Cabinets of Curiosities
Author: Patrick Mauriès
Thames & Hudson 2002
ISBN 0–500–51091–1
Chambers of curiosities, housing those strange (and mostly unscientific) collections of little ‘wonders’ from all over the world, were a typical attribute of the baroque era and especially of royal baroque residences. Everything that was precious, exotic or simply quaint, was kept in them: stuffed animals, fossils, tribal artefacts, wax figures and death masks. After this type of room fell almost into oblivion with the Age of Enlightenment, in recent years it has returned to the focal point of interest for art historians and interior designers.
In his book, Patrick Mauriès rekindles the era of chambers: he documents what has been preserved and reconstructed, and what has disappeared; he portrays the collectors who want to go down in posterity for these cabinets, and he examines the factors that have contributed to the revival of the chamber of curiosities.
The Good Life
A Guided Visit to the Houses of Modernity
Author: Iñaki Abalos
Editorial Gustavo Gili 2001
ISBN 84–252–1830–6
In his essay, the Spanish architect Iñaki Abalos takes his readers for seven ‘walks’ through archetypical residential buildings of the 20th century. Not among them, however, are none of the buildings usually documented in the history books – no Tugendhat Villa, no Savoye Villa and no Fallingwater. Instead we see rather imaginary constructions with which the author exemplifies the characteristics of 20th century architecture in a condensed form.
According to the publishing house, the excursions to the realms of fantasy should “not just celebrate the diversity of the 20th century house, but also stimulate the pleasure in thinking, planning and living intensely and promote the appearance of a house that does not yet exist.”
L‘Invention du Chic Thérèse Bonney et le Paris moderne
Author: Lisa Schlansker Kolosek
Éditions Norma 2002
ISBN 2–909283–72–0
This book allows the reader to rediscover the Paris of the years between the World Wars and classical modernism. The illustrated archives of the journalist and photographer Thérèse Bonney (1894–1978) has been in oblivion since the 1930s but is now kept in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.
Bonney is considered as the founder of the first American photo agency specialising in architecture and interior design photographs. Through her work, many of her fellow countrymen came into contact with the works of Eileen Gray, Pierre Chareau, René Herbst and other renowned European interior designers. The main emphasis of Bonney’s work (and of this book) however is put on Robert Mallet-Stevens’ villa for the Noailles Family in Hyères, as well as the private home in Paris designed by Jean- Michel Frank for the same client.
Sense of the City
An Alternative Approach to Urbanism
Editor: Mirko Zardini
Lars Müller Publishers 2005
ISBN 3–03778–060–6 (English)
ISBN 3–03778–061–4 (French)
The catalogue ‘Sense of the City’ was produced for the exhibition of the same name that took place in the autumn of 2005 in the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. The book questions the dominance of visual signs in contemporary urban landscapes, and instead gives priority to a more complex analysis of quality, communication systems and sensorial features of our cities.
The themes range from the (ever-diminishing) darkness at night and the city’s ambient noise to air quality and urban climate, quite in line with the philosophy of Cedric Price, who commented that “mental, physical and sensory well-being is required” in our cities. Photos from the exhibition illustrate the texts, were written by such people as Constance Classen, David Howes, Emily Thompson, and Mirko Zardini.