Lars Müller Publishers

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.

Please Don't Brand My Public Space is a critical investigation of the visual strategies employed to identify and brand political territories. Isn't it about time to look at their often banal images as part of a crisis of political representation? In the context of a revival of xenophobic propaganda on the one hand and the degradation of places into pure marketing products on the other, it is possible to recognize an increasingly theatrical, unquestioned production of public signs and symbols. Essays on the theme by political scientists, designers, and sociologists make reference to the three visual essays that are at the heart of the book: "The Noticeable Absence of a Flag of the Earth" by Ruedi Baur, "Depictions of Federalism and Nationalism: Comparing the Former Yugoslavia, Switzerland, and Belgium" by Irena Bockaj, and "European Capitals in Competition" by Maria Roskowska. The publication is released in collaboration with Civic City (HEAD Geneve) and the research program A"Ecrire la villeA" (Ensadlab, Paris).

Coinciding with the new edition of the bestseller Designing Design, Kenya Hara's latest book, Ex-formation, searches for the beginning of design in the unknown. For Kenya Hara, design begins with comprehension of the unknown. In contrast to "information," "exformation" describes how little we really know and thus becomes the starting point for any type of design. Based on a range of projects the book describes what "exformation" can look like in design practice and how this concept alters ur classic understanding of information design. Following the path embarked on in Designing Design (2007) and its successor, White (2010), Ex-formation continues to explore the void, absence, and indeterminacy in contemporary design.

Since the 1970s Wolfgang Weingart has exerted a decisive influence on the international development of typography. In the late 1960s he instilled creativity and a desire for experimentation into the ossified Swiss typographical industry and reflected this renewal in his own work. Countless designers have been inspired by his teaching at the Basle School of Design and by his lectures. In Typography Weingart gives an unusual and frank narrative of his early life and development as a designer. For the first time he gives a comprehensive survey of his works over the past forty years, most of which are unknown.

Representing a new generation of designers in Japan, Kenya Hara (born 1958) pays tribute to his mentors, using long overlooked Japanese icons and images in much of his work. In Designing Design, he impresses upon the reader the importance of "emptiness" in both the visual and philosophical traditions of Japan, and its application to design, made visible by means of numerous examples from his own work: Hara for instance designed the opening and closing ceremony programs for the Nagano Winter Olympic games 1998. In 2001, he enrolled as a board member for the Japanese label MUJI and has considerably moulded the identity of this successful corporation as communication and design advisor ever since. Kenya Hara, among the leading design personalities in Japan, has also called attention to himself with exhibitions such as Re-Design: the Daily products of the 21st Century of 2000.

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 Muller 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.

Social design is design for society and with society. As social innovation and on the basis of dialogue and participation, social design strives for a new networking of the individual, civil society, government, and the economy. Social design is thus a response to a global growth economyand its consequences for humans and the environment: The means of production and resources are becoming scarcer, setting off discussions about the need to redesign social systems and living and working environments. Architects and designers have always played a vital role in shaping this social culture. Social Design thus presents a long-overdue survey of current international positions of interdisciplinary breadth, ranging from new infrastructures to the re-conquest of cities by their inhabitants. Some twenty-seven projects in the areas of cityscape and countryside, housing, education and work, production, migration, networks, and the environment are framed by three research studies that trace the historical roots and foundations of social design and look at today's theoretical discourse as well as future trends.

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.

Since the earliest days of cinema, film has been a colourful medium and art form. More than 230 film colour processes have been devised in the course of film history, often in close connection with photography. In this regard, both media institutionalised numerous techniques such as hand and stencil colouring as well as printing and halftone processes. Apart from these fundamental connections in terms of the technology of colour processes, film and photography also share and exchange colour attributions and aesthetics. This publication highlights material aspects of colour in photography and film, while also investigating the relationship of historical film colours and present-day photography. Works of contemporary photographers and artists who reflect on technological and culture-theoretical aspects of the material of colour underline these relations. Thematic clusters focus on aesthetic and technological parallels, including fashion and identity, abstraction and experiment, politics, exoticism, and travel. Color Mania contains a general introduction to colour in film and photography (technique, materiality, aesthetics) as well as a series of short essays that take a closer look at specific aspects. An extensive image section illustrates the texts and colour systems and continues the aesthetic experience of the various processes and objects in book form.

A standard work which is still as up-to-date as the first edition five years ago. While climate change and sustainable architecture have become increasingly topical, issues surrounding the sustainability of the city are much less developed. The book brings together design practitioners and theorists, economists, engineers, artists, environmental scientists, and public health specialists, with the goal of reaching a more robust understanding of ecological urbanism.Of the book's two essential components - texts and projects - it is primarily the project portion that has been the subject of revision. The projects are seen as exemplars of an approach, a certain set of intentions, and as with most experiments, some have proved more successful than others. A significant number have been replaced with more recent examples, including projects by many of the original contributors. In choosing these projects, our aim has been both to emphasize the need for a particular sensibility in dealing with urbanization and to provide demonstrations of some of the more pertinent design ideas currently being promoted around the globe.

Young-Old examines contemporary architectural and urban mutations that have emerged as a consequence of one of the key demographic transformations of our time: aging populations. Distinguishing between different phases of old age, the book identifies the group known as the “young old” as a remarkable petri dish for experiments in subjectivity, collectivity, and environment. In investigating this field of latent urban and architectural novelty, Young-Old asserts both the escapist and emancipatory dimensions of these practices. Richly illustrated with drawings, maps, and photographs, the volume documents phenomena ranging from the continuous, golf-cart-accessible urban landscapes of the world’s largest retirement community in Florida and the mono-national urbanizaciones of “the retirement home of Europe” on Costa del Sol, to the Dutch-themed residential community at Huis Ten Bosch in southern Japan.

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.

Interdisciplinary and intercultural experience coupled with sophisticated knowledge and skills are required for devising appropriate, differentiated design solutions for the global context. Ruedi Baur and his research team investigate and analyse visual graphics from different cultures and identify their specific principles of depiction. The research was preceded by a comprehensive case study on the coexistence of Chinese and Latin as well as Arabic and Latin writing. The study culminates in an examination of the conditions under which the coexistence of diverse writing systems can enhance intercultural visual communication. This theme occupies designers in all cultures whose goal it is to promote global understanding while preserving the diversity of languages and writing systems.

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.

Renny Ramakers is realizing projects that combine virtual technologies and social media with the craft of design to develop new social relations. For more than three decades, the Dutch art historian, critic, and curator has been changing the nature and purpose of design. As co-founder of the Droog Design collective, she has championed the notion of furniture and industrial design as a rethinking of today's world. When Droog first exhibited at the Milan furniture fair in 1993, its assemblies of found materials and witty forms instantly changed the landscape of design. Since then, Ramakers has worked with makers and creators to move beyond slick objects and towards critical projects that open our eyes to our multifaceted realities while offering easy access and great joy to users.

E.A.T. / Engadin Art Talks, the forum in Zuoz in the crystalline winter-wonderland of the Swiss Alps, takes place at the end of January each year and has become famous as a meeting point for thought leaders and disruptive minds. The event is curated by Daniel Baumann, director of the Kunsthalle in Zurich, Bice Curiger, artistic director of the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Arles, Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, and Philip Ursprung, a history of art and architecture professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Thinking in Thin Air makes it possible to experience the ideas of the artists, architects, and scientists who gather every winter to exchange thoughts of social-political relevance and visions of the future of art. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Engadin Art Talks, this book provides an insight into the special atmosphere of this event. Designed like a pinboard, it can be read from any direction. It presents works by the participants, and offers a fascinating insight into the thinking and practice of some of the most important artists of our time in the form of essays, sketches, and works of art.