Abitare: 50 years of design: The best of architecture, interiors, photography, travel and trends 1961-2011
Abitare: 50 Years of Design is the first-ever compilation of the most innovative design magazine of the 1960s and 1970s. Launched in 1961, Abitare is a revolutionary lifestyle magazine, the source of all things hip, important, and avant-garde, covering a wide range of topics including contemporary design, lifestyle, and modern architecture.
Abitare was founded to cover the growing influence of Italian design but also to gather the most interesting trends worldwide, from the mod fashion in London, and the rise of alternative lifestyles in New York and San Francisco, to the development of industrial design in Milan. Classic articles from Abitare are reproduced in full, with their original English and Italian texts, while new essays by noted writers and past editors reflect on the influence of this avant-gardist magazine.
Contributors to the book, including senior curator of Design at the MoMA Paola Antonelli, are all former editors of Abitare, and are now considered arbiters of style and design worldwide. Their new essays, along with the classic original articles reproduced in full in English and Italian constitute an important milestone in the analysis and appreciation of design.
Book for sale on Amazon: Abitare: 50 years of design: The best of architecture, interiors, photography, travel and trends 1961-2011 Edited by Mario Piazza - Rizzoli New York
Interview Magazine has just posted online a few interviews they did with Marc Newson, Konstantin Grcic, Ron Arad, Shigeru Ban and Alasdhair Willis for their May Issue.
From David Coggins' interview of Konstantin Grcic: "Design is a serious thing—it’s not just fun. It demands concentration, and it’s about responsibility. At the same time, for me, the hard reality is sometimes so comical because it’s about life, isn’t it? Everyday life, and how all of us struggle with life, and in this material world we struggle to come to terms with objects—something we have to sit down on, or open a latch on, or all of these essential kinds of things. I’ve always been fascinated by observing the relationship between human beings and objects. And, really, how do we come to terms with them? How intelligent are we? Is there a category of objects that are helpful and accommodating and accessible? Because there are objects that are totally the opposite and they are here to make you look like a fool, or they make you uncomfortable. I guess there is a certain form of humor in my work. It’s not that I just want to be funny. It’s not something I do deliberately. But when you accept the world with all its perfections and imperfections, and tragic and comic sides, then somehow this humorous aspect is part of it."
The magazine focuses on the international trends in the Neocraft movement. Following the revival of craft, the magazine deals with the latest news in illustration, graphic design, textile art, ceramics, glass and book art. The initiators, Katja Kleiss and Pascal Johanssen, intended to launch a magazine which presents and discusses international trends in new craft.
The title is programmatic: OBJECTS is interested in the individual artistic craftwork, the object. "Unique things remind us of our individuality in a standardised world," says Pascal Johanssen, "the selection of these "objects" is a statement. While design is made for the masses, craftwork is dedicated to the individual." Each issue features academic essays, non-academic interventions of artists and multipaged spreads.
Authors of the first issue are art critic Colleen Shindler-Lynch (Toronto), artist Robert Revels (San Franciso), designer Scott Ballum (New York) and art director Gregori Saavedra (Barcelona). The essays are complimented by plenty of illustrations.
The magazine is now distributed in Germany but you can order it to everywhere on the globe through Illustrative's online shop.
