Bookshelf

Desert America: Territory of Paradox
Edited by Michael Kubo, Irene Hwang, Ramon Prat, and Jaime Salazar
Designed by Reinhard Steger
ACTAR, 320 pp., $46
Our national subconscious has imagined the desert as the last bastion of the sublime, where raw nature rules over a remote uninhabitable void. Combining photography, maps, and charts with historical text and personal history, this succinct volume reconsiders the American desert from California to Texas, as a staging ground for human activity, a place that often filled the arid void with versions of the future. Organized around seven themed “books,” Desert America includes surveys of dams, power plants, and nuclear testing sites interspersed among man-made utopias, ostentatious leisure towns, and fantasy playgrounds where extreme nature and extreme technology merge in a complex space of nightmares and dreamscapes, of utopian and dystopian worlds beyond time.

House of Worship: Sacred Spaces in America
By Dominique Browning and the editors of House & Garden
Designed by Katrine Ames, Anthony Jazzar, Lucy Gilmour, Trent Farmer,
Greg Wustefeld, James Cholakis, and the House & Garden research staff
Assouline, 248 pp., $45
While sacred architecture in America may not be able to compete with European cathedrals, it uniquely reflects the nation’s history and unwavering dedication to making fresh­—yet holy—places for religious practice. Since Colonial times, religiously and ethnically diverse congregations have built gathering places in innovative styles, some identifiable, others functionally discreet. Many of these buildings fuse traditional elements with contemporary styles to promote a new relationship among space, community, and religion. Take this book as a guide on a cross-country pilgrimage to reveal the full glory of these spaces when they are animated by worshippers.

Josef Müller-Brockmann
By Kerry William Purcell
Designed by Intégral Ruedi Baur et Associés
Phaidon, 291 pp., $75
In 1956 Josef Müller-Brockmann listed the key attributes of a successful graphic designer for an American magazine. His first choice was “clear thinking”—not surprising, given the rigorous clarity and formal discipline that characterize the Swiss designer’s work. It is ironic, then, that this critical biography suffers from awkward, clunky prose. (“Müller-Brockmann found in the certainty of mathematics a requisite calm tranquility in its logical and necessary traits” is a typical example.) Fortunately, there are ample illustrations. Particularly refreshing are the iconic 1950s posters, which employed a grid system and sans-serif typefaces for maximum cleanliness and ­read—ability—traits that came to define the “Swiss Style.”

Think New York: A Ground Zero Diary
By Hilary Lewis and Román Viñoly
Designed by Pure + Applied
New York Images, 328 pp., $65
In February 2003, Think, a collaborative effort of four architects, was runner-up in the LMDC-sponsored master-plan competition for the Ground Zero site. Chronicled from first scribble to final selection, the work of Shigeru Ban,
Ken Smith, Frederic Schwartz, and Rafael Viñoly reflects the intensity of 18 months endured under heavy pressure from the public, media, and elapsing time. Sketches, renderings, and related media complement the architects’ own commentary to articulate the forces influencing Think’s proposed World Cultural Center, reviving curiosity (and concern) about the future of Lower Manhattan in a period of prolonged uncertainty.

The Furniture Machine
By Gareth Williams
Designed by Scott Williams and Henrik Kubel
Victoria and Albert Museum, 174 pp., $60
This comprehensive survey of furniture design since 1990 illustrates the industry’s recent development and the emergent recognition of the trade, which created a place for contemporary design in the mainstream market and now elevates designers to celebrities. Framed by names such as Ron Arad and Philippe Starck, the account relates design evolution from the functional and the experimental to the socially and politically incisive (e.g. Dunne & Raby, Droog). It’s sometimes surprising and often inspiring, but always appreciative of the artistry.

Moulding Assembling Designing: Ceramics in Architecture
Edited by Armelle Tardiveau, Vicente Sarrablo, and Javier Soriano
ASCER, 149 pp., $38
Published by the Spanish Ceramic Tile Manufacturers’ Association, this survey of innovative and novel uses of ceramic tile in building facades, roofs, and interiors occasionally feels a bit too much like thinly disguised advertorial. But it includes some remarkable work nonetheless, such as the pixelated ­yellow-and-black tile facade of a Ljubljana apartment complex, by Sadar Vuga Arhitekti, and the undulating tile rooftop of Barcelona’s Santa Caterina Market, by EMBT Arquitectes. Technical sections fill out the picture with detailed information about manufacturing processes, assembly, customization, and new prototypes.