BELLAS ARTES

A valuable insight into the works and mind of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. Author Philip Jodidio explores long anticipated completed buildings, new projects, and a future outlook of the studio Shigeru Ban after TASCHEN has followed his career from the beginning. This monograph is a journey through the years and evolution of an architect who made a name for himself with true architectural marvels that cannot be surpassed in innovation, elegance, and sensibility. Next to early buildings deploying paper tubes as structural elements, as well as houses that challenge as fundamental an idea as walls, like the Curtain Wall House in Tokyo and the Wall-Less House in Nagano’s countryside, we see plenty of recent versatile projects. View a two-story penthouse on top of a 140-year-old New York City landmark cast-iron house, the Swatch/Omega Campus in Switzerland, and the Seine Musicale, a concert hall inserted into an overall master plan conceived by Jean Nouvel for the island Île Seguin in France.

Santiago Calatrava is a world-renowned architect, structural engineer, sculptor, and artist. From the Athens 2004 Olympic Sports Complex to the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in Manhattan, he exhibits a remarkable twin prowess for aesthetics and engineering, a simultaneous sensitivity to both the appearance and the anatomy of a structure.

In November 1936, publisher Henry R. Luce launched Life as a photo-led weekly news magazine with a clear purpose: “To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events.” Before readers’ attention was consumed by television, Life served as their window to the world, and by the late 1940s, it was being viewed by 1 in 3 Americans. Jean Harlow was the first movie star to appear on a Life cover in 1937, and from then until 1972 over 200 covers featured Hollywood-related subjects, illustrating the strength of the bond between Life and the film industry.

Scandinavia is world famous for its inimitable, democratic designs which bridge the gap between crafts and industrial production, organic forms and everyday functionality. This all-you-need guide includes a detailed look at Scandinavian furniture, glass, ceramics, textiles, jewelry, metalware, and industrial design from 1900 to the present day, with in-depth entries on 125 designers and design-led companies. Featured designers and designer-led companies include Verner Panton, Arne Jacobsen, Alvar Aalto, Timo Sarpaneva, Hans Wegner, Tapio Wirkkala, Stig Lindberg, Finn Juhl, Märta Måås-Fjetterström, Arnold Madsen, Barbro Nilsson, Fritz Hansen, Artek, Le Klint, Gustavsberg, Iittala, Fiskars, Orrefors, Royal Copenhagen, Holmegaard, Arabia, Marimekko, and Georg Jensen.

Peter Lindbergh photographed Dior’s most exceptional muses, Marion Cotillard and Charlize Theron among them, and signed campaigns for Lady Dior and J'Adore with his inimitable style. Throughout his career, the photographer was one of the house’s closest collaborators. This final book was an original cocreation that was close to the artist’s heart―and to ours.

Zen, soothing, mystical, meditative—words cannot do justice to Asia’s most beautiful interiors. Whether it’s a gilded Tibetan monastery, a plantation in Sri Lanka, or a private villa in Thailand, each of the havens featured in this book are remarkable not only in aesthetic, but also in spirit. This showcase features about 40 exceptional locations across Tibet, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Highlights include traditional Burmese stilt houses; the breathtaking Shiv Niwas Palace in India, visited by James Bond in Octopussy; Cambodian temples; a rice barge-turned houseboat in Thailand; the “Blue Mansion”, an magnificient, indigo-painted courtyard house featured in the film Indochine; a breathtaking garden designed by Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa; and many, many more.