JDS ARCHITECTS

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AGENDA is an architecture book that occupies the territory between a monograph, a diary, and a collection of essays, interviews, and conversations. At its most harmless AGENDA is a catalog of 365 days, like a diary or journal: a collective narrative, personal and subjective. It documents the work and thinking of JDS Architects over a specific year marked by crisis, beginning on September 15th, 2008, the day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The form of the book exploits the double meaning of its title, presenting the absurdities of day-to-day architectural practice while also staking our intent.

Rather than a definitive direction, our agenda is a definitive attitude – of eagerness, enthusiasm, and optimism, of criticality and concern, of fun and inquiry. It is a directive, a motivation to act, at times without clear knowledge of where our agenda will lead. “Change,” the buzzword of the last U.S. presidential campaign, is the order of the day, and the task of AGENDA is to explore what kind of change will be needed if architects are to assume a political and social agency in this new landscape.

Bringing together diverse forms of content, AGENDA is a product of vigilant observation, introspection, and engagement with outside thinkers and collaborators – artists, curators, politicians, authors, economists, journalists, developers, educators, and architects.
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AGENDA is a record of search and research, providing more questions than answers.
AGENDA is unapologetically naive.
AGENDA is an unorthodox architecture novel.
AGENDA demystifies the practice of architecture, revealing process, research, fun, and failure.
AGENDA looks to both the past and the future.
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Gestalten

Less and more:The Design Et hos of Dieter Rams
Edited by Klaus Klemp, Keiko Ueki-Polet
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European Release: December 15, 2009
International Release: January 2010
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Less And More

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“In the more than 40 years that he spent working at Braun, Dieter Rams established himself as one of the most influential designers of the twentieth century. His elegantly clear visual language not only defined product design for decades, but also our fundamental understanding of what design is and what it can and should do.
Dieter Rams created ten rules of design more than twenty years ago. Sometimes referred to as “the ten commandments,” they are just as relevant today: Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useful. Good design is aesthetic. Good design helps a product to be understood. Good design is unobtrusive. Good design is honest. Good design is durable. Good design is consistent to the last detail. Good design is environmentally friendly. Good design is as little design as possible.
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Less And More - click image to enlarge

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Less and More elucidates the design philosophy of Dieter Rams. The book contains images of hundreds of Rams’s products as well as his sketches and models—from Braun stereo systems and electric shavers to the chairs and shelving systems that he created for Vitsoe and his own company sdr+. In addition to the rich visual presentation of his designs, the book contains new texts by international design experts that explain how the work was created, describe its timeless quality, and put it into current context. In this way, the work of Dieter Rams is given a contemporary reevaluation that is especially useful in light of the rediscovery of functionalism and rationalism in today’s design.Less and More shows us the possibilities that design opens for both the manufacturer and the consumer as a means of making our lives better through attractive, functional solutions that also save resources.
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Less And More - click image to enlarge

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Less and More is edited by Professor Klaus Klemp and Keiko Ueki-Polet. One of the world’s leading experts in the field of product design, Klemp has been acquainted with Dieter Rams for many years and is an authority on his work. Ueki-Polet is one of Japan’s most renowned design curators. She is well acquainted with design developments in both Asia and the Western world and works at the Suntory Museum in Osaka.”

Dieter Rams Profile

Book Details:
Title: Less and More
Subtitle: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams
Editors: Klaus Klemp, Keiko Ueki-Polet
Language: bilingual German/English
Price: € 49,90 / $ 78,00 / £ 45,00
Format: 19 × 23 cm
Features: 808 pages, full color, PVC cover, in slipcase
ISBN: 978-3-89955-277-5
EU Release: December 15, 2009
International Release: January 2010

About Gestalten:
Gestalten specializes in developing content for aficionados of cutting-edge visual culture worldwide. The company is best known for the more than two hundred fifty books we have published that document and anticipate vital design movements for our own title list as well as customer publishing projects. Gestalten is firmly committed to identifying the zeitgeist of contemporary visual culture. We are constantly exploring all areas of creativity to examine currents in visual codes – from graphic design and illustration to photography, furniture design, interiors, architecture and contemporary art.

Gestalten
Die Gestalten Verlag GmbH and Co KG
Mariannenstr. 9-10
D-10999 Berlin
www.gestalten.com
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