First published in 1960 and revised in 1976, this book examines the work of three architects whose influence defined modern architecture: Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Written originally in the 1950s, it captures a moment when modernism was still unfolding: its ideals, contradictions, and human stories.

Reading it today, more than seventy years later, the precision of Blake’s insight feels almost prophetic. He recognized how each architect shaped not only their own era but the entire trajectory of architecture that followed.

Le Corbusier mastered form, Mies van der Rohe mastered structure, and Wright mastered space: together forming the foundations of what we still call “modern architecture”.
This 1976 edition includes Blake’s later reflections and a few posthumous works.

Each book from our Library comes with a handmade cover made from Japanese Satogami paper, produced from virgin wood pulp. The title is hand-printed and finished with a brown rope bookmark.

USA, 1960 (1976 Edition, soft cover).

Condition: Used, with signs of handling.

Edited by Kathryn B. Hiesinger, curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this volume presents a comprehensive survey of postwar design and its evolution through everyday consumer objects.
Working closely with leading designers and scholars, Hiesinger assembled over 400 works that trace four decades of innovation — from the reconstruction period after World War II to the emergence of global design culture.

The book includes essays by Timo Sarpaneva, Ettore Sottsass, Dieter Rams, and other key figures whose ideas shaped modern material life. More than a catalogue, Design Since 1945 stands as both a visual and intellectual record of how design transformed daily experience in the second half of the twentieth century.

Each book from our Library comes with a handmade cover made from Japanese Satogami paper, produced from virgin wood pulp. The title is hand-printed and finished with a brown rope bookmark.

USA, 1983, Hardcover edition.

Condition: Used, with signs of handling.

First published in Italian in 1966 and reissued in 2008, this book captures Bruno Munari’s reflections on the fading boundaries between art and design. Written as a series of observations and essays, it traces the disappearance of traditional categories—painting and sculpture—and the emergence of a new creative role: the designer.

Munari examines this transformation not as a loss but as a redefinition of artistic purpose. The artist becomes a designer, someone who shapes the everyday world with clarity, function, and imagination. He reminds us that anyone who uses a well-designed object can feel the quiet presence of an artist at work.

More than fifty years later, Design as Art remains a lucid meditation on creativity, utility, and beauty in the modern world.

Each book from our Library comes with a handmade cover made from Japanese Satogami paper, produced from virgin wood pulp. The title is hand-printed and finished with a brown rope bookmark.

Italy, 1966 (English translation 1971, 2008 reissue, softcover)

Condition: Used, with signs of handling.