Archive for the ‘Book Review’ Category
Book Review: David Easton’s Timeless Elegence
In Timeless Elegance: The Houses of David Easton, we are given a rare look at the incredible range this American Interior Designer had. While the book covers everything from a Mexican stucco house to an Aspen residence, our favorite spaces featured here are his Manhattan apartments. Easton was surprisingly eclectic, especially in the urban styling he arranged. Lots of gold leaf, lots of animal prints mixed with classically appointed ticking. Everything has a classic, slightly masculine feel that is inspired.
You can get this beautiful book, published by Abrams imprint Stewart, Chabori and Chang, here. This publishing house consistently seem to bring us some of our favorite titles on classic design.
Below find a sneak peak of some of the beautiful spaces featured.
Book Review: Jacques Grange Interiors
When it comes to beautiful books on interior design, especially monographs, we count on Rizzoli to get our fix. They seem to consistently publish high-quality, dense, picture heavy volumes on all our favorites. Our latest obsession: Jacques Grange Interiors by Pierre Passebon.
The book is singularly focused on legendary French decorator Jacques Grange’s design portfolio from the past four decades. Each page showcases full color photographs of the spaces he’s designed over the years, including Yves Saint Laurent, Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Valentino. It’s so much fun to get lost in each page, studying every little detail in the various rooms. His style is so unique, combing neoclassical, traditional inclinations with the unexpected and, often times, avant-garde. The book also features many close up shots, which reveals his talent for tablescapes, and his ability to capture the essence of his client’s personal taste.
Suffice it to say, it’s a book worth investing in that promises to provide endless inspiration for years to come. It can be purchased here from Rizzoli, or on Amazon.
In the meantime, we’ve given you a preview of some of our favorite pages and spreads. Enjoy!
Book(store) Review: Dashwood Books
Around the corner from the LoftLife offices, and one of our favorite bookstores in town is Dashwood Books. Opened to the public in 2005, the store is the city’s largest independent book store devoted entirely to contemporary photography. Featuring both new, used and the occasional signed copy as well as rare and out-of-print titles, the store carries an awe-inspiring selection of publications from around the world.
A quick search of architecture and interiors turned up the following:
The Transparent City by Michael Wolf
Interiors 1973 – 1974 by Robert Adams
Domestic Landscapes; A Portrait of Europeans at Home by Bert Teunissen
Home is Where the Heart Is by Bruce Webber
Dashwood Books is located at 33 Bond Street, between Bowery and Lafayette.
A Phaidon Phather’s Day
We’re always checking on the Phaidon website for the newest art, architecture, and design books that we love to salivate over. We’re even more excited when one of this publisher’s lovely books arrive in our office, and we were lucky enough to get some copies of Phaidon’s most recent coffee table books–just in time for those of us racking our brains for the perfect Father’s Day gift. Here’s just a small selection that we can’t seem to get over and realized even if you’re not a father, it makes a lovely gift for yourself as well.
This three-volume set by the Phaidon Editors features a comprehensive collection of the 999 most influential design products from the past 200 years and was compiled by a selected panel of experts that span from journalists, academics, critics, architects, auctioneers, designers, and curators. Each of the 999 objects is accompanied with text from one of the 50 experts. It’s a comprehensive volume set, to say the least. Phaidon never fails on providing a plethora of illustrations, and this set isn’t a let-down; with 3,300 pages, your dad could easily sit back and enjoy a few hours of his day just flipping through this Phaidon gift.
Steve McCurry: The Unguarded Moment
One of the most admired photo journalists of today, Steve McCurry (probably most famous for his infamous National Geographic cover photograph of “the girl with the striking eyes”) has compiled a new portfolio of his work from Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe. It’s a book certainly for those fathers interested in landscape and portrait photography, but also for those who love looking at page after page of color photography at its best and from one of the best.
10 x 10_3: 100 Architects, 10 Critics
The third book in this series compiled by the Phaidon Editors hasn’t hit the shelves yet, so you can’t hand over the physical book to your father on Sunday, but it could still work as a belated Father’s Day gift or an early early holiday gift–either way, we wanted to give you a preview of what Phaidon has in store for September publishing. With work from 100 rising architects curated by such names as Ai Weiwei, Kengo Kuma, and Carlos Jimenez, the book is arranged alphabetically by architect and shows projects and work from the past five years. It’s a much needed update from the 10×10_2, with the new advances in green architecture, said to “have gone from novelty to necessity, walls have gone from necessary to optional, and hula hoops have become a building material.” It’s a book that understands how “local is the new international, and architecture is more artistic than ever before.” Come September, we forsee this third volume going fast.
Posted by Kyra Shapurji
Loft Tour: Parisian Plywood Nights
6/11/09
Plywood just got interesting, and the Parisian loft below shows plywood at its best. Renovated by architects Karine Chartier and Thomas Corbasson (who trained in the studio of Jean Nouvel–last year’s Pritzker Award winner), the old industrial laboratory (check out the building’s original freight elevator below) is transformed by adding a heavy textual and uncanny element–plywood.
Plywood, a moisture-proof, marine-grade, very low formaldehyde-content pine, certified by the European sustainable forest practices agreement, becomes a strong, almost abnormal complement to what would normally be simply a white, industrial space. It’s hard to see but the plywood kitchen islands are mostly on locking wheels, which creates a flexible space that can mutate from a small cooking area to a larger gathering area. Combined with the other moveable furniture, plywood has stopped looking cheap, and starts looking high-end (or high-grade, maybe?) whether it just sits pretty or on wheels.
Posted by Kyra Shapurji
Photography by Christine Besson
Book Review: The Mini Loft Bible
4/14/09
Today we bring you unadulterated, mouth watering, eye candy. Which accurately describes the nature of the book: The Mini Loft Bible is a 200+ page volume filled with images of loft interiors from around the world. There is no copy or text, no deep set captions, or sections/chapters of any kind. Rather, the book showcases loft spaces (each home gets 2 spreads of images), noting the location of the loft and designer/architect behind it. It is a feast for the eyes.
We hope you enjoy our sneak peak of these awesome spaces . . . something that here at the office we call “loft porn”!
Purchase the Mini Loft Bible for $18 big ones on Amazon. Published by Tectum.
Check out more sweet lofts in our “Loft Tour” section.
New for Spring: TASCHEN Architecture Books–x3!
3/25/09
TASCHEN is hitting the architecture industry hard this month, with not one, not two, but three new books for anyone interested in expanding their art book collection or the savvy someone who is anxious to know what’s on the cusp.
Green Architecture Now! by Philip Jodidio offers spread after spread of architecture as sustainable technology. It’s a thorough look at the firms, architects, and artists who are not only paving the way, but shall we say, literally breaking ground with their projects that aim to foster the necessary and innovative way of architectural thought.
March 2009, $39.99, Green Architecture Now! from TASCHEN
With A-Z entries, Architecture Now! 6, the newest installment from the Architecture Now! series, acts as a contemporary reference and overview for the industry’s intellectuals and those readers who want to stay on the edge of today’s architectural movements. Also by Philip Jodidio, the 576-page tome features projects from Zaha Hadid to Renzo Piano (the big names) but then features the small projects, such as a tea house, of Terunobu Fujimori.
March 2009, $39.99, Architecture Now! from TASCHEN
Frank Llyod Wright: Complete Works 1943-1959 is the first in the three-volume monograph that covers the modernist architect’s entire oeuvre. Starting in the post war years through the “living architecture” period, the comprehensive look by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer (Wright’s apprentice in the 50s and director of his archives) looks at Wright’s projects both realized and unrealized from his “organic ‘living architecture’ introduced ideas for the use of solar energy and curved open spaces to his only realized high-rise tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. After all is said and done with the third volume, all of Wright’s 1,100 designs will be published.
March 2009, $200.00, Frank Llyod Wright: Complete Works 1943-1959 from TASCHEN
Posted by Kyra Shapurji
Book Review: New New York Interiors
3/11/09
Ten years go TASCHEN published New York Interiors, which showcased over-the-top spaces occupied by New York’s elite. Much has changed since then, but what has remained consistent is the exquisite urban abodes nestled into the city that continue to evolve and never cease to amaze. An updated collection of current spaces are featured in the recently published New New York Interiors, edited Angelika Taschen. While not exclusively devoted to lofts, the book is dominated by them.
Our favorite space is artist Alex Katz’s open-planned live/work loft that is speckled with original works by Katz himself. The collection of profiled homes is pleasantly diverse allowing for a full range of eye candy when one flips through the pages. A must for your design book collection or for any New York enthusiast. Here are few examples of the spaces featured:
New New York Interiors from TASCHEN
$39.99
Thad Hayes’ Tailored Interiors
We have been fans of designer Thad Hayes ever since we saw his take on the modern, urban space. His inclination toward sparse, clean and quiet interiors that are layered with one-of-a-kind accessories is an ideal aesthetic for loft living. Rizzoli has done it again with this beautiful volume chronicling his career and favorite spaces. Rich photography coupled with thoughtful prose make Thad Hayes: The Tailored Interior worth the investment. For info on the book, visit Rizzoli New York . To view Thad’s other projects, click here .
“Spare, luminous, clean, subtle, luxurious, sophisticated, and unpretentious are all words that have been used to describe the work of noted interior designer Thad Hayes. Words, however, can only suggest the intelligent sensitivity and meditative beauty of the work itself, brilliantly featured within these covers. Included here are twenty-one residences designed by Hayes, each of which embodies the qualities listed above yet at the same time transcends them to reveal spaces that are in themselves, as much as anything they might contain, undeniable works of art.”
Dress Your Own Nest with Thom Filicia Style
11/13/08
Thom Filicia has style—clearly. He was the “Design Doctor” on Bravo’s Emmy-winning Queer Eye for five years and the spokesman for Pier 1 Imports; he now leads the Style network’s newest show, Dress My Nest, and the self-described “democratic design snob” is anything but snobbish in his newest book, Thom Filicia Style: Inspired Ideas for Creating Rooms You’ll Love.
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“Accessible” is actually the first word that comes to mind when you read Thom Filicia’s newest addition to the shelf of interior style guides. From the fun font that mimics handwriting used in the call-outs to the 10 spreads featuring Filicia’s personal SoHo pad, the book is a refreshing change from the usual stark layouts customary to most decorating books.
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Filicia’s self-deprecating humor also lends a welcome tone to the book. For instance, he’s the first to point out that [he] “can hardly spell,” and he admits his clothing style (back in the day) hit a “few bumps in the road.” There’s also a cute timeline of Filicia’s life and career and a dedication (Filicia mentions his favorite [and very fitting] book as a child, Dr. Seuss’s Come over to My House given to him by his mom) that makes you realize the book isn’t a ploy for more press.
The book is divided into two parts: “Process” and “Case Studies.” The first part features “Thom’s Ten Tips,” “Thom’s Ten Moods,” and “Pulling It All Together;” the “Case Studies” feature a spectrum of different spaces and personalities that range from an eco-chic Manhattan residential building to a hip young couple’s urban loft (our favorite of course!) that makes room for a “baby on board.”
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Gorgeous and clear-cut examples, a thorough index of go-to vendors, and a little humor that goes a long way makes Thom Filicia Style a book worth purchasing even in these troubled financial times. Check out our next issue for a full Q&A with Filicia, and if there’s anything you want to ask him comment below or write to us at letters@loftlifemag.com.
Posted by Kyra Shapurji
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