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| Mar 4, 2013 |
Hot off the press: Nine design books to ring in spring
Boh staff
By Staff

This spring will be jam-packed with brand new design books being released throughout the next few months. From interiors to architecture and landscape design, here’s a look at the first round of books debuting this month.

Artful Decoration: Interiors by Fisher Weisman (The Monacelli Press) opens with a foreword by Margaret Russell, editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest. “Interior designers have been making our world a more beautiful place for centuries,” she wrote. “But decorators who create magic—whose work transports us to another realm—are rare indeed. Among those geniuses today are Andrew Fisher and Jeffry Weisman.”

The book showcases the work of Fisher and Weisman’s San Francisco–based design firm, revealing the imagination, meticulous attention to detail, and the sense of humor with which they infuse every home. Their interiors blend the exotic and the traditional and refresh classic ideas with handmade, whimsical details. Both designers contribute an essential element to every project: Fisher injects opulence and glamour, hand-decorating chandeliers with shells, crafting side tables with delicate branchlike bases and choosing ornate accent materials like tortoise, gold leaf, and peacock feathers; while Weisman contributes restrained architecture, calm visual pauses, and impeccable interior finishes.

Magni Modernism (Abrams) by James Magni is inspired by his highly sophisticated and highly sought after modern home designs and showcased here for the first time. The book displays the designer’s sensibilities through 14 private residences found in Beverly Hills, Mexico City, Jackson Hole, Aspen, and Moscow.

With elegant restraint, Magni’s interiors complement the architecture of these homes, reflecting his training as an architect and spotlighting the buildings’ dramatic lines, open spaces, and spectacular views. From the limestone walls of a penthouse in Mexico City to the dark wood and concrete of a home in the mountains of Jackson Hole, each residence is beautifully captured in photographs and accompanied by an insightful and engaging text by design writer Marc Kristal.

The Great Houses of Cayetana, Duchess of Alba (Ediciones El Viso) by Naty Abascal and Ricardo Labougle explores the houses that belong to the Duchess of Alba in Madrid (The Liria Palace), Seville (The Palace of Las Dueñas), Salamanca (The Palace of Monterrey), Ibiza and San Sebastián. If you’re in need of some classical inspiration, this book takes you on a visual tour.

The Welcoming House: The Art of Living Graciously (Rizzoli) is the first book by Jane Schwab and Cindy Smith. In the book, the pair presents interiors in which the trademarks of their style—subtle color palettes, graceful furniture, an emphasis on comfort and entertaining—harmonize to create fresh yet classic rooms. Walking the reader through each home with Southern charm, they share their vision and process, from big-picture topics such as room flow and furniture plans, to the importance of entryways and setting a beautiful table. Don’t miss an insightful foreword by Bunny Williams.

Folly De Grandeur: Romance and Revival in an English Country House (Rizzoli) by Nicholas Halsam is a charming yet detailed look at how the English country house can be reimagined for today (and for any country location) in his decades-long makeover of a historic country house. In this book, Haslam presents in detail his "folly de grandeur," a beautiful English country house lovingly tended for over 40 years, and known for its exquisite architecture and decoration, providing new insights into the enduring appeal of the English country house.

Cindy Rinfret's Classic Greenwich Style was the first book to celebrate the style of this quintessential American town and bring its renowned classic look to a nationwide audience. Now, the designer returns with a new selection of interiors that will appeal to homeowners seeking elegant yet comfortable style. Rinfret provides entrée to homes she has crafted with her exquisite eye for detail and unique decorating sensibility, and shows how people can recreate the look for themselves in Greenwich Style: Inspired Family Homes (Rizzoli).

Luxurious Minimalism: Elegant Interiors (Rizzoli) by Fritz Von Der Schulenburg and Karen Howes showcases an unsurpassed collection of the most inspiring minimalist interiors in the world. Minimalism has a richness, texture, and creativity that continues to inspire designers to create a wide range of looks, from minimalist luxury to luxurious minimalism.

From rough luxe to stripped down modernist formality to an almost empire-style minimalism, this collection of beautiful photographs showcases breathtaking interiors from around the world that combine a sense of grandeur and drama shaped and inflected by minimalism. The range of interiors and properties include a New York penthouse where the minimalist interiors highlight incredible views; a Colorado lodge in a dramatic mountain setting; a Loire Valley château; a traditional country house in Litchfield; a Fire Island beach house; a recently renovated baroque palace in Sweden; private estates in California and Vermont, and much more.

Nine special sections feature statements from specially conducted interviews with the world’s most celebrated interior designers. Complete with an address book of useful contact details, this is an inspiring volume that celebrates the enormous range of possibilities of minimalism in the grand style.

Ranches, Villas and Houses by Michael G. Imber (Rizzoli) is a must-have for lovers of traditional or southwestern-inspired residential design. The book reveals architectural traditions of the desert southwest and Mexico. A master of traditional forms derived from these regions, particularly of his native Texas, Imber begins each of his designs by considering the land through watercolors and then develops his ideas in relation to climate and local historical references.

The result is an array of ranches and houses that evokes the rural building traditions of the west, unafraid of the delights of classical ornamentation, and wholly modern accents in its execution. This is a collection of masterful residential projects ranging in scale from bungalows to sprawling ranches, all presented in large-format photographs and accompanied by Imber's watercolor studies.

Albert Speer Architecture 1932-1942 (The Monacelli Press) by Leon Krier asks the question, “Can a war criminal be a great artist?” Speer, Adolf Hitler's architect of choice, happens to be responsible for one of the boldest architectural and urban oeuvres of modern times. First published in 1985 to an acute and critical reception, the book is a lucid, wide-ranging study of an important neoclassical architect. Yet is simultaneously much more: a philosophical rumination on art and politics, good and evil.

Krier bases his study on interviews with Speer just before his death. With aid from a new introduction by influential American architect Robert A. M. Stern, Krier candidly confronts the great difficulty of disentangling the architecture and urbanism of Speer from its political intentions.

Stay tuned for April’s design book roundup.

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