Books about design (and not only) released in recent months

Zattere/Rafts
by Francesco Faccin, Corraini Edizioni
A collection of boats - or almost boats - which above all are projects in the most etymological sense (project derives from pro and jacere): tools with which the human being throws himself forward, in this case also geographically, with great enthusiasm. Designer Francesco Faccin collects in this book ten inspirational stories which, through the raft, remind us of the importance of intuition and the ability to break the rules when necessary. An imaginative, indispensable object, which in the history of humankind has represented in various forms the ability to adapt, the attachment to life or the desire to go elsewhere: the raft becomes in this book an allegory of the ability to design. In the pages we move from Thor Heyerdahl's journey across the Pacific Ocean in 1947, to the balsas built by Cubans to escape Fidel Castro's regime, from the fishermen's boats in Cameroon made entirely of plastic bottles, up to the hot air balloon with which a bricklayer and a mechanic crossed the border into East Germany in 1979.

What Design Can't Do
by Silvio Lorusso, Set Margins
After the cult Entreprecariat, Silvio Lorusso returns with a design criticism publication that seeks to unmask the disillusionment that permeates the discipline. On the back cover we read: “in conferences we learn that 'with great power comes great responsibility' but, when it comes to real-life clients, all they ask is to 'make the logo bigger.'
This book tackles the deskilling effects provoked by digital semi-automation, the instances of ornamental politics fashioned to please the museum-educational complex, the nebulous promises of design schools, giving shape to a new critical vocabulary that passes from present-day memes and social average rants. What this exposé reveals is both worrying and refreshing: what was once a promising field rooted in problem-solving has become a problem in itself so, rather than producing a meaningful order, design might be just about inhabiting chaos. 




Piccolo prontuario visivo in ordine sparso di profili metallici
by Martinelli Venezia, Forward Edizioni
Martinelli Venezia's first book is an illustrated journey into the beauty and functionality of metal profiles, that shows all the expressive power of the aesthetics of the technique. A 1:1 scale compendium of metal profiles with geometric shapes that Carolina Martinelli and Vittorio Venezia began putting together between 2020 and 2021, when in Milan they were working on projects to redevelop the artisanal and technical knowledge of the Calderai - metal artisans - who they live on the street of the same name. The planning of a book represents for Martinelli Venezia another space of experimentation that embraces another language.
Introduction by Marco Sammicheli.




Collective keywords
by Parasite 2.0 and Lukas Feireiss, Corraini Edizioni
Collective keywords is the first publication that marks an anthological point on the practice of the three architects Stefano Colombo, Eugenio Cosentino and Luca Marullo who together form the "undisciplined studio of spatial narration" Parasite 2.0, which deals with design and research and which operates between architecture, design and scenography. The book unravels the stories that trigger their projects through a blend of words, concepts and images, navigating through five key terms - Stigmergy, Artificial Nature, Desert Islands, Sampling and Primitive Future.
Foreword by Lukas Feireiss, interview by Matylda Krzykowski, afterword by Jerszy Seymour.




CONFINI (MAPPE)
aa.vv., Touring Club Italiano
CONFINI is the first volume of MAPPE, the new Touring Club Italiano series. Simultaneously a book and a magazine, each issue will be dedicated to a different theme, dealing with what has to do with travel and geography in the most contemporary sense of the term, with forays into other fields of knowledge as well. What is striking about this new editorial project is the introduction of new codes for reading geography and tourism, that are much more transversal than the consolidated ones of the TCI - historical reference point for tourists in Italy. In MAPPE there is also space for archive texts or re-publications, and alternate narrative and graphic-visual content, essays, photographic reports, interviews, illustrations, maps, infographics. We read in the description ""MAPPE moves away from tourist publishing to broaden the field of writing and authorial content and restore the pleasure of reading and digression. The history and values ​​of Touring are thus dressed in a new form - elegant, refined yet essential - to read the present and prepare for the future."




Design in pratica
edited by JoeVelluto, Flash Art
Design in practice. Virtuous design practices, is a multidisciplinary project that the studio JoeVelluto started as a reflection on the ability and strength of design to inspire consciences and orient habits, which then unfolded on multiple fronts through exhibitions, workshops, moments of dialogue and an in-depth digital platform. Added to the list is this book, a collection of dialogues between JoeVelluto and some of the main protagonists of different disciplines ranging from design to architecture, philosophy to creativity, up to environmental sustainability. In these interviews there are references to the Noble Eightfold Buddhist Path: eight principles, or practices, for a more conscious life, which when combined with the world of design and creativity could generate "virtuous" projects, products, visions and attitudes.




Pier Luigi Nervi - Two historic funds. a digital archive
edited by Francesca Zanella and Carla Zhara Buda, Electa
ArchiNervi is a new digital archive that returns the design history of one of the major protagonists of Italian architecture and engineering, Pier Luigi Nervi, pioneer and icon of concrete construction. This book presents the project conducted by CSAC and MAXXI and introduces the new archive, a collection that guarantees the continuous process of study and growth of knowledge not only of the figure of Nervi, but of the architectural discipline in a much broader sense.




EDRA AMENDOLA
by Bruno Corà and Aurelio Amendola, Treccani Libri
Coffee table book which we hope will soon become a cult, this book brings together the Edra collection from 1987 to today, photographed by Aurelio Amendola, with a text by the art historian Bruno Corà which recalls how "the following pages bear the associated outcome of these two different actions, distinguished by the professionalism of an original interior decoration manufacturing company and the sensitive experience of a master of photography such as Aurelio Amendola".