DESIGN · EXHIBITIONS
Justin McGuirk
Justin McGuirk es escritor y comisario de arte, ganador del León de Oro en la Bienal de Venecia de 2012 por su exposición sobre el trabajo de los arquitectos venezolanos Urban-Think Tank. Dirige la editorial Strelka Press y antes fue crítico de arte en The Guardian y director de la revista Icon. También ha colaborado en publicaciones como The Observer, The Times, Domus, Art Review y Condé Nast Traveller entre otras. Source: Tuner Libros
Most acclaimed
California
1914
Henry Vizetelly (1820-1894), a London engraver and author, was a pioneer in the publication of inexpensive illustrated books and magazines. Edwin Bryant (1805-1869) was a Kentucky journalist before coming to California in 1846. He served under Frémont in the Mexican War and was then made alcalde of San Francisco. California. Four months among the gold-finders (1849) by "J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, M.D." is a fictional account of the Gold Rush that purports to have been sent to the author's brother from Monterey in October, 1848. In truth, Henry Vizetelly wrote the book without ever leaving London, supplementing easily available official accounts of the Gold Rush with his own imagination. The secret of his authorship and the book's fictious nature did not become public knowledge for some forty years after its original publication. "Brooks's" account begins with his arrival in San Francisco, continuing with a trip to the goldfields near Sutter's Fort and a try at prospecting at Weber's Creek and other camps. What I saw in California, the second portion of the volume, originally published in 1848, contains Edwin Bryant's more authentic account of life in pre-Gold Rush California, 1846-1847, including the U.S. Army occupation of the territory. Other documents in the appendix are letters concerning the Gold Rush that had appeared in the public press.
Radical Cities
"In Radical Cities, Justin McGuirk travels across Latin America in search of activist architects, politicians and radical communities. From Chile to Brazil, and from Mexico to Argentina, McGuirk discovers people who have begun rebuilding and redesigning their environments in radically new ways. After decades of political and architectural failure, a new generation has returned to the problems of the city to address the poverty and inequality. This is a generation of activists, pragmatists and social idealists, and together they are testing new ideas that the rest of the world can learn from. An architect in Chile has designed a new form of social housing where only half of the house is built, allowing the owners to adapt the rest; Medellín, the murder capital of Colombia, has been transformed with innovative public architecture; squatters in Caracas have taken over a 45-story skyscraper, Torre David; and architect Jorge Mario Jáuregui has upgraded Rio's favelas in exciting new ways"--
Moving to Mars
"Moving to Mars is the first book ever to thoroughly explore the crucial role that design will play in the collective endeavor to travel to and inhabit Mars. A comprehensive overview of both past and current developments in space travel and colonization, it begins with the evolution of the space suit and rocket technology; it then proceeds to explore a wide range of fascinating and never-before-seen projects on Mars--specific habitations, covering everything from space-ready cutlery to clothes, furniture and speculative habitats. Illustrated with color images of rarely seen drawings, concepts and prototypes, plus newly commissioned essays by the designers, artists and scientists who are charting the path forward to Mars, this book literally reveals a whole new future for humankind, fleshing out a vision of an everyday reality on another planet."--Amazon.com.