Lars Müller Publishers

Advancements in generative AI are transforming the way we conceptualize consciousness. Using the Japan Pavilion exhibition at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale as a starting point, this publication offers a thought-provoking dialogue between architecture, artificial intelligence and humanity. Imagining a near-future when AI technology has further advanced, the Japan Pavilion stages a dialogue between the building’s constituent elements – the Hole, Wall Columns, Outer Walls, Brick Terrace, Pensilina, Tilted Loop Path and Yew Tree – and humans, as equals. Their conversation revolves around the future of the pavilion and a search for common ground. Behind-the-scenes reflections, critical essays and speculative writings expand on the themes of the exhibition and offer insights into a highly relevant topic.

From the celebrated MUJI designer and bestselling author of 100 Whites and Designing Japan, a compact and beautifully designed guide to the art of cleaning Cleanliness is a core value of societies around the globe. With beautiful photography and short, poetical observations, acclaimed author and designer Kenya Hara explores and illustrates the concept of cleaning in all of its aspects: sweeping, dusting, blowing, beating, washing, wiping, smoothing, raking, grooming, purifying, scrubbing, scraping, erasing, scooping, removing and clearing. From the sorting process a child applies to its toys and the meticulous attention a clockmaker pays to their creations to the impressive feat that is deep-cleaning a ship, each process is treated with the same gentle fascination. The portable book format invites readers to take this publication into the world as they look at these everyday processes with fresh eyes. Kenya Hara (born 1958) is a Japanese graphic designer, author, curator, professor at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo and art director for MUJI. He has been awarded many prizes, including the Japanese Cultural Design Award. Hara is the author of White, 100 Whites, Designing Design and Designing Japan.

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.

'Atmosphere Anatomies' illustrates how the atmosphere can affect sensory and physiological well-being when incorporated as a meteorological medium into the disciplines of design, particularly urban design and landscape architecture. Using paradigmatic projects, the essays discuss the diverse techniques and contexts that have focused on the atmosphere as an essential part of the design process. Woven throughout the book, the evocative photographic essays of Iwan Baan showcase selected design projects in their function as everyday spaces, which should be both delightful and inhabited. The critical and visual examination of these various projects illustrates that the integration of atmosphere creates spaces of social, emotional, and environmental relevance. 'Atmosphere Anatomies' builds on this premise and explores the role of architecture and design in the context of increasing climate change, health challenges, and the sustainable use of our resources.

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.

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.

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.

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.