective with other central bank buildings and places it in context of the Pfister brothers’ other public commissions, many of which are occupying prominent locations in Zurich’s cityscape.
Richly illustrated with historical and new photographs, original plans and other historical documents, the volume pays tribute to a piece of public architecture that combines monumentality with pragmatism and republican modesty.
The Veronese wine regions of Soave and Valpolicella – home to Amarone – are currently producing some of the world’s most drinkable quality wines. But both regions still struggle with a reputation for cheap, poor-quality wines brought about through industrial-scale production during the economic depression following the Second World War. In Amarone and the Fine Wines of Verona, Italian wine specialist Michael Garner traces a shift in focus towards new levels of quality driven by a generation of producers inspired by the area’s outstanding potential for producing fine wine.
Both regions produce versatile wines which, as well as being both deliciously drinkable and relatively affordable, have the flavour and structure to accompany a wide range of foods. In Valpolicella an appassimento wine, the famed Amarone, has gained comparable status to Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino, while Soave overlaps with the tiny denomination of Lessini Durello, where sparkling wine is produced from the rare, local white grape Durella.
Garner begins Amarone and the fine wines of Verona with a summary of the region’s history, before detailing its geography, grape varieties and approach to both viticulture and winemaking, leading into a discussion of each denomination’s character and wine styles. A cross-section of around 100 producers provides a capsule profile of each, along with analysis of some of their best and most distinctive wines.
For students of wine, those in the wine business and wine adventurers alike, Amarone and the Fine Wines of Verona provides a gateway to a sorely misunderstood wine region.
Discover the magic of beloved the classic fairy tale Snow White with The Storyteller sound books. This innovative collection offers young children a new way to experience these timeless tales: designed for those who are not yet able to read independently, each book allows children to explore the stories by turning the pages while listening to the corresponding text read aloud at the touch of a button. The book becomes a modern storyteller, presenting the fairy tales with beautiful illustrations and engaging narration that brings the stories to life.
Other titles in the collection include:
9788854421707 The Storyteller: Peter Pan
9788854421714 The Storyteller: Pinocchio
9788854421691 The Storyteller: Little Red Riding Hood
Ages 4 plus.
Palazzo Vecchio, which towers over piazza della Signoria, at the centre of Florence, is an iconic building and from the Middle Ages to the Medici family to present day it has been the seat of civic power.
Among its most admired features are the marvellous grotesque decorations which animate the walls and vaults of the courtyard and several rooms. Grotesques are a type of wall decoration, in stucco or fresco, often with the addition of gold, that developed in the Renaissance when the vaults of the Domus Aurea in Rome, which were underground (considered grottos hence the name), were rediscovered by artists who drew inspiration from those designs.
Palazzo Vecchio’s grotesques are lively, extravagant ornaments, generated by the creativity of artists – among whom Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio (1483-1561) and Marco Marchetti da Faenza (ca. 1526-1588) stand out – and they include, birds, flowers, vegetation and many strange creatures that have a mixture of human and animal traits.
Team 10—also known as Team X and Team Ten—was an international group of young and strident architects that emerged from the Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) and existed from 1953 to 1981. The group criticised the dogmatism of Le Corbusier and other proponents of classical modernism. Its most notable members included Alison and Peter Smithson (Britain), Georges Candilis and Shadrach Woods (USA), Jacob Bakema and Aldo van Eyck (Netherlands), Giancarlo De Carlo (Italy), and Stefan Wewerka (Germany).
In this book, architectural historian Pedro Baía examines the influence of Team 10 on Portugal’s architectural culture. At the time, the country was largely cut off from Europe’s architecture hotspots. Using projects, completed buildings, images, texts, and statements by members of Team X, he illustrates how the group’s ideas and work were interpreted, disseminated, and appropriated in the critical discourse of the Portuguese architectural scene.
In Business Is the Continuation of War by Other Means, Jean Van Marcke explores a provocative but fundamental question: what if the true nature of strategy lies not in management theory, but in centuries of military insight? Drawing on a lifetime of leadership and study, he applies insights from Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz and Michael Porter to the realities of modern business. Strategy is not reduced to planning or frameworks, but understood as the art of navigating conflict, power, and uncertainty. This book offers entrepreneurs a way to focus more clearly, decide more effectively, and shape the conditions for lasting impact in an increasingly unpredictable landscape.
With concrete examples from healthcare, education, finance and HR, this book demonstrates how humans and technology can reinforce one another. Practical tools such as the ‘Humanity Check’ help you assess AI on autonomy, connection and meaning. It becomes clear that AI can be an ally in fostering personal growth and societal progress. It invites managers, innovators and policymakers to engage in the most important conversation of the next decade: how humans and AI can enrich one another.
“…Ford’s new book, co-authored with Kate Mraw and Betsy del Monte, pushes sustainability beyond doing less harm to restoring and revitalizing the environment.” — Architectural Record
Creating the Regenerative School profiles case studies from around the world that exemplify best practices in creating healthy, climate appropriate learning environments for early learners through high school with designs that are not only beautiful places to learn, but embrace restorative principles – enhancing the lives of the occupants, the environment, and the community they reside in. Each project will be profiled with eight pages of content including multiple photographs, plans, diagrams and approximately 1,000 words of narrative capturing the unique solutions. Case studies were evaluated on five metrics:
• Net-Zero Energy/Carbon Strategies
• Healthy, Regenerative Building Attributes
• Utilization of Evidence Based Informed Design
• Occupant Satisfaction
• Post Occupancy Data
The case studies will be supplemented with essays from leading subject-matter experts addressing topics ranging from:
• Evidence Based Design
• Occupant Health
• Net Zero Energy
• Net Zero Carbon
• Designing for Resilience in the face of Climate Change
• Best Practices in Designing for Safety and Security
• Biophilic Design
• Pathways to Advocacy
Extensive research, communications, interviews data analysis were utilised in compiling the book with the mission to share knowledge and insights that are vital to creating healthy, regenerative ECE-12 learning environments in all manner of contexts. Outcomes for each project will be profiled in the form of post occupancy data, certifications received, and client perspectives.
In the late decades of the 19th century a textile manufacturer sent his teenage son to Leeds to develop the business. Little did Mr. Holme senior know what that move would lead to. The young man, Charles Holme, happened to attend a lecture given by a business man just returned from the Far East. In very little time the inspired youth was travelling across Far Eastern countries developing his own business. On his travels he came to the conclusion that countries didn’t get along together because of the barrier of language. He thought that if they could be exposed to each others cultures visually all would be peace and light. It was that notion that led Charles Holme on his retirement from trading, without any relevant training or experience, to become a publisher, his business entitled The Studio Ltd., its first publication, The Studio. For over 50 years, involving three generations, The Studio Ltd. grew to be Britain’s biggest publisher of magazines and books on art and design in the first half of the 20th century. Its story is told here.
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl was founded in 2003. Twenty years later, the team consists of 31 talented cyclists from 10 different countries. Under the leadership of CEO Patrick Lefevere, the team became one of the most successful ones in cycling history. In 2010, Czech businessman Zdenek Bakala joined the squad. They have won more than 800 UCI races, including 20 Monuments, more than 50 national titles, 6 world titles on the road, 6 world titles in the individual time trial, 4 world titles team time trial, 2 World Cups, 2 European titles and an Olympic title.
This book is an overview of the most exciting highlights of 20 years of the Wolfpack, with fantastic photos from the archive and interviews with the key players.
The graphics range from the advertising produced for the first steam ships of the 1880s to those for the ocean liners of the 1920s, cruise liners of the 1930s and, finally, those for the last transatlantic lines in the 1960s. Posters: The Sea Voyage collects placards, posters, announcements, advertising leaflets, brochures and pamphlets produced to promote passenger ships, cruises, sea journeys and Atlantic crossings. In addition to identifying these graphics, text by architect and scholar Pablo Piccione contextualises and historicises the development of Italian graphic styles and tastes. Text in English and Italian.
Spanish architect Luis Vidal is renowned as one of the world’s leading airport designers. But airports are just one typology of Vidal’s broad range of large-scale architectural projects. Expect the Unexpected: Luis Vidal + Architects provides extraordinary insight into the work of Vidal and his studio and showcases fourteen projects that have become a world reference in architecture, design, and construction.
This beautifully presented monograph features stunning photographs and detailed plans and diagrams. Renowned writer and international architecture expert Philip Jodidio eloquently narrates the story of each project, which includes airports, urban buildings, hospitals, and educational and cultural centres. Among the selected works are the award-winning Terminal 2 (The Queen’s Terminal) at Heathrow Airport in London, Matta Sur Community Center in Santiago de Chile, and Loyola University Campus in Seville. The volume provides insight into Vidal’s careful selection of materials and interest in signature colours, such as prismatic red for the Boston Logan International Airport, and demonstrates his commitment to energy-efficient solutions and design.
Expect the Unexpected also features an intensely personal endeavor for Vidal—a private residence that encapsulates much of the thinking that has made his work so successful across the world.
The Basilica of Saint Mary Major is the only patriarchal basilica of the four in Rome to have retained its paleo-Christian structures and is the resting place of Pope Francis. This elegant guide showcases ultra-high gigapixel photography of the Basilica’s interior and traces its history from 425 AD and tradition has it that the Virgin Mary herself inspired the choice of the Esquiline Hill for the church’s construction. Appearing in a dream to both the Patrician John, the landowner of the Esquiline Hill, and Pope Liberius, she asked that a church be built in her honour on a site she would miraculously indicate. This is the essential and most innovative guide to this important pilgrimage and tourist site in Rome.
Text in English and Italian.
Discover the magic of beloved the classic fairy tale Pinocchio with The Storyteller sound books. This innovative collection offers young children a new way to experience these timeless tales: designed for those who are not yet able to read independently, each book allows children to explore the stories by turning the pages while listening to the corresponding text read aloud at the touch of a button. The book becomes a modern storyteller, presenting the fairy tales with beautiful illustrations and engaging narration that brings the stories to life.
Other titles in the collection include:
9788854421707 The Storyteller: Peter Pan
9788854421691 The Storyteller: Little Red Riding Hood
9788854421721 The Storyteller: Snow White
Ages 4 plus.
The Brothers Grimm collected some of Europe’s most popular folk tales, immortalising stories whose origin goes way back in time. This book, with beautiful watercolours by the imaginative illustrator Francesca Rossi, gathers ten of their most famous and magical works. Children will love meeting such favourite characters as Cinderella, the Brementown musicians, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Ages: 6 plus.
This volume, edited by Antonio Aimi and Antonio Guarnotta, offers a new, up-to-date study of the most important cultures of Mesoamerica and of the Peruvian Area, through magnificent artefacts held by the MIC (Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza) and various other Italian museums. The cultures of the Aztecs, Mayas, Incas and other populations of ancient America are analysed in light of the most recent archaeological and ethnohistorical research. Themes of prime importance are examined in depth: the conquest of America as seen from the point of view of the conquered, the status of women, the systems of calculation of ancient Peru, and pre-Columbian art presented as art, not only as archaeology.
Text in English and Italian.
Anyone that has a cat will recognise the truth of this tender biography by The Gentle Author.
“I was always disparaging of those who doted over their pets, as if this apparent sentimentality were an indicator of some character flaw. That changed when I bought a cat, just a couple of weeks after the death of my father.”
Filled with sentiment yet never sentimental, The Life & Times of Mr Pussy is a literary hymn to the intimate relationship between humans and animals.
For 10 years, Mathias Bertram has sought out surreal looking images and structures by the side of the road in Berlin and on his travels, capturing them in at-times puzzling photographs. He finds romantic landscapes in worn building facades, strange mythical creatures in faded street markings, maps of unknown continents on construction site containers, or virtuoso dancers in shattered steps. At first glance, his photographs could be mistaken for illustrations or paintings, but these motifs and shapes were created by time alone, gradually wearing away at things. Moisture, wind, and air cause them to age, while corrosion and collision slowly destroy them. However, as these things fall apart, something new is created that can lend dignity and beauty to the process of ageing—a “becoming through decaying”. Bertram’s photographs extract these trivial everyday items from their natural context, encouraging us to see them from an aesthetic perspective; a school of seeing that sharpens the gaze for the sensations of everyday life.
Do fashion and art go together? Fashion and art are both physical and psychological instruments that define our identity in this world. They bring moments of enchantment and passion. Discover the romantic clash between art and fashion in the form of a love story between two young people and get to know the true nature of two worlds that seem completely different from each other. This book is a mix of fiction and non-fiction. The love story between an artist and a fashionista teaches us that both fashion and art can be an élan vital for men and women. Do you remember your first encounter with art and fashion? Was it collecting art or consuming fashion? Fashion is action. Art is a reflection of this action. The authors of this book bring together experts from both disciplines, including 20 top designers and artists.
“Veteran wine books are by modern standards short on facts.” — Decanter Magazine
“This is an inspirational book well worth your time.” — Eric Asimov on Instagram
“If you want to learn about wine, switch off your phone, buy these two books and enjoy them with a nice glass of something.” — The Critic
“This is a don’t-miss book for people who plan their travels around vineyards.” — Washington Post
“This is one of the best books on wine ever written.” — Sommelier India
In this unique approach to understanding wine, Hugh Johnson, the world’s best-loved wine author, weaves the story of his own epic wine journey with an embracing view of everything he has discovered along the way. Almost without realising it, the reader is drawn into a fascinating world; with each page turned, knowledge is gained and wine wisdom absorbed. Hugh takes us from the teetering ledges of the Mosel and majestic châteaux of the Médoc to the sylvan slopes of Windsor Great Park with a spring in his step and a tasting glass at the ready.
No one writes so infectiously on every aspect of wine, whether human or cultural, technical or historical. This book is peppered with anecdotes and personal recollections, infused with the sheer delight Hugh finds in his subject. It is a book with a story to tell and a mastery of wine to impart.
Previously published as Wine, A Life Uncorked 2005, now updated with new chapters.
Anatolian Tribal Rugs 1050-1750: The Orient Stars Collection, a limited-edition companion to Orient Stars: A Carpet Collection (Stuttgart and London, 1993), presents 33 early rugs and textiles acquired between 1993-2006 by Heinrich and Waltraut Kirchheim. In this volume, Michael Franses discusses these exceedingly rare unpublished carpets with reference to their carbon-14 dating as well as comparative examples, and offers new commentary and dating for 43 of the carpets from the original book. Other contributors include: Anna Beselin, Walter Denny, Eberhart Herrmann, Klaus Kirchheim, Garry Muse and Friedrich Spuhler.
In After Us The Deluge, Dutch photographer Kadir van Lohuizen, co-founder of the photo agency NOOR Images, shows the consequences of rising sea levels for mankind. He travelled to six different regions in the world (Greenland, US, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, UK, and the Pacific) and captured the effects of global warming. The resulting photo essay is thought-provoking, illuminating, and aesthetically impactful. Each chapter includes a contribution from a local expert that addresses the specific problems in their region.
“This book celebrates teamwork and collaboration over the individual, a refreshing take on a practice which is given to celebrating starchitects.” —Peter H. Miller, Traditional Building
In 1897, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Spencer, Dwight Perkins, and Myron Hunt, all young architects just starting out in practice, shared office space in Chicago. This book is both a history of that brief period and an attempt to assess the extent to which they collaborated on their architectural designs and on the creation of architectural theory which would impact a half century of architectural design. While there is little firsthand documentation of the time spent in their shared loft office in Steinway Hall, this study engages in a side by side comparison of projects they each designed while working there. Overlapping ideas, design similarities, and an analysis of their subsequent work, all suggest that these men formed a creative “collaborative circle” of friends, who jointly developed ideas later claimed as the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This is a book about artistic collaboration at a time when discussions of art and architectural history are still largely dominated by the belief that significant works are created by the lone artistic genius.
At the turn of the last century Spencer, Perkins, Hunt, and Wright were part of a community of architects who were all active members of the Chicago Architectural. Steinway Hall, an office building designed by Dwight Perkins, became a home to Chicago’s architectural community with as many as 50 different architects renting space in that building at the turn of the last century. Based on Real Estate Directories from 1897 through 1910 the book includes a listing of the architects that worked and interacted there. Also included are brief biographies of Spencer, Perkins, and Hunt. Excepting Hunt, none of these men have been the subject of individual publications. While Frank Lloyd Wright’s life and work have been extensively chronicled, this book reexamines the period between Wright’s arrival in Chicago in 1887 and his move into the loft office in Steinway Hall in 1897.
Glaciers in the Alps and on Greenland have been melting away slowly for decades. Global warming has increased the speed of their retreat drastically in recent years. Swiss geophysicist Alfred de Quervain (1879-1927) carried out the first survey of the Clariden glacier in the Swiss canton of Glarus and initiated and led important scientific expeditions on Greenland in 1909 and 1912.
Swiss artist Martin Stützle and photographer Fridolin Walcher also link Glarus with Greenland. Both have made the Swiss glaciers the subject of their work and, in May 2018, joined a Swiss research campaign investigating the current state of the glaciers on the world’s largest island. The photographs and prints they produce reflect an intense awareness of scientific facts, yet they strike the viewer emotionally and aesthetically.
This book blends the essence of glaciological and geophysical research with contemporary art and picks up on Alfred de Quervain’s legacy. Prints and photographs are featured alongside three easy-to-read essays offering a concise survey of the findings of the 2018 expedition. A fourth essay comments on Stützle’s and Walcher’s works and explores current trends in climate art.
Text English, German and Kalaallisut (Greenlandic).