Béhar, Bo Bardi, Buti, Nichetto, Meda, Noorda: six must-read books
Of the most recent to hit the shelves, we bring you monographs by six leading contemporary designers, providing an insight into their vision, their style, the ideas behind their designs and their personal stories
If it is true that it’s impossible these days to come up with one single definition of design, given the huge range of fields of application that make it an almost boundless area, sometimes with contradictory characteristics and concepts, then perhaps the secret lies in remaining curious, open-minded, trying to harness the kind of knowledge that fuels inspiration and intuition. Allowing ourselves to be “contaminated” by the stories of the design and the lives of the great contemporary designers and more.
To this end, we are flagging up six monographs by six Masters, each with their own individual visions, who continue to come up with ideas for design and productive processes. Yves Béhar, Lina Bo Bardi, Remo Buti, Luca Nichetto, Luca and the graphic designer Bob Noorda: all with different personalities and concepts, who clash, interact, play hide and seek and chase each other in a multifaceted puzzle that throws open the doors to creativity.
Yves Béhar: Designing Ideas
Inclusivity – Signed by the journalist Adam Fisher, but written in collaboration with the Swiss designer, the monograph traces the latter’s 20-year career from setting up the Fuseproject studio in 1999 to the humanitarian projects One Laptop Per Child and See Better to Learn Better, which saw six million pairs of corrective spectacles given out free to Mexican children over the last 10 years, and involved partnerships with brands such as Samsung, Puma, Issey Miyake, Prada, SodaStream and Nivea. Through his work, Béhar has managed to combine social responsibility and business acumen, redefining the role of the designer and broadening his range to include both these aspects. This has allowed Béhar to come up with innovative, multi award-winning designs that have a positive impact on people in developing countries and deprived communities. The book, which is split into themed chapters — Reducing, Sensing, Transforming, Giving, Humanizing and Scaling — analyses more than 60 projects by means of textual descriptions, sketches and studio photographs, providing an in-depth portrait of the conception, process and production of some of the best-known pieces in contemporary design.
Title: Yves Béhar: Designing Ideas
Authors: Yves Béhar and Adam Fisher
Published by: Thames and Hudson
Published: 2021
Pages: 420 pages, with 400 images and colour illustrations
Nichetto Studio: Projects, Collaborations and Conversations in Design
The richness of multidisciplinary practice – The book is the first chronological portfolio of projects by Nichetto & Partners since the studio was set up in 2000 to the present day. A multidisciplinary designer, as he is described, Nichetto’s work is infused with the influences that have always fascinated him: Italian style and Scandinavian essentiality (it is no accident that his studio has offices in Venice and Stockholm), attention to craftsmanship and collaboration. A number of interviews complete the monograph, including ones with Oki Sato and Nichetto himself, not to mention a more than exhaustive selection of photographs and sketches, which serve to paint a picture of a somewhat contemporary design practice. The projects singled out for inclusion include partnerships with Ginori 1735, Foscarini, Steinway & Sons, Hem and many others.
Title: Nichetto Studio: Projects, Collaborations and Conversations in Design
Authors: Max Fraser, Francesca Picchi and Luca Nichetto
Published by: Phaidon
Published: Available to pre-order, the book will ship on 24th March 2022
Pages: 240 pages, with 520 illustrations
La Dea Stanca. Vita di Lina Bo Bardi [The Tired Goddess. Life of Lina Bo Bardi]
In constant metamorphosis – A portrait, twenty years in the making, of Lina Bo Bardi by Zeuler R. Lima, who never strays from his protagonist’s biography. An original and mould-breaking architect, designer, curator and set planner of Italian origin, she set sail for Rio de Janeiro in 1946 and, thanks to her determination, defied social convention to become the co-editor of Domus. Her personal concept of architecture always revolved around community, the relationship with nature and popular tradition, albeit translated into extraordinarily modern and unconventional projects. A career striving for metamorphosis, always imbued with a tinge of personal melancholy, which led Valentino Bompiani to dub her “the tired goddess.”
Title: La Dea Stanca. Vita di Lina Bo Bardi
Author: Zeuler R. Lima
Translated by: Teresa Albanese and Nicoletta Poo
Published by: Johan & Levi
Published: 2021
Pages: 396 pages, with 41 b/w and 10 colour images
Varie-età. Remo Buti
The value of craftsmanship – The book is devoted to the work of Remo Buti, with a particular focus on his teaching activities, from 1982 to 2002, running the Furnishing and Interior Architecture course at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Florence. An architect, designer and skilled artisan – he described himself as an “archisan” – he was one of the protagonists of the Florentine architectural scene and the founder of Global Tools. The book doesn’t just cover Buti’s personal achievements, but also the spectacular and original work of students on his course (including Massimo Iosa Ghini and Stefano Giovannoni), documented by hundreds of images: one of the most stimulating ever true workshops of Italian design.
Title: Varie-età. Remo Buti
Authors: Giovanni Bartolozzi, Pino Brugellis, Matteo Zambelli
Published by: Quodlibet
Published: 2021
Pages: 472 pages, with colour and b/w images
