Design Library: Books on art and
design to give away at Christmas 2018

Christmas presents 2018. What’s more beautiful than getting completely absorbed in reading? Perhaps, just choose a book. Be intrigued by an intriguing cover, or a wonderful photograph, or a title that reminds us of something from the past. And, from time to time, think about the tastes and characteristics of the person we want to give it to. Christmas Books 2018 for lovers of architecture, art, design, interior design, travel, costume & Co. We have made a selection of illustrated books, books to read, photo books, coffee table books to give away or gift yourself.

There’s no better time to read than Christmas Holidays, after all. The books to give away at Christmas to fill your “design library”, or that of the people you love, are these. Architecture, creativity and trends, illustrations, cult products – some have also been listed by Elle Decor, Wallpaper and other industry magazines. You just have to choose, pack and give to yourself or others with your heart.

The book about the House – for children (and for adults)

What does “house” mean in all the languages of the world? “Case nel mondo” (Houses from the world) by Maria Paola Pesce and Martina Tonello, Edizioni Mondadori Elektakids, is the new book that explains to the little ones, but also to adults, the respect for the different cultures of the world, their habits, their language and their home concept. To animate the pages of this colorful volume there are in fact 11 different types of houses: from the favela to the igloo, from the houseboat to the loft, scattered across the five continents. Illustrated and explained, because the message is: adults or children, we all need a place called home, and it does not matter with what material it was built or what form it has. The important thing is to be able to call it HOME, at all ages.

The book for true lovers of modern art

Two names: Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Two great artists who have made art history around the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and both disappeared in 1918 – 100 years ago. To celebrate this 100th anniversary and pay homage to the two artists of Art Noveau and (German) Expressionism, the book “Klimt & Schiele: Drawings” by Katie Hanson, curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, that traces their paths through a collection of extraordinary drawings that explore unconventional sexuality, psychology and spirituality, has been published.

The atlas for young aspiring architects (and others)

Free the imagination and thinking of incredible places, on the edge of reality. This seems to be the premise of the book “Atlas of Fantastic Architecture”, written by Philip Wilkinson. The English author has in fact collected in this volume over 50 architectures never completed: a skyscraper more than a kilometer high, a dome that should have dominated the sky of Lower Manhattan in NYC, an arch of triumph in the shape of an elephant … Buildings and sculptures never realized for political causes and lack of funds. A treat to give to the fans but also to the creatives, visionaries, dreamers. Projects, drawings, illustrations, photographs: a book on the art of making art.

The book for creative intellectuals

FeltrinelliIl mistero delle cose. Nove ritratti di artisti”  (“The mystery of things. Nine portraits of artists”) is a book published in 2016, written by Massimo Recalcati and published by Feltrinelli in Italy. It is a very current book that makes a reflection on art based on modern studies of psychoanalysis. It talks about the irreversible death of painting, giving an image to the inexpressible, but also of pure design and contemporary art. Nine Italian artists (Giorgio Morandi, Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, William Congdon, Giorgio Celiberti, Jannis Kounellis, Claudio Parmiggiani, Alessandro Papetti and Giovanni Frangi) are, according to Recalcati,”authors who still know how to make the miracle of painting exist”. it means facing the mystery of things: to give as gifts to creative intellectual friends who, fortunately, are there.

The designer travel guide

10 destinations for romantic travelers, business women / men, adventurers, fashionistas, dandies and hardcore nomads. The “City Guide” by Louis Vuitton offers the perfect choice for every travel addict and, to celebrate Christmas 2018, it is enriched with contents. The new entry is Madrid, but there are also Paris (with new addresses), London – always current, Bangkok, Chicago, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Shanghai and Venice. Each city is told by independent journalists and personalities from the world of fashion, art, design, catering. This year, photographers Françoise Huguier and Ouka Leele invite us to discover respectively Paris and the new destination Madrid, the actor Jeff Goldblum accompanies us throughout Los Angeles and the artist Ding Yi shares his Shanghai. 15 thousand addresses each, including majestic palaces, itinerant museums, boutiques and restaurants. A MUST HAVE wherever you go.

The book that combines interior design and French couture

Let’s take one of the most famous historians of the world, Maureen Footer, expert in French decorative arts, and invite her to enter the Dior universe. The result is this rich manual that explores the profound link between couture and interior design, the sublime discovery of the residences of the immortal designer Christian Dior, created by two Parisian interior designers: the reporter Victor Grandpierre and the aesthete antiquarian expert Georges Geffroy. From the childhood home of the French designer in Normandy to the haute couture houses on Avenue Montaigne 30. Page after page, the style born in the design sector around 1947, the year in which Dior’s New Look was born, “that fascinated a world tired of war with beauty and luxury “. is narrated. For real aesthetes only.