Mercuriosities

Rising up from the bank across the river from Charing Cross, the Royal Festival Hall demands to be noticed. Its architectural openness predates the grey

By Spencer Dodington and Charles Lagrange. We celebrate Art Deco architecture today because it reflects a tangibly optimistic and vibrant spirit from long ago. Its

Adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Anatomy, and the Arts Syme’s publication is not so much a book, as a presentation of the first known

William H. Miller Jr., affectionately known within the cruise fraternity as “Mr Ocean Liner”, offers in this 1985 volume a chronological (1890–1982) pictorial journey into

The beguiling intrigues of Joseph Cornell’s (1903–1972) cabinets of curiosities constantly reward the viewer with surprise and quiet delight. His collages and constructions are singular

We were torn between sharing 4+1 or the equally beguiling 2019 Walmer Yard book (ISBN 978-1-911422-07-5) which both convey Peter’s singular architectural imagination as both

Our office library holds its share of rare and lovely surprises. This limited-edition copy (64/1500) of Brian’s “Light Music” catalogues the 2017 installation at the

The eclectic and inventive furniture designs and interiors of Carlo Mollino (1905-73) draws its dynamic tension and figurative energy from the Second Futurist and Surrealist

Published to accompany the 2017 exhibition at The Bronx Museum of Arts this catalogue captures the extraordinary work of Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) whose socially conscious

While this fascinating book catalogues the highlights of French decorative arts and interior design between 1900 to 1942, it is the period from 1919 to

We’ve had a copy of this British Standards book in our library since 1988. It’s necessarily detailed, absurdly geeky, and harks back to past days

Sir John Soane’s London house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields (1792–1837) is surely one of the most extraordinary didactic interiors imaginable for architects and designers alike.

Peter Adam,1987 Peter Adam’s biography charts the life and work of one of the most quietly influential designers and architects of the twentieth century. Resolutely

Louise Bourgeois’ intervention at the opening of Tate Modern in 2000 — her monumental Spiders and Towers — fundamentally altered how many of us understood

This 1998 Monograph and contemporary photographs was published to celebrate 100 years since Aalto’s birth. Aalto expression of a human centric modernism is a constant guiding

This 1931 book captures the architectural summer tour of our Director’s (Peter Mance) 3rd year degree field trip to Holland led by Kingston Poly’ tutors

Installation art has been a constant source of wonder and inspiration for us. Richard Wilson has the knack of serving up the reassembled fragments of

We’ve long admired Glenn Murcutt’s detailed, intricate, intense, and practical drawing style. In our own drawings we strive to emulate the same commitment to the thinking of every junction, the meeting of each material and mechanism, the

Celebrating the Joint  The Rizzoli 1985 “Complete Works” landed in our hands as a marvel. Showing us how Scarpa’s studious, sensitive, and inventive designer’s eye could delicately marshal stone, brass, timber, and water. I still recall falling in love with the meticulous details, play of

Whether as a window framed view or as stacked assemblages of muted geometrical plains, Nicholson’s deft, layered, and finely grained paintings, reliefs, and sculpture have a natural affinity with 20th century modernist architecture. The scale and textured intensity of the works, while seemingly quiet in form are deceptively lingering and