Bookshelf
A history of collective living; a look at Australian-made furniture in contemporary houses; and a delectable work on edible art.
01 Design Lives Here: Australian Interiors, Furniture and Lighting by Penny Craswell (Thames and Hudson, 2020)
From Sydney design writer Penny Craswell, this new book on Australian residential architecture highlights individual pieces of furniture and lighting, and explores how these objects are integral to the interior design of the spaces they occupy. In line with Gestalt psychology (“a theory of perception that says that the particular cannot be understood except in relation to the whole”), Craswell seeks to look at design objects not just as products to be sold, but as pivotal characters in the narrative of a home. In Allen Key House by Studio Prineas, for instance, a table from Sydney studio Koskela inspired by the HB pencil is a key design piece for the living and dining space; but it is also a memento of the owners’ new appreciation for Australian design. At Noble Hughes House by David Boyle, Grant Featherston's iconic Wing Contour armchair is a testament to the clients' passion for the cultural touchstones of the 1950s (architecture, furniture, swing dancing). Featuring houses and apartments big and small, Design Lives Here tells a valuable story about Australian design and the interaction between furniture, lighting and the home.
02 Le Corbuffet: Edible Art and Design Classics by Esther Choi (Prestel, 2019)
In 2014, Esther Choi was “searching for clues” for her doctoral thesis in architectural history when she came across an elaborate menu designed by Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy. Featuring turtle soup and Aylesbury duckling, the 1937 menu was for a dinner in honour of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. The discovery was the impetus for a culinary experiment: Choi dreamt up a series of pun-inspired dishes named after canonical architects and artists, and cooked them for her friends. Her recipes are lovingly presented in this deliciously silly book, which is sure to get design and art lovers cooking. Indeed, the copy of Le Corbuffet received by Houses magazine for review is now full of post-it notes, with members of the editorial team laying claim to recipes they intend to try. One editor has chosen the Frei Otto Frittata, a breakfast dish that adopts the German architect’s interest in the ethereal. Another plans to cook the Vladimir Tarte Tatlin, a tomato tart that applauds the Soviet architect Vladimir
Tatlin’s “courageous and utopian aspirations.” And a third editor fancies the Rem Brûlée, which combines two desserts – crème brûlée and citrus tart – for a result as unexpected as the work of Rem Koolhaas.
03 A History of Collective Living: Forms of Shared Housing edited by Susanne Schmid, Dietmar Eberle, Margrit Hugentobler (Birkhäuser, 2019)
This thoroughly researched book tells the story of communal living in Europe (particularly Germany) from around 1850 until today.
The history is organized according to three factors that drive shared housing: the economic, the political and the social. Clearly, these categories often overlap. The section on the economic drive, for instance, begins with a history of the Large Housing Complexes inspired by utopian socialist thinkers such as Charles Fourier. These projects, which cropped up in a number of countries across Europe, sought to cushion widespread housing shortages by creating affordable living spaces for the working class; cramped tenement housing was to be replaced with collective properties in which key functions were centralized. These projects were not just a response to economic factors; they also represented an idealistic (if paternalistic) political vision of a more humane society whose influence can still be felt today. Drawing on diverse sources and expertly interrogating the economic, political and social, this book presents a compelling historical analysis of shared housing in modern Europe.
04 The Home Upgrade: New Homes in Remodeled Buildings edited by Robert Klanten, Andrea Servert, Tessa Pearson (Gestalten, 2019)
Home upgrades, the editors of this book tell us, “tend to unravel how an ideology is built into the floor plans.” For example, as the role of women in society changed in the twentieth century, internal walls were knocked down to open up kitchens. While today, in the face of the climate crisis, open plans are divided up to improve efficiency, and insulation and renewable energy are introduced. These are lofty notions with which to introduce a book on house renovations. But the publication offers only a light analysis of these issues, largely ignoring the uneven nature of such changes, and the tension between discourses of sustainability and the realities of architectural excess. Nonetheless, it's a handsome coffee table book, with some spectacular architecture presented through photographs, sketches and floor plans. Highlights include: Plywood House by SMS Arquitectos, where an unexpected contemporary interior has been inserted into a 1920s Mallorcan home in Palma, Spain; and Ceiba House by Jorge Ramírez (Mexico), which borrows a construction technique from ancient Egypt to preserve a historic structure.