Complete Catalog 2010/2011

Architecture
Landscape Architecture
9 783034 606974 260/89018 Design
Editorial

In my career as a publisher and graphic designer, Birk-

häuser has always been an inexhaustible source of
information and ideas on architecture and design, and a
fundamental reference by which to measure the quality
of any publishing activity.
The creation of the ActarBirkhäuser Group provides now
the opportunity to reinforce and renovate Birkhäuser’s
central position in publishing by taking advantage of the
technological changes and new consumer requirements
affecting our industry, while developing an even stronger
content production platform in synergy with the group’s
other main publisher, Actar.
We trust that this opportunity will result in an enhanced
usability of the books and magazines that constitute this
catalog—so that they provide you, dear reader, with the
appropriate tools for the development of your creative
and research activity—and eventually in the establish-
ment of stronger and more productive connections and
synergies also among the architecture and design com-
munities in which we operate as publishers.

Ramon Prat
Group Managing Director
ActarBirkhäuser
Contents

Workflows
Building Books 4
TypoLyrics 7
Interview with Dino Simonett 10

Architecture
Architects | Buildings 16
Construction | Materials 40
Types | Functions 67
Cities | Regions | Urbanism 78
Studies | Professional Practice 84
Theory | History 91

Landscape Architecture
Landscape Architects 96
Gardens | Landscapes 98
Construction | Materials 102
Regions 104
Theory | History 106

Design
Designers 108
Graphics | Communication 113
Product Design | Interior | Materials 118
Studies | Professional Practice 127
Design Annuals 128

Index
Titles 132
Architects | Designers 136
 Building books

4 wo rk flows B u i l d i n g Bo o k s

Building Books

Dear Reader,

Architects and interior designers, landscape architects

and urban planners, graphic artists and product desig-
ners create buildings and interiors, gardens and squares,
outdoor and urban landscapes, objects for life and work.
They are creative, designing everyday objects that are
hopefully more than just useful: irresistible, conspicuous,
desirable, in short, beautiful. So how do they connect
beauty with utility?

Under new ownership Birkhäuser remains the specialist

publisher for architecture, landscape architecture and
design. We will continue publishing informative and
inspiring handbooks and introductions, monographs
and dictionaries, collections of essays and textbooks for
theory and practice. Our publications convey practical
knowledge but seek to be more than just useful: pleasing,
attractive, exquisite, in short, beautiful. We aspire to
make intelligent books that are a pleasure to hold in the
hand, books that take you a step further—and us too. So
how do they connect beauty with utility?
 work flows Bui l di ng Bo o k s 5

Planning and Development

Books are created by authors, editors and
designers. But how do we get from the
initial idea to a concept that can carry
a whole book like the foundations of a
house? Every book seeks to be special,
but not all live up to that expectation. The
project development phase requires time.
Time to discuss ideas and alternatives,
time to develop a broad structure bringing
together two perspectives. The author, as
the expert in matters of architecture and
design, and the publishing house with
its expertise in architecture and design
books agree on a basic plan for a book—a
concept that captures the subject in con-
tent and design, an attractive product that
is a pleasure to read.

Design and Communication Constructing and Materializing

As well as pursuing an idea, a book always
fits a type distinguished and defined
through the ways and means by which it
processes and conveys knowledge. Just as
a school needs a different spatial confi-
guration from a stadium, an architectural
handbook follows different rules than a
designer’s monograph. Our architecture
and design catalogues will continue to
reflect the diversity of contemporary and
practical themes, consequently exploi-
ting a spectrum of formats. A book must
address and exceed the expectations
placed upon it through the way it inter-
prets its type and thus first receives its
individual form.
Books have to be constructed if they are
to materialize their idea. Like in architec-
ture, the product is generated through
a process involving materials, modules,
elements and structures. There are many
questions concerning the logic of the con-
struction: In what dimensions do we want
to build a book, what format, what size?
How will we select the different materi-
als? The paper for the interior? The cover
materials for the outer shell? What texts,
images and plans are to be used, which
typefaces? On what grid, what layout, will
we build? Which insights and perspecti-
ves can the images supply? How to confi-
gure the relationship between built and
open areas, between text, illustrations
and white space?
6 wo rk flow s B u i l d i n g Bo o k s

We will retain and actively develop the

visual identity of the Birkhäuser imprint.
We see it as a great advantage that Actar
itself has such high standards and ambi-
tions in the field of graphic design and
book production. Sharing know-how will
allow us to optimize the aesthetic quality
of our books and provide you with tools
that are even more attractive.

Planning and Realizing

Ultimately, books have to be realized and
financed. Individual project management
by editor, graphic designer and publisher
remain the key to observing agreed bud-
gets and schedules. But they do not bear
sole responsibility: authors, architects
and designers, translators and proofrea-
ders, photographers and lithographers,
printers and bookbinders all contribute
expertise to put a project on the shel-
ves. And they all know that it requires a
concerted effort by all involved, a dynamic
equilibrium of the highest order, to create
the built object, the printed book.

Be inspired!

Ulrich Schmidt
Chief Unit Manager, Birkhäuser
 Typolyrics

work flows T ypo lyri cs 7

Turn Up the Volume

“TypoLyrics—The Sound of Fonts”

Design: Rike Stephani, Kévin Puech, Font: Trappers and Traders