FRISCH GEDRUCKT! | Neues auf dem Buchmarkt – New Books! (2)

Freshly printed – new publications which attracted our attention in February!  We are covering an exciting spectrum – from Alfred Hitchcock to portraits of several architectural teams to a game of Pairs, based on Johannes Itten. We’ll start with an all-English book – for our international readers (also check the German descriptions, some publications are bi-lingual, the links provide further info).

“The Wrong House”  by Steven Jacobs, edited by Rotterdam based NAI010 publishers, features are well-known name – in an unexpected context: Alfred Hitchcock is an architect? Not that astonishing, actually, as Hitchcock worked as a set designer in the early 1920s, and after that, remained intensely concerned with the art direction of his films, which feature a remarkable collection of Victorian manors, suburban dwellings, modernist villas, urban mansions, and posh penthouses. In addition, Hitchcock emphatically used architectural motifs such as stairs and windows, transforming the house into a place of anxiety or disturbance. Particularly his gothic melodramas of the 1940s such as Rebecca, Suspicion, or Shadow of a Doubt, present the house as an uncanny labyrinth and a trap. Last but not least, some remarkable single-set films, such as Rope or Rear Window, explicitly deal with the way the confines of the set relate to those of the architecture on screen.

The book  uses the conventional layout of an architectural monograph. Illustrated by floor plans especially made for this publication, each chapter deals with a specific building and its furnishings.

The Wrong House
The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock
Steven Jacobs
nai010
ISBN: 978-94-6208-096-6
Paperback English 344 Pages

Another full English publication portraits Romanian cosmopolitan G. M. Cantacuzino (1899–1960), architect and theorist – it is the first monograph on a Romanian architect ever to be published by a major European publishing house. Cantacuzino is one of the least known polymaths of the 20th century. In view of that age of extremes, both his “Classical attitude”, which links Modernism to Tradition and aesthetics to ethics, and his intellectual integrity are quite remarkable. He was born in Vienna to aristocratic parents, and was educated in Switzerland, Bucharest, and Paris. Back in Bucharest, he was to become the unchallenged integrative figure of the moderate Modernism in Romania; he still is the most prolific architectural theorist of that country. He was also professor of architectural history and theory in Bucharest, painter and curator, the first Romanian correspondent of “L´Architecture d´Aujourd´hui”, honorary corresponding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, honorary citizen of New York, and much more.

This study tries to place Cantacuzino´s momentous life and work in the architectural, cultural, economic and political contexts. It also attempts to outline his artistic and intellectual family – from Vitruvius via Palladio to Schinkel and Loos, from Wölfflin to Wittkower, from Plotinus via Bergson to Camus, from Montaigne via Goethe to Rilke, Valéry, and T. S. Eliot.

George Matei Cantacuzino
A Hybrid Modernist
Dan Teodorovici
ENGLISH
256 Pages, illus., Hardcover, 21,5 x 26,5 cm
Wasmuth Verlag

Trix and Robert Haussmann are two of the most important architects, designers and theoreticians, consequential in influencing and helping to displace classical modernism in Switzerland. They have realized about 650 projects in their lifetime. The year 1967 marks their marriage and the establishment of their joint office Allgemeine Entwurfsanstalt. It is also the year they began working together, a collaboration which has brought forth works breaking with the dogmas of entrenched architectural practices. In addition to designing buildings and furniture, they have developed a rich theoretical œuvre that is presented for the first time in this publication. This book will form the basis for any future assessment of their work.

Und zu guter Letzt etwas zum selbst Kreativwerden: Ein Memo-Spiel, das mit der Farben- und Formenlehre von Johannes Itten arbeitet. Beim Aufdecken soll man sich hier buchstäblich die die Bauhaus-Formenlehre erspielen können. (Aus der Produktbeschreibung:) Itten beschreibt, warum die Stärke und Undurchsichtigkeit von Rot der statischen und begrenzten Form des Quadrates entspricht. Ein Kreis hingegen erzeugt ein Gefühl der Entspanntheit und stetigen Bewegung, die wir auch im Betrachten der Tiefe und Weite von Blau empfinden. Das Dreieck als Symbol des Denkens zeigt die Eigenschaft von Gelb mit seinem schwerelosen Charakter, der aber auch stachlig sein kann wie spitze Winkel. Orange dagegen zeigt die Eigenschaften eines Trapezes, Grün ist dem sphärischen Dreieck verwandt und Violett entspricht der Ellipse. Wird also eine Farbe in der entsprechenden Form gezeichnet, steigert sich deren spezifischer Ausdruck. Die sechs Nuancen reichen entsprechend dem Farbenstern von hellem Pastell bis zum sehr dunklen Ton einer Farbe. Durch das Spielen wird die Wahrnehmung von verschiedenen Nuancen der Farbtöne geschärft und ihr Benennen gefördert. Die Formen und Farben prägen sich ein. Beim Aufdecken werden immer wieder neue Kontraste aus der Farbenlehre entdeckt.

Video zum Memo-Spiel

Farbe und Form. Spielen mit der Farben- und Formenlehre Johannes Ittens
Farbbüro Isler und Bader
72 Karten in Stülpschachtel,
DEUTSCH / ENGLISH
ISBN 978-3-7212-0865-8
Niggli Verlag

 

Tags: A Hybrid Modernist, Barbara Holub, Dan Teodorovici, Direkter Urbanismus, Edition Patrick Frey, George Matei Cantacuzino, Johannes Itten, Memory, Nai010, news, Niggli, Paul Rajakovics, Studiolo, top, Trix Robert Haussmann, Verlag für moderne Kunst, Wasmuth Verlag