Fay Sweet Bücher

Unberührte Landschaften, Menschen im Einklang mit der grandiosen Natur, helle Sommernächte und klirrender Frost – das ist Skandinavien. Dem entspricht skandinavisches Design: es verbindet sich mit Namen wie Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen und Mette Lange, und es steht für zeitlose Modernität, geradlinige Eleganz und guten Geschmack. Stilvolles und dabei behagliches Wohnen und Einrichten mit klaren, sinnlichen Formen und natürlichen Materialien wird in Schweden, Dänemark, Finnland und Norwegen großgeschrieben. Eine Entdeckungsreise durch Häuser und Wohnungen im Norden Europas, die – jenseits von falscher Landhausromantik – Lust macht auf skandinavisches Design. • Anregungen zur Gestaltung eines modernen und zugleich zeitlosen Ambientes • Wohnen in der Stadt, auf dem Land und am Wasser • Klassische skandinavische Architektur und modernes Design des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts

For centuries hidden behind the scenes, the kitchen is now the hub of home life. In design terms, this means that today's kitchen must not only be flexible and practical; it's got to look great, too. In addition to being the place for storing, preparing, and cooking food, the modern kitchen may need to accommodate activities as diverse as washing and ironing, family meals, children's homework or tea parties, romantic suppers, and even full-scale dinner parties. Most of this would have been unthinkable three or four generations ago, when kitchens were kept firmly out of sight. They were always the engine rooms of the house, but not places where anyone who did not have to there would be found. The kitchen is also the place where, traditionally, new design ideas and new technology have entered the home, particularly in the years after World War II, when public taste swung away from the dark and troubled past toward the optimistic, light-filled future. New surfacing materials such as Formica, mechanized assembly lines, and streamlined designs combined to produce the hugely desirable built-in-kitchen. As our lives have grown more informal, the kitchen has become integrated into the living space of the home. In many new houses and apartments, open-plan designs merge kitchen, dining, and living room spaces. Kitchen deisgners, architects, and product manufactuers have responded by creating designs and appliances that are better than ever. The choice of furniture syles and finishes is incrediby varied; flooring and counters are vailable in a whole specturm of natural and man-made materials; lighting is more elegant and practical than ever; and appliances are made in every shape, size, and colour imaginable. I love kitchens. I never miss a chance to visit a kitchen showroom or have a look at kitchens in private homes or in restaurants. So I'm confident in saying that there has never been a more exciting time to create a new kitchen.

'Vintage Furniture' is a celebration of the inspiring designs, leading designers, and amazing advances in furniture manufacturing of the past century and up to the present day. It is also an invaluable reference and source book for every collector of furniture.

"Philippe Starck: Subverchic Design is designed and produced in close collaboration with Philippe Starck, features a wealth of sketches, drawings and colour photographs, gives an insight into Starck's radical new vision for the millennium, includes a chronology of career and milestones, and includes architecture, interiors and furniture alongside products from Starck's new 'Good Goods' range."--Jacket.

Fay Sweet is a freelance journalist specialising in writing about architecture and design for magazines and newspapers. Having completely refurbished four homes, she has gained a great store of practical knowledge and is a compulsive decorator.

Alessi is arguably the world's most influential and challenging design company. Here, Alberto Alessi's own reflections provide an insight into the creative ethos of one of the giants of design at the close of the century.