Elemental Liv shows how Alexis Herbosch builds houses that form the backdrop to our everyday surroundings and connect with the existing. With real materials, he opens these spaces to the outside world. They are buildings that touch and appeal to people, overwhelm and still them. Serenity and tactility have determined the design practice of Alexis for twenty years. They form a fil rouge throughout his life and this monograph. What we see are pure forms and a simple mise-en-scène. We feel nature as our guide, observe the defining light and experience the power of the environment. Like a true master, he chooses the right elements to define an experience. From these, spaces grow that smile at all the senses. The use of natural and regional materials is striking. Alexis captures the essence of the good life in his growing oeuvre with his sober lines and controlled layout as his foundations.

Text in English and Dutch.

Begin Again. Fail Better: Preliminary Drawings in Architecture engages with one of the principal activities of the architect in the process of design: drawing by hand. It explores the act of designing through a focus on beginnings. Architects try, fail, try again, fail better until they start to move in the direction that ultimately becomes a building – or not.

This book brings together some 180 preliminary architecture drawings. More than 50 contemporary Swiss architecture firms each contributed two pieces that reveal something of their individual approach and understanding of architecture. This selection is enhanced by historical works by Swiss and European architects that come from four significant British and Swiss archival collections, dating from the 20th and back to the 16th century. The illustrations are complemented by essays providing a critical and historical framework, as well as a conversation engaging with the conditions and importance of failure within the design process. Brief Interludes by international architects, archivists and teachers, introducing a range of perspectives, round out this beautiful volume.

This book presents the ecological and architectural innovations by New York-based design firm Archi-Tectonics showcased in their master plan for the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. The project, designed in collaboration with !melk Landscape Architecture & Urban Design and Thornton Tomasetti engineers, introduces a revolutionary Sponge-City concept, re-imagining urban landscapes as dynamic ecosystems, capable of responding to environmental challenges such as flooding, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

With contributions from esteemed architects and theorists such as Carlo Ratti, Thom Mayne, and Mette Ramsgaard, the volume scrutinises the intersection of architecture and environmental activism in the Anthropocene. Through the lens of Archi-Tectonics’ winning design, it examines the blurring boundaries between the natural and the man-made and poses critical questions about what constitutes the “natural” in a world profoundly transformed by human activity.

Monsters and Mutants explores the future of urban and architectural design in making cities more resilient and sustainable. It provides a critical look at how multi-disciplinary collaboration and innovative thinking can address some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time, turning potential ecological crises into opportunities for regeneration and transformation.

This book analyses Anton Corbijn’s diverse work through parameters such as image composition, structure, lighting, and viewer perspective, while also establishing references to art history. Artists in front of Corbijn’s camera appear undisguised and authentic, often achieved by placing his subjects in unusual settings. Corbijn, who emphasises his desire “to be close to the creative people with the camera,” creates a unique, recognisable tone in his work. His melancholic, dark images reveal the vulnerability and transience of humanity, offering a glimpse behind the celebrity facade.

Text in English and German.

What is the relationship between the Holy Trinity and social media? How do hashtags influence us? Why are we so inclined to use filters? Why do we treat digital images differently than analogue ones? Art history offers a beginning of answers.

Instagrammable explores the paradox of looking without seeing and seeing without looking. Koenraad Jonckheere examines trust in and distrust of images, drawing on 2,500 years of thinking about visual art. In eleven chapters, he examines the world of digital images through numerous intriguing examples from art history.

This collection presents images that belong to the Futurist artistic experimentation in photography – some of which have been made known in historical exhibitions, alongside others that are little known – as well as a selection of portraits taken by photographers who adhered to the movement, or by professionals, who with their shots captured the reactions of the Futurists in front of the lens. Without neglecting a selection of snapshots that introduce the private lives of many of the protagonists, as well as the many public occasions on which they appeared.

The overview of photographs, most of which have never been seen before, is complemented by numerous reproductions taken from original and rare Futurist publications, catalogues, posters, books and magazines.

Leafing through this album of the Futurist family will help to understand the character of what was a fundamental artistic and existential adventure of the first half of the 20th century.

Text in English and Italian.

This volume pays tribute to two masters of international photography, Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) and André Kertész (1894-1985). Described as ‘the greatest amateur photographer of the 20th century’ and ‘the inventor of photojournalism’ as early as the 1960s, they are both characterised by a unique and highly personal aesthetic that set them apart from the main trends in photography of their time.

This volume compares their parallel careers, presenting around 185 photographs and archive documents, and highlighting both similarities and differences in terms of their lives and approach to the photographic lens.

In Paris Blues, Mathieu Bitton shows the beauty and charm of the city of Paris, which has a special meaning to him. Through his lens, he captures the essence of Paris, a place that serves as his childhood home and an ongoing source of inspiration for his artistic work. Bitton is known for his ability to capture the truth of a subject and the authenticity of a moment, which is also reflected in this collection.

This book is not only a tribute to his hometown, but also a continuation of his successful exhibitions such as Travelogue, Ascension and Darker Than Blue, which have received worldwide acclaim. Bitton’s work shows a deep connection to Paris and offers the viewer an intimate view of the city that has had a lasting impact on his memories and artistic work.

This luxurious photo book commemorates the 600th anniversary of KU Leuven University, Belgium, featuring the work of renowned heritage and architecture photographer Karin Borghouts. Through her lens, Borghouts offers fresh and unexpected perspectives on the university’s rich architectural heritage, capturing everything from auditoriums and laboratories to student residences, sports facilities, libraries, chapels, and more. Accompanying her striking images, historian Liesbet Nys delves into the storied history of KU Leuven. She offers an insightful narrative that complements the visual journey through one of Europe’s oldest universities.

Distilling a lifetime’s study of English art, Duncan Robinson here looks at the six leading artists of the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries through the lens of their relationship with writing. Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Blake, Constable, Turner all engaged in different ways with literature and the word. From Hogarth, who developed a new kind of narrative from his experience of the theatre, to Turner who wrote increasingly elaborate and enigmatic epic poetry to explain his painting, passing by Blake’s naive Songs of Innocence and Experience and his hallucinatory deranged mythological visions, the originality and fascination of these great artists are brought into a new, sharper focus by Robinson’s approach. Written with his characteristic geniality and profound, but lightly worn scholarship, and richly illustrated with familiar and many unfamiliar images, this will be an unmissable book for all interested in this seminal period in English art.

With an introduction by Brian Allen, former Director of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Discover the vibrant world of South-East Asia through local photographers in Plaza, a leading street photography journal published biannually. Plaza captures the essence of the region with stunning, curated black-and-white photographs. The first issue features 18 talented photographers from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, each offering a unique perspective.

Plaza reveals the hidden layers of daily life, from Bangkok’s bustling streets to Filipino fishermen, showcasing moments of joy, contemplation, and curiosity. The journal provides an intimate look at the people, places, and cultures that define South-East Asia.
A must-read for street photography enthusiasts and those seeking a deeper understanding of Southeast Asia, Plaza promises to be a cherished addition to any collection. Experience the beauty and intrigue of black-and-white street photography with Plaza.

This impressive catalogue explores the relationship between fashion and interior design through a gendered lens. In the Victorian era, well-to-do women embellished their bodies and interiors with draped fabrics, frills and ruffles. They visually blended into their surroundings or even threatened to disappear into them. Contemporary fashion designers conceptualise that fusion by transforming interior elements into clothing.

Fashion & Interiors also highlights how male designers, such as Henry van de Velde and Josef Hoffmann, designed women’s clothing as part of a total work of art. Fashion designers Paul Poiret and Jeanne Lanvin took inspiration from that approach and deployed interior design in the ‘branding’ of their fashion house. The impact of clothing also resonated with modernist (interior) architects such as Adolf Loos, Lilly Reich and Le Corbusier.

The historical connection between fashion and interiors continues to influence fashion designers such as Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela and Raf Simons.

With text contributions by Romy Cockx (MoMu), Robin Schuldenfrei (The Courtauld Institute of Art), Lara Steinhäußer (MAK) and other subject specialists.

The Hannah Ryggen Triennale is initiated and organised by Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim, Norway, and dedicated to the celebrated textile artist Hannah Ryggen (1894–1970). During her lifetime, Ryggen gained international recognition for her vibrant political tapestries, and her heartfelt humanistic works still resonate with audiences today.

Each Triennale explores themes from Ryggen’s art through the lens of contemporary craft and visual art. The theme of the 4th edition is “Mater,” for which the exhibitions and the accompanying catalogue highlight Ryggen’s thematising of motherhood and material, how her works were rooted in the nature around her, and how she “wove herself” into arts and crafts traditions. This year’s Triennale presents contemporary artists who address these themes by approaching materiality from an ecological perspective, or by actively seeking out their foremothers in the textile tradition to explore their individual and cultural identity. 

Text in English and Norwegian.

Alejandro Merizalde began photographing in Venice in 2008. In his early visits he found the city stiflingly overcrowded, but during a brief winter trip a few years later, the overcast skies and foggy atmosphere allowed him to draw out Venice’s legendary beauty without the disruptions of mass tourism.
In 2013 he started experimenting with longer exposures to eliminate the distractions of human activity and enable him to concentrate on his architectural compositions. This shift in approach was gradual, but it helped him realise that he was no longer interested in recording iconic features like St Mark’s Basilica, the Bridge of Sighs and the gondola, to name a few. From then on, he dropped the predictable locations and buildings and trained his lens on the Venice lagoon and areas of the city where Venetians actually spend their lives.

Text in English, French and Italian.

Yoga and the City photographically documents a variety of people who are committed to yoga philosophy and yoga lifestyles in big cities – people, who live in the middle of hustle and bustle, but manage to maintain their harmony and happiness. It doesn’t matter what is surrounding them, what really matters is how they look at everything around them. Possibly, when people see this photography, they will decide to try yoga or meditation. Yoga and the City combines art, spirituality, and sport. It is a reflection of strength and power – strength to overcome adversities and to find balance while living in a fast paced environment. Yoga is a way to find alignment, to become closer to your spiritual core.

This series of board books will help children to make the right choice when coming to recycling and saving the planet! On each page, after a short explanatory introduction, children will find a turning wheel. If they place it on the right recycling action, the following page will result in a happy ending. If they make the wrong decision, something bad for the environment will happen… but they can learn from that experience and start all over again thinking about their choices! A simple yet effective idea to make children understand that their actions have an impact on the planet. They can learn from it and make the right choice also in real life. Ages: 5 plus

Fifteen years ago, Eduardo Mencos (farmer, landscape designer and photographer) and Charles Quest-Ritson (historian, writer, journalist and editor) conceived the idea of going on a trip around the world, like Jules Verne, but with the olive tree playing the leading role. The outcome of that adventure through 26 countries is this book, which tells the story of humankind through the olive tree and its fruit. In the book, the authors take an in-depth look at a tree that is so familiar to us all and yet still remains so much of a mystery in terms of its many different guises.

With over 200 spectacular photographs taken by Eduardo Mencos, accompanied by an erudite text written by Charles Quest-Ritson, the book sweeps through the manifold manifestations of the olive tree and its distinguishing traits. It covers the origin and later domestication of the tree, all of the different roles it has played and the significance it has had at different times throughout history, its importance in the Bible, right through to the most innovative contemporary methods used today for growing and cloning olive trees, together with the prominent place it holds in the Mediterranean diet and its different uses.

The intention of this long journey is to awaken a vision of the olive tree that is imbued with beauty, poetry and curiosity.

The Labyrinth of Rooms is a story with one character, Human, who is an allegorical representation of us all. Human suddenly awakes in a square room with no memory of a prior life. A corridor leads them from that room to the next, then another, and so on until they reach the end of a 63-room labyrinth. As the journey progresses, Human contemplates their surroundings, studying the unique shape of each room and how it affects their thoughts, feelings, and actions. To understand the significance of the rooms’ architecture, Human engages in different types of thinking: questioning why the rooms were designed as such, imagining situations the rooms can host, praising what they find geometrically pleasing, speculating about the nature of the labyrinth, and even complaining about their forced existence within it. This variety is reflected in the writing of the book, which intentionally juxtaposes different genres, including storytelling, philosophical reasoning, dialogues, and prose poetry. In The Labyrinth of Rooms, the human life is conceived as a series of settings, or stated otherwise: a coevolution of our mental space and physical space.

‘The publishers are to be congratulated for their exemplary production’ – Curtis’s Botanical Magazine‘…this will go down as one of the greats of plant exploration literature…’ – Roy Lancaster ‘The appeal of the book lies as much in Ward’s prose as in the thrilling story of exploration and discovery. He was a fine writer and it is a cause for celebration that one of his best books is now again available after a gap of 70 years’ – Ursula Buchan, The Independent ‘There’s no doubt that such an elegant and exciting book new book richly deserves a new readership… the story behind its reissue is no less gripping than Kingdon Ward’s own narrative’– Ambra Edwards, Gardening Which?

Little explored and virtually inaccessible, the Tsangpo Gorge in south-east Tibet is the world’s deepest gorge. Through it twists the Yarlong Tsangpo, Tibet’s great river, emerging from below on the plains of India. This is the story of its exploration and the rich plant and animal life found there. Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges, first published in 1926, is the fascinating account of plant-hunter and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward’s most important expedition. Kenneth Cox, Kenneth Storm, Jr. and Ian Baker spent over ten years retracing the route of the 1924-25 expedition and managed to reach further into this magical and only partly explored land.

The book contains the original Kingdon Ward text and extensive additional material, including a history of the exploration, geography and religious significance of the area and more than 250 colour photographs with detailed captions on the plants of the area, most of which are described by Kingdon Ward in the original text. There are first person accounts of expeditions to the area by Kenneth Cox and Kenneth Storm. Jr. and a photographic essay documents, for the first time in a book, the new Hidden Falls located in the portion of the gorge left unexplored by Frank Kingdon Ward and Lord Cawdor in 1924.

Published in collaboration with UNESCO, Mother Nature in the Bardo, is an art book that explores the environment — the impact between art, culture, and the environment, addressing the zeitgeist and most crucial topic of our time.

Featuring over 100 celebrated and emerging artists, spanning 150 years, showcasing top authors, journalists, thinkers and celebrities, Mother Nature in the Bardo, presents a comprehensive look at the relationship between art, culture and nature. 

The best-selling guide to the first year of fatherhood, trusted by hundreds of thousands of new dads and their partners.

This indispensable handbook, from the author of the million-selling Expectant Father, provides a reassuring month-by-month overview of your baby’s first year. It covers the milestones in your child’s development; ways you can bond with your child and support your partner; and what’s going on with you, as a new dad.

The fourth edition of The New Father features a user-friendly new design and is updated from cover to cover with the latest information about healthcare, financial planning, parental leave and work-life balance, and much more. It incorporates the expertise of leading pediatricians and researchers, and the real-life experiences of hundreds of dads and mums.

Illustrated with stress-relieving cartoons, The New Father is a friendly, readable, and inclusive companion for all new dads. (Mums will love it, too!).

Just in time for the 60th birthday of the Italian luxury super sports car brand, the monumental anniversary coffee-table book The Lamborghini Book by editor and founder of ramp magazine Michael Köckritz is published.

This opulent car book honours the powerful and noble automobiles with uniquely aesthetic images and approaches the super sports car brand on a highly emotional level. Michael Köckritz, together with his ramp team, has created a true homage to the exceptional Italian vehicles.

With great attention to detail, the ramp editorial team has staged a literary showcase of the most important Lamborghini models, such as the Lamborghini Countach, the Lamborghini Aventador or the Lamborghini 350 GT, in this coffee table book.

In keeping with the style of the avant-garde car magazine, The Lamborghini Book is also packed with spectacular photographs of the Italian power machines and highly interesting background information. The Lamborghini brand is given a holistic appreciation of its immense influence on automotive history and modern pop culture.

In addition to exciting texts, the reader will find interviews with experts, exclusive design sketches and an overview of all series models of the impressive Italian automobile brand.

Text in English and German.