If flowers could talk… In Forever Flowers, restorer and head of the conservation studio of The Phoebus Foundation, Sven Van Dorst (1990), offers a fresh perspective on Flemish flower still lifes from the early modern period (1600-1700). Eight paintings, prints, and drawings from the collection of The Phoebus Foundation serve as the basis to discuss the intricacies of this genre. With his unique approach, the author-restorer sheds light on the knowledge and craftsmanship behind painted bouquets. Through material-technical research and experiments, he establishes connections and demonstrates the outstanding expertise of the early modern creators of these painted gems. In this book, Van Dorst unfolds new insights about eight fascinating works and invites the reader to view the flower still life genre differently. One by one, intriguing stories blossom about the religious significance of flowers, exotic species and international connections, the use of real butterfly wings in paintings, and previously undiscovered aspects of these refined still lifes.

From Ischia to Capri, Amalfi and Sicily, Italy’s most iconic coastal travel destinations are poetically explored through the lens of fine arts photographer Natalie Obradovich who captures the soul of each location with affection and nuance. Each image is a postcard from the shores of the Italian beach clubs and towns that define summer.

Dirty Old River brings together 12 essays penned by British architect Tom Emerson over the past three decades. Written on very different occasions as contributions to books or articles in magazines, they explore a wide range of topics through the lens of architecture. The book’s title is borrowed from the British rock band The Kinks’ cult song ‘Waterloo Sunset’ to symbolise a journey through the interweaving of culture, imagination, and the built environment.

Naturally, the architect Emerson writes about architecture: how it is designed, drawn, and built. Yet he also turns his attention to other, wider fields, from the transformation of materials to the nuances of human creativity, the explosive early works of his celebrated fellow architect Frank O. Gehry, and the intimate craftsmanship behind the literary spaces of French writer Georges Perec.

Emerson’s unique approach to writing is often inspired by sideways glances and disciplines beyond architecture. He offers a new perspective on how things are made, why they take shape the way they do, and what these processes reveal about humanity.

Concéntrico: Urban Innovation Laboratory reflects on the first decade of the international Concéntrico festival of design and architecture in the city of Logroño, Spain, and some 150 projects and designs commissioned for it. The festival’s aim is to serve as a laboratory searching for creative new ways in using architecture and design to strengthen communities, and to support the dialogue between designers and citizens.

The book offers a unique meditation on the transformation of cities and the relevance of architecture and design in the 21st century. It introduces meaningful ways to address and engage with pressing urban issues—from identity and heritage to temporariness, collectivity, ecology, play, and domesticity—through the lens of selected Concéntrico commissions since 2014. Through lavishly illustrated essays, it features projects by 30 artists, architects, and designers from 14 countries. They are prefaced and held together by a conversation between the editors Javier Peña Ibáñez and Nick Axel, who speak about the festival’s context, evolution, and the knowledge it has produced since its first edition in 2014.

Text in English and Spanish.

“Here are some of Mr. Abolafia’s most memorable, most enduring portraits of the rich and famous (…) Thanks, Oscar, for preserving these thrilling images so we will never forget.” — Dick Stolley in People Magazine

After the highly successful first book Icons by Oscar, a new book is now released, showcasing numerous iconic women who appeared before his lens throughout his career as a glamour photographer starting in the 1960s. Stars like Sophia, Cher, Twiggy, Madonna, Audrey, and many more. A collection of extraordinary, intimate photos by one of the greatest photographers of his time!

Miami is a city in constant motion, where luxury high-rises reshape the skyline and vibrant art, neon-lit beaches, and tropical charm create a one-of-a-kind atmosphere. Beyond the lively nightlife lies the serene paradise of the Keys, a chain of islands steeped in history, hidden gems, and sun-soaked adventures.

This guide uncovers Miami and the Keys’ most unusual experiences, inviting you to explore places you’ve passed or never noticed. Discover rotating art displays in a millionaire’s mansion, dance to Latin rhythms in Little Havana, or slide down a two-story chute into a shopping haven.

Dive into crystal-clear waters to explore pirate shipwrecks, visit the country’s smallest post office, or track down Florida’s elusive Skunk Ape. Seek tranquility at a tropical Buddhist temple, stroll through mango groves, and celebrate sunsets at the southernmost point of the U.S. 111 places are waiting to reveal the magic of Miami and the Keys.

Welcome to 111 Places in Richmond That You Must Not Miss, a collection of the sites and experiences that make the River City such a special place. To those who don’t know Richmond, Virginia, USA, you’ll find the city itself to be a hidden gem, the cradle of 400 years of American history, steward of the magnificent James River, and the unlikely home to heralded culinary masters.

To those who do know Richmond, the self-deprecating but proud populace inured to its remarkable features, by flipping through these pages you will uncover secrets about your city, new and old. You know Hollywood Cemetery, but do you know the final resting place of our famous psychic horse? Have you kept an open mind about our smaller neighbours to the North and South and gazed at the Heavens from “the Center of the Universe” or seen the Petersburg residence constructed entirely from tombstones?

There’s something for everyone within these pages, whether a nature lover, history buff, aesthete, epicurean, tippler, or just an adventurous soul seeking curiosities – the River City welcomes you to partake in its treasures. Join us in discovering the secret spots that Richmond hides so well.

The archive of Lucerne-based firm DEON Architekten contains beautiful sketches and drawings in a range of techniques such as charcoal, ink, pencil, and marker, on drawing or tracing paper and on plans. Many of these sheets are collaborative works, created in dialogue-based design within the firm, with external partners, and with clients. The diversity is vast and sometimes surprising, and they all illustrate that drawing is a brilliant tool for the development of ideas.

Sketches and drawings are the main lens through which this first full monograph on DEON Architekten’s work explores 19 of their buildings and projects. They range from a minor intervention in an existing structure to major industrial plants, from remodelling a private residence to a large housing development, research commissions, and submissions to public competitions. Divided into four chapters—Shape, Building Redevelopment, Interaction, Large Form—the volume focuses on the diverse processes that characterise the construction of architecture, the joint search for solutions, the flow of design. Sketches and drawings are reproduced in true size and supplemented with plans, visualisations, and photographs. These lavish visuals illustrate DEON Architekten’s design process and realised buildings.

Text in English and German.

A beautifully illustrated and extensively researched collection of 100 exquisite houses of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

The Arts and Crafts Movement produced some of the world’s most charming and enduring architectural masterpieces. Author and architect David Cole presents 100 great houses of Arts and Crafts domestic architecture (1860–1914), each house individually described and analysed with insightful detail and illustrated with stunning photography.

Cole tells the story of the shifts and influences within the Arts and Crafts Movement through the lens of 100 houses, from those by the pioneer and great reformer architects, to the countryside craftsmen and Scottish architects, and finally the houses of the Garden Cities. He dedicates a short chapter to each of the 100 great Arts and Crafts houses, beginning with the iconic Red House, designed and owned by William Morris, a pioneer and key proponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In addition to Morris, the book features houses created by some forty of the movement’s renowned architects, including Philip Webb, Richard Norman Shaw, Wiliam Lethaby, C.F.A. Voysey, Edwin Lutyens.

This extensively researched and exquisitely produced large-volume book presents the Arts and Crafts Movement’s 100 most important houses, illustrated with more than 900 full-colour photographs. As Morris famously said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

Can We Stop Killing Each Other? wrestles with the darkest side of humanity. It explores the fundamental question of why humans are led to kill, examining the artworks, films, video games and television programmes that grapple with and manifest themes of death and destruction.

Using material culture linked to moments of extreme violence, such as the Holocaust and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, this publication offers a challenging but eye-opening consideration of some of the most horrifying events in human history as explored through art.

Using historical and contemporary art as a lens to explore these themes, the book will include a new interview with Ethiopian artist Tesfaye Urgessa (b.1983), who creates emotive paintings reflecting on the refugee crisis. It will also explore the role of art as sanctuary from violence, through new approaches to the work of Claude Monet (1840–1926)

Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Solvay House is widely acclaimed as the pinnacle of Victor Horta’s architectural achievements. This groundbreaking architect challenged conventional architecture, addressing every issue through the lens of technological advancement—whether it be spatial design, materials, heating, ventilation, or lighting. From the floor plan to the selection of marble, from furniture to chandeliers and carpets, everything was meticulously designed by Horta. Françoise Aubry, a renowned Victor Horta specialist, narrates the story of this quintessential Art Nouveau masterpiece.

Maurice Cox, architect, urban designer, educator, and civic leader, has for more than three decades been working tirelessly to regenerate American cities through the lens of social justice and design excellence. He does so against considerable odds while achieving remarkable economic and social results. As a visionary leader in cities across America and beyond, Cox has occupied diverse roles ranging from Professor and City Commissioner to Mayor.

This book is the first to present and discuss his multifaceted achievements to a diverse audience of academics, community leaders and professionals. Its seven chapters, focused chronologically on cities in which he lived and operated, consist in a series of interviews with Cox and collaborators with the stated goal of identifying recurring concepts and strategies. Additionally, these scenarios are presented against the background of changing discourse and practice of regenerative approaches to American cities.

Combining archival materials, including Cox’s personal sketch-books, with period and contemporary photography, this volume sheds light on the complex process associated with redrawing the city, from New York and Florence to Detroit and Chicago. It provides hope and guidance for future generations who seek to continue in the that approach so fearlessly spearhead by Maurice Cox.

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.

A collaboration with UNESCO’s GEM Report, Mother Nature in the Bardo explores the impact between art, culture, and the environment. The book illuminates the innate connections between creativity and nature and inspires crucial conversations about humanity’s relationship with nature, sustainability and climate change. Bringing together historical and contemporary artworks from over 100 renowned international artists, galleries, institutions, estates and foundations, Mother Nature in the Bardo speaks to the most critical global dialogues of our time.

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!).

The New Design Museum maps a new landscape of institutional practices across different geographical locations. It reveals how spaces of culture dedicated to design have been transforming—their missions, programs and outreach platforms—to respond to an ever-expanding outlook on design as a field that is moving beyond its traditional presentation as an object-based practice. The case studies encompass visions and practical examples from leading international institutions as well as independent initiatives and platforms, such as The World Around (Brooklyn, NY), Serpentine Gallery (London), Future Observatory at the Design Museum (London), Cultures of Assembly (Luxembourg), Loudreaders, and Non-Extractive Architecture. They are united in their search to revisit methods and canons of conventional museological traditions. They explore a composite thematic spectrum covering from global design practices invested in decolonising and queering agency, computational, ecological and indigenous knowledge, and present alternative educational and collaborative frameworks of institutional development.

The book integrates 15 interviews with directors and programmers, such as Carson Chan (MoMA, New York), Ikko Yokoyama (M+ Museum, Hong Kong), Aric Chen (Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam), Giovanna Borasi (Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal), and Lucia Pietroiusti (Serpentine Gallery, London), with a selection of 31 projects and initiatives by independent practitioners and entities beyond the traditional museum, including festivals, websites, podcasts, public programs, and off-spaces. Many of them emerged over the past decade and more intently since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020. They are evidence of the changing paradigms of public and professional engagement with the discipline of design.

‘Another chocolate book?’ you might say? The answer is: this book is different than any other book on the market!

The Chocolatier’s Kitchen offers over 270 simple, concrete and practical recipes, covering the entire spectrum in confectionary (from bonbon, to truffles, snack bars…). From short, to medium or long shelf life, inspired by the Callebaut five colours of chocolate and executed in different chocolate types. The proud collective of Callebaut Chefs have bundled their expertise to conquer hearts and deliver inspiration, motivation and knowledge for every chocolate artisan & Chef, whether you are starting or want to further grow your chocolate business.

With contributions from the Callebaut Chefs Tribe: Davide Comaschi, Philippe Vancayseele, Clare England, Beverley Dunkley, Mark Tilling, Ciro Fraddanno and Ryan Stevenson

The 500 Hidden Secrets of Rome helps you set out to discover the most attractive, fun and unique places in Italy’s capital. Luisa Grigoletto and Christopher Livesay share 500 addresses and facts that many tourists don’t know, sometimes off the beaten track, but always loved by the locals and worth a visit.

This book lists, among other things, the 5 best gelaterías, the 5 most beautiful historic shops, 5 breathtaking palazzi which played an important role in art history and 5 sites where major Italian films were shot. It is the perfect book for those who wish to discover the city, but avoid all the usual tourist haunts, as well as for residents who are keen to track down the city’s best-kept secrets.