Japan is a land of diversity and contradictions with a unique, somewhat mysterious culture. It is a place where you will find ancient temples, shrines and customs cherished and unchanged for over thousand years, as well as cutting edge technology and trendsetting architecture. V

isitors will be amazed by the courteous and warm way travelers are welcomed and the delicacy of Japanese food and art.

Although in Japan the majority of the population lives in vibrant contemporary cities like Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka, historical places like Kamakura, Kyoto and Nikko are always close. The Japanese archipelago consists of thousands of islands that are often densely forested and mountainous. Situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire the highly volcanic activity in the region has shaped over time stunning landscapes with many natural wonders to discover.

Marc Popelier’s frequent visits to Japan and life-long interest in the country and culture have crystallized into the pages of this book. It is a perfect introduction to Japan and will surely tempt anyone to visit this fascinating country.

A Grid and a Conversation presents a survey of work by the New York City based firm Morris Adjmi Architects, well known for the Samsung building along the High Line and the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This firm interprets the complex forces that shape our cities to create buildings that are contextual yet unmistakably contemporary. Deeply embedded in the firm’s practice is a belief in the Renaissance tradition of architecture, wherein buildings are inextricable from their cultural situation and intellectual function. With a rapidly rising profile and projects under construction in major cities across America, Morris Adjmi Architects is building on its previous ten-year partnership with the Italian architect, designer and scholar Aldo Rossi, with an understanding that the built environment is constantly evolving as it both absorbs and reacts to greater historical narratives; and this rich inheritance unfolds through a distinctive formal language and creative use of materials inspired by its urban milieu. From unexpected twists on classic building types like the all-glass interpretation of a cast-iron facade or the ghostly metallic duplicate of a brick warehouse, to the literally twisting steel tower that embodies the collision of Manhattan’s two primary street grids, this text traces the development and distillation of MA’s unique practice through key projects completed during its first 20 years. A Grid and a Conversation is interlaced with reflections from writers, scholars, and collaborators, including Diane Ghirardo, Bill Higgins, and Jimmy Stamp. These essays and conversations offer an insight into the array of influences that shape the work of Morris Adjmi Architects.

Industrial heritage is an important part of our built environment and landscape. It provides tangible and intangible links to our past and has great potential to play a significant role in the futures of our cities, towns, and rural environments. The projection and redevelopment of industrial heritage can contribute to the building of social and cultural capital, environmental sustainability, and urban regeneration. This book showcases a selection of works completed since 2010 with a wide global distribution. It highlights an encouraging increase in the practice of the transformation, redevelopment, and adaptive reuse of industrial structures. From under-utilized, disused, or discarded reminders of times past, the latest metamorphoses of buildings and structures have imbued them with new purposes in what could be regarded as one more stage in a continuous process of industrial evolution. The four essays written by authors from a variety of backgrounds and locations offer a rich addition to the selection of case studies and could serve as opportunities for further research. This book provides direct, informational reference to architects, researchers, and decision-makers.

Includes projects located in France, Sweden, China, Spain, Chile, the Netherlands, USA, Germany, Portugal, Denmark, South Africa, Italy, Canada, Thailand, Latvia, Belgium, Estonia, and India.

The term “smart” in reference to homes and communities describes places whose function is related to or affected by information technology. In the wake of the ongoing digital revolutions of the 21st century, designers and planners are paying significant attention to the design of dwellings and neighborhoods and are considering new economic realities, by integrating innovative digital appliances, which are also helping to foster economic sustainability for future generations. In this important book, Avi Friedman, Professor of Architecture at McGill University in Montreal, examines these concepts and their applications through several revealing essays, which are illustrated with lavish full-colour photography, detailed diagrams, and technological insight through a selection of case studies from around the globe. The text comprehensively investigates several key topics, namely the correlations between the built and the natural environments and their ecological attributes; issues of mobility and transportation; the mixing of amenities and residences; district heating and other energy efficiencies; planning for green open space while considering the residents’ lifestyle; edible landscapes and novel urban agriculture practices and their implementation; reducing a community footprint with regards to the evolution of high-density living; the principles of heritage conservation within communities, where social, economic, and environmental issues are all present, where old is mixed with new; how sustainability is achieved when dwellings are designed for and equipped with advanced “green” technologies, for adaptable homes, multi-generational dwellings, add-in and add-on units, and plug and play, among others.

Spijkers and Spijkers is part 6 in a series showcasing important Dutch and internationally influential Fashion Designers. Dutch twin sisters Spijkers and Spijkers create flattering womenswear that rebels against society’s stereotypical image of femininity. Known for their Art Deco-inspired striking graphic prints and fluid tailoring, they have been championed for creating both couture and ready-to-wear collections that are accessible to all. This book presents their career history, which so far has spanned 11 years.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the world’s most important black wine grape as both a varietal and a blend. The Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot and other varieties has become universal, but is now challenged by varietal wines from the New World. Going behind the scenes, this worldwide survey, liberally illustrated with maps and photographs, examines the changing nature of Cabernet Sauvignon and its blends. Should the wine be herbaceous or driven by black fruits? Should it be ready to drink on release or require aging? What is the true character of Cabernet Sauvignon? How do the top wines of Napa Valley differ from the First Growths of Bordeaux? Has Bordeaux lost its way in adopting a riper “international” style? How do its wines compare with Bordeaux blends from Coonawarra or Margaret River? Will global warming require the blend to be changed? Is Bordeaux still the essential reference point or has it been displaced by newer regions? Reviewing Cabernets from all over the world, Claret & Cabs includes profiles of leading producers with tasting notes from current and past vintages, and vintage assessments.

The 1920s in Germany witnessed a revolution in visual communication, typography, and graphic design that still influences us today. In 1929, Hungarian avant-garde artist and Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy was invited to design a room dedicated to the future of typography at the Martin-Gropius Bau in Berlin as part of a larger exhibition called New Typography (“Neue Typographie”).

The exhibition was organized by the Ring of New Advertising Designers (“ring neue werbegestalter”), a group started by Kurt Schwitters in 1927 which consisted of 12 avant-garde designers and artists who explored a common vision of modernity in advertising and graphic design. In five years, the Ring put on over 20 shows in Germany, and invited guest artists to exhibit with them.

Moholy-Nagy’s room in the New Typography show was called “Where is Typography Headed?”. He created 78 freestanding panels with work by himself, other artists, and contemporary printed matter, which addressed the current trends and future direction of typography. The panels are reproduced together in this book for the first time, along with an Abcdarium of terms and concepts by a roster of noted typography and design historians.

More than four centuries ago, the small Republic of the United Netherlands embarked on an economic boom. Contacts were established with the four corners of the world. Many of these centuries-old relationships have left traces in museums and archives, in the open fields or in the city, in stories and in pictures. Footsteps and Fingerprints, the Legacy of a Shared History presents an image of the legacy the contacts between Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Russia, Sri Lanka, Surinam and South Africa have produced over the last 400 years. Various ‘top pieces’ and other remarkable items designated Mutual Cultural Heritage are described: from Vingboons’ View of Table Bay, Henkes Schnapps in Ghana to the Dutch Church in St Pertersburg.

Paul Gauguin’s Vision of the Sermon (1888), one of the iconic works of the late nineteenth century, continues to provoke profound reassessment and interpretation by art historians, and it is central to this third volume of Van Gogh Studies: Dario Gamboni discusses the painting as a self-reflexive work dealing in visual terms with issues of perception, cognition and representation; Juliet Simpson addresses the art critic Aurier’s contribution to the promotion of Gauguin as the exemplary symbolist artist; while Rodolphe Rapetti examines Emile Bernard’s artistic response to Vision of the Sermon in the context of Rosicrucianism; the Belgian art world’s critical reaction to this and other works by the artist is meticulously described and analyzed in Elise Eckermann’s essay; while June Hargrove presents a challenging vision of Gauguin’s portraits of his ‘alter ego’ Meijer de Haan. Other contributions include Sandra Kister’s examination of the way the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen functioned as a role model for the Museé Rodin in Paris; Richard Thomson’s discussion of the diverse ways in which French artists working in the early Third Republic responded to contemporary concepts of ‘la psychologie nouvelle’; and, finally, a fresh view of nineteenth-century illustrations, including caricatures, offered by Patricia Mainardi. Contents:
-The Vision of a vision: Perception, hallucination, and potential images in Gauguin’s Vision of the sermon
-The décor of dreams: Gauguin, Aurier and the symbolists’ vision -From Gauguin to Péladan: Emile Bernard and the first salon of the Rose+Croix -Gauguin’s critical reception in Belgium in 1889 and 1891 -Gauguin’s maverick sage: Meijer de Haan -Museé Rodin: Thorvaldsen as a role model -Seeing Visions, Painting Visions: On psychology and representation under the early Third Republic -Paths forgotten, calls unheard: Illustration, caricature, comics in the 19th century Also Available:
Current Issues in 19th Century Art: Van Gogh Studies, Volume 1 ISBN: 9789040083501 Van Gogh: A Literary Mind: Van Gogh Studies, Volume 2 ISBN: 9789040085628

Despite its trademark transparency, the Corum Golden Bridge is a wristwatch full of mystery. This new book describes the iconic linear timepiece’s fascinating history including the innovative mechanical invention conceived by a nonconformist autodidact and the difficult technical breakthroughs by two like-minded personalities needed to achieve the dream wristwatch. This story, chock-full of narrative substance, begins in Switzerland of the late 1970s, at a time when electronic timekeeping was threatening to overtake the magical mastery of mechanical ticks and tocks. The Golden Bridge, spanning the gap between mechanics and art, is an integral part of this era as luxury watchmaking teetered on the brink of extinction. The Golden Bridge additionally helped usher in the era of the independent watchmaker, as its very creation was rooted in shedding light on the work of the watchmaker in a way that no other timepiece before or after it ever would.

“It’s very easy to please others, but very hard to please yourself.” Such is the byword of Vincent Calabrese, one of the best-known creative watchmakers in the world today.  Throughout his life he has never stopped trying to surpass himself.  His famous creations (including those relating to the tourbillon and the karussel) have made a decisive contribution to the revitalization of the Swiss watch industry, and his watches demonstrate his unparalleled boldness as well as his aesthetic sensitivity. But in these pages the reader will above all meet with a rare personality.  Born into a poor family in Naples, Vincent has earned a prominent place in the watchmaking world.  It is not just to his innovations, whose secrets he reveals in this book, that he owes his position. Vincent’s legacy comes every bit as much from his fierce determination, his philosophical and ethical standards, and his legendary broadsides, directed as much at the profession itself as at the industry as a whole.

Xu Zhimo (1897-1931) was China’s first great modern poet and a major figure of the intellectual revolution that shaped modern China. Educated in China (Peking University), America (Columbia and Clark), and England (Cambridge, where there is a monument in his honor), he was in contact with every major Chinese literary figure of his day, and met and was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore, Thomas Hardy, Katherine Mansfield, and Bertrand Russell, among others. Xu incorporated elements of the English poetic tradition and that of East India with native Chinese traditions to create a body of work that spoke to his contemporaries at a critical time in their history, and still speaks today. This book presents the largest selection of Xu’s poems available in English, as well as some of his prose works. Essays by translator Dorothy Bonett put the poet into context for English-speaking readers and reveals links between his works and other modern poetry, both Chinese and non-Chinese.

Raphael arrived in Rome in 1508 and remained there until his death in 1520, working as painter and architect for popes Julius II and Leo X and for the most prestigious patrons. Here the artist changed his painting style several times, looking at the works of Michelangelo, Sebastiano del Piombo and the vast repertoire of ancient painting and sculpture. In the Eternal City Raphael practised architecture for the first time, designing buildings that reflected the models of Antiquity such as the Pantheon, the descriptions deriving from written sources such as Vitruvius’ treaty on architecture, and the examples of modern architects like Donato Bramante.

This guide supplies essential and up to date information on all the civil or religious buildings designed or built by Raphael in Rome, and the frescoes and paintings, housed in churches or museums, whether executed in the city or arrived there at a later stage.

November 19, 1479: a dynastic alliance, two noble scions, a regal wedding, short-lived and with an unhappy ending. These pages reconstruct the story of the magnificent bas relief in the Acton Collection (Villa La Pietra, Florence), commissioned to celebrate the marriage between Antonio Basso Della Rovere, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, and Caterina Marzano d’Aragona, the niece of King Ferdinand I of Naples. The heraldic symbols of the three coats of arms leave no doubt about the identities of the characters and events surrounding its creation, and lead us to the original location of the work, born as the overdoor to the main portal of the Basso Della Rovere Palace in piazza della Maddalena in Savona. Through close examination of the Della Rovere in Rome, this study highlights some previously unknown facts about the family’s origins and returns to Savona and its role as a political, cultural, and artistic protagonist in late 15th-century Italy.

Delhi Then and Now comprises two masterful essays that trace the story of Delhi from the days when it was known by other names Indraprastha, Firozabad, Dinpanah to its reincarnation as New Delhi. Historian Narayani Gupta takes us through the city of Sultans, Mughal emperors and viceroys, while journalist Dilip Bobb shows us the face of New Delhi as it is now. A rich portfolio of archival photographs and illustrations, together with vibrant new pictures, edited by Pramod Kapoor, capture Delhi in all its glory past and present.

Delhi Then – A city of empires and dynasties, Delhi through the ages has evoked nostalgia of its history written on the red sandstone walls. From Quila Rai Pithora to the palace on Raisina Hill, the changing face of Delhi is remarkably discernible in these photographs – a special collection that give words to the spoken and unspoken history of this city. Delhi Now – A city of dreams and desires, Delhi’s urban landscape is incomplete without the stones of seven ancient cities which give it a distinct meaning, a distinct outlook. A modern city on the move, the colors and digital vibrancy of the photographs capturing Delhi in all moods and moments, is as imposing as the grand old structures of yesteryears. A twin city of old-world charm and new extravagance, Delhi has evolved through the ages and is looking forward to an era that will be remembered down the ages.

In the fall of 2020, Christo will wrap the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in silvery fabric for 16 days, returning to his signature style – after realizing The Floating Piers in Italy, the London Mastaba, and a quarter of a century after he and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Reichstag building in Berlin. As a prelude, a major exhibition at PalaisPopulaire in the German capital will celebrate this 25-year anniversary in the spring of 2020. At the same time, the Pompidou Center will pay tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude by staging The Pont Neuf Wrapped Documentary exhibition as well as a comprehensive show highlighting their early years in Paris.

To accompany these events, Matthias Koddenberg, art historian and long-time friend of both Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude, who was the other half of the artistic duo until her death in 2009, has edited an elaborate collection of interviews. The book is composed of many conversations held between Koddenberg and Christo in the artist’s New York studio over the last few years.

With rare frankness, Christo describes how he fled from Bulgaria and made his way into the Western world. He talks about his time in Vienna and Geneva, his vibrant life in Paris that was full of hardship, and the fateful moment when he met Jeanne-Claude.

This publication provides an exceptional inside view, uniting texts and numerous archival images and photographs, many of which have never been published before, or depict early works by Christo that have only recently been rediscovered.

Collage is one of the most popular and pervasive of all art-forms, yet this is the first historical survey book ever published on the subject. Featuring over 200 works, ranging from the 1500s to the present day, it offers an entirely new approach. Hitherto, collage has been presented as a twentieth-century phenomenon, linked in particular to Pablo Picasso and Cubism in the years just before the First World War. In Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage, we trace its origins back to books and prints of the 1500s, through to the boom in popularity of scrapbooks and do-it-yourself collage during the Victorian period, and then through Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism. Collage became the technique of choice in the 1960s and 1970s for anti-establishment protest, and in the present day is used by millions of us through digital devices. The definition of collage employed here is a broad one, encompassing cut-and-pasted paper, photography, patchwork, film and digital technology and ranging from work by professionals to unknown makers, amateurs and children.

Contents:

Collage Over the Centuries, an introductory essay by Patrick Elliott; Collage Before Modernism by Freya Gowrley; On Edge: Exploring Collage Tactics and Terminology by Yuval Etgar; catalogue of exhibition works; a Chronology of Collage.