Lars Muller Publishers – förlag

Active at the Bauhaus between 1920 and 1931, teaching in the bookbinding, stained glass and mural-painting workshops, Paul Klee (1879–1940) brought his expressive blend of color and line to the school—and, with the second volume in the Bauhausbücher series, beyond its walls. In his legendary Pedagogical Sketchbook, Paul Klee takes a theoretical approach to drawing using geometric shapes and lines. Evincing a desire to reunite artistic design and craft, and written in a tone that oscillates between the seeming objectivity of the diagram, the rhetoric of science and mathematics, and an abstract, quasi-mystical intuition, Klee’s text expresses key aspects of the Bauhaus’ pedagogy and guiding philosophies. And while Klee’s method is deeply personal, in the context of the fundamentally multivocal Bauhaus, his individual approach to abstract form is typical in its idiosyncrasy. In this book, he presents his own theory about the relationships between line, shape, surface, and color in the visual space. This English edition of Klee's book appears in original design and with separate commentary.

A new edition showing the work of one of the most famous Swiss designers: a comprehensive overview of his oeuvre. This illustrated essay traces the history of one of the leading exponents of "Swiss Graphic Design" in the 1950s and 1960s. Josef Mu ller- Brockmann's posters have become world famous for their ability to convey information with great visual tension, a sense of drama, and an extreme economy of means. He created a body of work in which timeless principles of visual communication are inscribed. In addition to the posters, the image part presents examples of logotypes, appearances, and exhibitions as well as numerous lesser-known works in chronological order.

Following the worldwide success of his Poemotion trilogy, Takahiro Kurashima presents a title that is in no way inferior to the previous ones in terms of surprise and viewing pleasure. On the contrary: here, the motifs are combined to form a visual narrative that is revealed when the static basic image is set in motion by means of the striped foil. Then an astonishing panorama of unseen moirés and patterns unfolds. The artist uses the digital tools for his creations in a virtuoso manner. At the same time he continues to catch up with the great models of kinetic art. Moirémotion is a school of vision and offers contemplative recreation for our eyes.

Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was an architect, engineer, geometrician, cartographer, philosopher, futurist, inventor of the famous geodesic dome, and one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time. For more than five decades, he set forth his comprehensive perspective on the world's problems in numerous essays, which offer an illuminating insight into the intellectual universe of this renaissance man. These texts remain surprisingly topical even today, decades after their initial publication.While Fuller wrote the works in the 1960's and 1970's, they could not be more timely: like desperately needed time-capsules of wisdom for the critical moment he foresaw, and in which we find ourselves. Long out of print, they are now being published again, together with commentary by Jaime Snyder, the grandson of Buckminster Fuller. Designed for a new generation of readers, Snyder prepared these editions with supplementary material providing background on the texts, factual updates, and interpretation of his visionary ideas.Initially published in 1969, and one of Fuller's most popular works, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth is a brilliant synthesis of his world view. In this very accessible volume, Fuller investigates the great challenges facing humanity, and the principles for avoiding extinction and "exercising our option to make it." How will humanity survive? How does automation influence individualization? How can we utilize our resources more effectively to realize our potential to end poverty in this generation? He questions the concept of specialization, calls for a design revolution of innovation, and offers advice on how to guide "spaceship earth" toward a sustainable future.And it Came to Pass - Not to Stay brings together Buckminster Fuller's lyrical and philosophical best, including seven "essays" in a form he called his "ventilated prose," and as always addressing the current global crisis and his predictions for the future. These essays, including "How Little I Know," "What I am Trying to Do," "Soft Revolution," and "Ethics," put the task of ushering in a new era of humanity in the context of "always starting with the universe." In rare form, Fuller elegantly weaves the personal, the playful, the simple, and the profound.

The sequel to the authors’ Are We Human?, this provocative book is an urgent manifesto for an alternative architectural philosophy. It treats bacteria as the real architects, construction workers, maintenance crews and inhabitants of buildings. Colomina and Wigley draw on the latest research into microbes to rethink the past and possible futures of the built environment. The book explores the intimate entanglements of the microbes within bodies and buildings over the last 10,000 years, culminating in the antibiotic philosophy of contemporary architecture. The diseases of our time are diseases of the built environment. The deadly combination of rapidly declining microbial diversity and rising antibiotic-resistant bacteria is as great a threat as climate change. Hostility to bacteria has to give way to new forms of hospitality from a more symbiotic architecture that learns from bacteria, embracing them and reconnecting with soil, plants and other species. Buildings based on fear of bacteria, which is to say fear of life itself, must give way to buildings learning from models of coexistence based on bacteria themselves.The main goal of the book is to rethink the very idea of shelter in terms of forms of inclusion rather than prophylactic forms of exclusion.

What feeds the inspiration of the designer? Observation. In Jasper Morrison's collection of pictures, the icons of design history meet up with the unassuming projects of everyday life, and curious findings with the archetypes of modernism. Every picture tells a story nad creates a new one in juxtaposition with its neighbour - without words, in the language of form. Morrison responds to the arbitrariness of form with simplicity and complexity, poetry and humour in a repetoire of compelling designs "a world without words" is a school of seeing that addresses designers and consumers alike, who wish to explore the universe of goods.

This book is a tool kit to create new forms. It deals with grid-based design and gives the reader techniques to develop new forms, fonts, logos, and patterns. The concept represents a design process in which individual decisions follow much larger and deeper principles than immediate and spontaneous-intuitive actions.Using a wide variety of examples, each chapter contains a detailed description of the procedure from form analysis to setting up design rules and their application. Both a workbook and a source of inspiration, this publication provides designers and architects with the tool they need to find analytical forms—analog, algorithm-based, exploratory but never of arbitrary origin.The procedures described allow an almost infinite number of possibilities. The designer is thus transformed from inventor to interpreter or curator, who assesses individual forms for logos, fonts or patterns on the fly and ensures that the design process is always efficient and goal-oriented.

Are We Human? rethinks the philosophy of design in a multi-dimensional exploration from the very first tools and ornaments to the constant buzz of social media. The average day involves the experience of thousands of layers of design that reach to outside space but also reach deep into our bodies and brains. Even the planet itself has been completely encrusted by design as a geological layer. There is no longer an outside to the world of design. Design has become the world. Design is what makes the human. It is the very basis of social life. But design also engineers inequalities and new forms of neglect, such as lawlessness, poverty, and the climate at the same time as the human genome and the weather are being actively redesigned. We can no longer reassure ourselves with the idea of "good design." Design itself needs to be redesigned.

The designers Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa have compiled 204 everyday objects in search of -super normal design-: alongside examples of anonymous design like the Swiss Rex vegetable peeler or a simple plastic bag, there are design classics like Marcel Breuer's tubular steel side table, Dieter Ram's 606 shelving system, or Joe Colombo's Optic alarm clock of 1970.

Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface. It is simple and clean, and commonly seen in advertising, signage, and literature. The R has a curved leg, and the i and j have square dots. The Q has a straight angled tail, and the counterforms inside the O, Q, and C are oval. It is an all-purpose type design that can deliver practically any message clearly and efficiently. It is one of the most popular typefaces of all time. Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface presents 400 examples of Helvetica in action, selected from two diametrically opposed worlds. Superb applications by renowned designers are juxtaposed with an anonymous collection of ugly, ingenious, charming, and hair-raising samples of its use.

With essays by Pedro Alonso, Pedro Álvarez, Nicole Cristi, Francisca Espinosa, Mario Garcés, Michael Lemon, Eden Medina, Carlos Montes de Oca, Hugo Palmarola, Marian E. Schlotterbeck, Martin Tironi, Rita Torres, Camilo Trumper and Peter Winn.From 1970 to 1973 Chile carried out on a political experiment in which socialist change would occur peacefully and with respect for existing democratic institutions. This “Chilean road to socialism,” as it was often called, offered a unique political third way at the height of the Cold War – one that broke from the opposing models put forth by the United States and the Soviet Union. This short and abruptly ended period in Chilean history resulted in product and communication design that powerfully demonstrates how design can influence social behavior and identity and foster solidarity and cohesion.How to Design a Revolution documents this Chilean visual language born out of exceptional circum- stances. The publication broadens the study of influential and consequential visual languages of the social (protest) movements of the1960s and1970s, such as the Cuban Revolution, the Vietnam War and May 68, and illustrates how design came to reflect the dynamics of this political moment while also becoming a tool for political change.

Otto Neurath’s famous Modern Man in the Making, first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1939, captures and describes the state of the world in the 1930s by using text and figurative illustrations. From 1925 onwards, Neurath and his team had worked on a new visual language termed “Isotype” (International System of Typographic Picture Education). At a time that saw the rise of new mass media making hitherto unthinkable amounts of information available, Neurath felt the need for a systematic visualization explaining facts, statistic data and comparative numbers in simple ways. The book can be seen as one of the most influential predecessors of today’s ever-present infographics. Its mission was to analyze the “fundamental trends in the social, political and economic life of humanity.” The topics covered in the book include diverse social issues of the time such as mortality, health, employment, trade, education, mobility, migration and demographics.Modern Man in the Making shows Neurath’s democratic endeavor to make knowledge intelligible and available to all. It is a reminder of graphic art’s ability to inform and create context instead of presenting aesthetic qualities only. The book has inspired generations of designers and led to sometimes peculiar imitations and further developments. This pivotal historical picture-text book is made available again as a reprint of the original publication in the series XX The Century of Print – at a time in which new media force designers ever more so to break down complex data into easily comprehensible depictions.

Working at Oscar Niemeyer’s studio in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro – for two months, Swiss architect Martino Pedrozzi was able to realize his dream. Over twenty years later, he presents his memories of the time spent with the legendary Brazilian architect. Through twenty-six personal, insightful and at times humorous fragments, “Mini Cigarillos” captures the impact these two months had on the young architect and offers a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of Oscar Niemeyer.

Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994) remains one of the most important landscape architects in the history of the field. His distinctive and widely acclaimed work has been featured and referenced in numerous sources, yet few of Burle Marx’s own words have been published.This collection of a dozen of Burle Marx’s lectures, most of which have never before been available in English, fills that void. Delivered on international speaking tours, they address topics such as Concepts in Landscape Composition, Gardens and Ecology, and The Problem of Garden Lighting. Their publi- cation sheds light on Burle Marx’s distinctive ethic and aesthetic of landscape, as “the real art of living.”The lectures paint a picture of Burle Marx not just as a gardener, artist, and botanist, but as a land- scape architect whose ambition was to bring radical change to cities and society. The lectures are framed by photographs, by Leonardo Finotti, of a selection of Burle Marx’s realized projects.

Jasper Morrison is one of the most influential product and furniture designers in the world today. Known for his “Super Normal” approach to design, he looks to find the exceptional in the world of the ordinary. Morrison’s designs are defined by beguiling simplicity, ready familiarity and a distinct playfulness. These same qualities come to the fore in A Book of Things, a collection of projects across the broad spectrum of his activities that pairs thoughtful photographs with the designer’s succinct and characterful texts.A Book of Things is a guide to Morrison’s intense examination of the world of things that accompany our lives and shape our environment.

Shizuko Yoshikawa (born 1934 in Japan, based in Switzerland) was one of the first and few Japanese students at the Ulm Hochschule für Gestaltung, known as the postwar “Bauhaus.” She later married the renowned designer Josef Müller-Brockmann (1914–1996), a pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design, and moved to Switzerland, where she became an artist and a member of the second generation of concrete art. Amongst the very few women belonging to this art movement, she takes a special position due to her Japanese origins and education. Her work combines the rational concepts of European modern art with the poetry and ease of the intuitional Japanese Zen tradition.

100 Words for Water: A Projective Ecosocial Vocabulary delves into the urgent and intertwined relationship between water systems and human life amidst the escalating climate crisis. Drawing on the United Nations’ assertion that “the climate crisis is mainly a water crisis,” this thought- provoking book compiles over one hundred key terms defined by contemporary thinkers in science, philosophy, politics, activism and architecture. These terms – such as Water Rights, Hydrocatharsis, Decommodification of Water and Liquid Modernity – form a vital lexicon to guide transformative action and foster a more symbiotic relationship with water.Structured as a collaborative exploration, the book combines scientific insight, philosophical depth and architectural vision to redefine how we engage with water socially, politically and ecologically. Illustrated with cartographic case studies, the volume offers vivid and hopeful scenarios for reshaping human-water interdependence. Through its diverse contributors and a interdisciplinary approach, 100 Words for Water challenges readers to rethink water management and design as the foundation of a resilient, multispecies future. This book is an essential resource for architects, activists, policymakers and anyone passionate about ecosocial transformation and water equity in an era of unprecedented environmental change.

Peter Eisenman—world-famous for his Holocaust Memorial in Berlin (2005)—confronts historicism with theory and the analysis of form, whose distinguishing features he regards as the foundation of architectural composition. The architect illustrates his observations with numerous, extremely precise hand drawings. Eisenman wrote The Formal Basis of Modern Architecture, his dissertation, in 1963 at the University of Cambridge. The dissertation was first published as a facsimile edition by Lars Müller Publishers in 2006. The original content of the publication is now available again—the book is reprinted in a smaller format.“I knew what I wanted to write,” Eisenman says of the dissertation. “An analytic work that related what I had learned to see, from Palladio to Terragni, from Raphael to Guido Reni, into some theoretical construct that would bear on modern architecture, but from the point of view of a certain autonomy of form.” Hence the title of his research.

With texts by the editors and Hans-Rudolf Bosshard, Christoph Bignens, Max Bruinsma, Jürgen Döring, Meret Ernst, Ulrike Felsing, Roland Früh, Ariel Herbez, Richard Hollis, Martin Jaeggi, Andres Janser, Roxane Jubert, Urs Lehni, Claude Lichtenstein, Kerry William Purcell, François Rappo, Jörg Stürzebecher and Ruedi Widmer. 100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design takes a fresh look at Swiss typography and photographics, posters, corporate image design, book design, journalism and typefaces over the past 100 years. With captivating illustrations and illuminating essays by prominent experts in the field, this book, designed by the Zurich studio NORM, presents the diversity of contemporary visual design while also tracing the fine lines of tradition that connect the work of different periods. The changes in generations and paradigms as manifested in their different visual languages, and convictions are organized along a timeline as well as by theme. The various fields of endeavor and media are described, along with how they relate to advertising, art and politics. Graphic design from Switzerland reflects both international trends and local concerns. High conceptual and formal quality, irony and wit are its constant companions. A new, comprehensive reference work on Swiss design.

Old things, historic things, smelly dirty things, all the things that were considered the very opposite of "contemporary," have suddenly irrupted forcefully into architecture and art, blurring their bound- aries. This book takes stock of the emerging generation behind this turn, and examines their experimental engagements with the preservation of culturally charged objects. Structured around a series of interdisciplinary dialogues among practitioners and thinkers, and illustrated with recent projects, the book provides a window into the unfolding intellectual frameworks, aesthetic modes, cultural ambitions, and political commitments that are the basis of experimental preservation.

The publication explores the different yet corresponding architectural concepts of Umberto Riva and Bijoy Jain. On the basis of building visits and ongoing conversations, the author Mirko Zardini interprets Umberto Riva's and Bijoy Jain's motivations and inds unlikely resonance in their complementary approaches. The publication accompanies the exhibition held under the same name at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

White not only plays an important role in Japanese culture in general but also in the work of designer Kenya Hara. In 100 Whites, Hara gives one hundred specific examples of white—such as snow, Iceland, rice, and wax. On the basis of these examples he discusses the importance of white in design—not only as a color but as a philosophy. Hara describes how he experiments with the different whites he mentions, what they mean in the process of his work, and how they influence design today. 100 Whites is the extension of his previously published book White. The new publication explores the essence of white, which Hara sees as symbolizing simplicity and subtlety.

'Designing Japan' presents renowned designer Kenya Hara’s vision of how his industry can support Japan in crafting a future founded on a unique philosophy of beauty as well as crowd-sourced wisdom from around the world. A master collaborator, meticulous organiser, and globally conscious innovator, Hara draws on more than three decades of participations in design work and exhibition curating, as well as deep professional interaction with creators from many fields.In 'Designing Japan' Hara reveals methods that make publicly accessible aesthetic inquiries of how this island nation will proceed as its population ages, other nations take over manufacturing, and technology develops. Illustrations and examples recognise successful problem-solving through design, proving that it is a living, changing industry that remains relevant not in spite of, but as a partner to, advancing technology.

A leading figure of photorealist painting, Franz Gertsch (born 1930, Switzerland) has created monumental portraits of charismatic youths and meditative depictions of nature in vivid and pains- taking detail for over fifty years.Polyfocal Allover surveys Gertsch’s paintings from 1970 to 1982 and woodcut prints from 1979 to 2019, reflecting a vision in which all that lies within the frame is accorded equal value. The essays, interviews, and conversations in this publication bring further definition to the lives and landscapes Gertsch renders with such virtuosic, eerie precision.

"White" is not a book about colors. It is rather Kenya Haras attempt to explore the essence of "White," which he sees as being closely related to the origin of Japanese aesthetics - symbolizing simplicity and subtlety. The central concepts discussed by Kenya Hara in this publication are emptiness and the absolute void. Kenya Hara also sees his work as a designer as a form of communication. Good communication has the distinction of being able to listen to each other, rather than to press one's opinion onto the opponent. Kenya Hara compares this form of communication with an "empty container." In visual communication, there are equally signals whose signification is limited, as well as signals or symbols such as the cross or the red circle on the Japanese flag, which - like an "empty container" - permit every signification and do not limit imagination. Not alone the fact that the Japanese character for white forms a radical of the character for emptiness has prompted him the closely associate the color white with emptiness.

For most people locations that hold a particular importance for the development of our society and for the advancement of science and technology often remain hidden from view. They are separate and protected, such as CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, close to the city of Geneva. CERN is best known for its giant particle accelerator. Here researchers from around the world take part in a diverse array of fundamental physical research, in the pursuit of knowledge that will perhaps one day revolutionize our understanding of the universe and life on our planet. The Swiss photographer Andri Pol mixed with this multicultural community of researchers and followed their work over an extended period of time. In doing so he created a unique portrait of this fascinating underworld.A" The cutting-edge research is given a human face and even if we don't fully understand the processes at work, the pictures allow us to perceive how in this world of the tiniest particles the biggest connections are searched for. With an explanatory text and scientific-philosophical essay.

This book is a collection of essays at the intersection of architecture and climate change. Neither a collective lament nor an inventory of architectural responses, the essays consider cultural values ascribed to climate and ask how climate reflects our conception of what architecture is and does. Which materials and conceptual infrastructures render climate legible, knowable, and actionable, and what are their spatial implications? How do these interrelated questions offer new vantage points on the architectural ramifications of climate change at the interface of resiliency, sustain- ability, and ecotechnology? Climates also contains a dossier of precedents for thinking about architecture and climate change drawn from a number of leading practitioners. New approaches to understanding climate in architecture make this book invaluable.This publication is a project by The Avery Review, a journal produced by the Office of Publications at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Point and Line to Plane can be seen as a continuation of Wassily Kandinsky’s seminal treatise On the Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky’s thesis is that different constellations of point, line and surface have different emotional effects on the viewer. Starting from the point (which represents the most concentrated and minimal graphic form), he understands all painterly forms as being a play of forces and counterforces: of contrasts.

Cleanliness is a core value of societies around the globe. So much so that cleaning seems to be an inherent part of human nature and how we interact with and domesticate our environment. This book explores the concept of cleaning in all its various aspects and illustrates each cleaning method, thus expanding our conception of an activity that is such a big part of our daily lives. From a child sorting its toys, to the meticulous work of a clockmaker and an impressive deep-clean of a ship, each process is treated with the same gentle fascination. Short texts add a semi-poetic dimension. The portable book format invites readers to take this publication out into the world with them as they look at everyday processes with fresh eyes. Flipping through the pages of Cleaning is as enlightening as it is entertaining.