Come celebrate the 60th anniversary of Fire Island Pines and the publication of Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction, published by Metropolis Books / Gordon de Vries Studio!

Monday, May 6, The Standard, High Line hosts a discussion about Fire Island Modernism and the legacy of architect Horace Gifford, featuring architect Charles Renfro, author Chris Rawlins, New Museum Deputy Director Karen Wong, architect Matthias Hollwichand designer Rafael de Cardenas, moderated by PIN-UP editor Felix Burrichter.

RSVP: rsvp@artbook.com

From the Designers & Books site:

These 7 books on architect Mies van der Rohe (b. March 27, 1886, d. August 19, 1969) were chosen or written by our contributors, including Massimo Vignelli, Stanley Tigerman and Terence Riley, or come from our featured publishers. Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies was a Designers & Books Notable Book of 2012.

The Architectural Record article about MASS Design Group discusses their project, The Butaro Hospital in Rwanda for which the book published by MASS further highlights strategies to improve health and strengthen communities through design.

Laura Raskin writes, “Before 2007, people living in the rural Burera district of northern Rwanda had little access to a health-care facility or doctors. Then the nonprofit Partners in Health and the Rwandan Ministry of Health began creating a health-care network in the region, including the 150-bed Butaro Hospital, designed by Boston-based MASS Design Group. The hospital opened in January 2011 and quickly made an impact on the health of the nearly 350,000 people in the area.”

Read the full article on Architectural Records website

For more on the project, check out the book that MASS published:

MASS Design Group: Empowering Architecture, The Butaro Hospital, Rwanda

An ongoing discussion about the ways technology, the economy and other factors are transforming architects relationships with their jobs. Weekly, different thought leaders in and around the profession will share their insights about the future of the architecture workplace.

http://www.architectmagazine.com/business/whats-next/

Hardback, 6.5 x 9.5

In a blog post yesterday on The Spaces In Between Blog, blogger Carrie Olshan writes about discovering a copy of Material Change at her local bookstore, Skylight Books, in Los Angeles.

Olshan writes, ”Blossom’s work is not idealistic, it is rooted in the idea that a successful business must make money to survive. Seeking to find balance between what she calls various “threads” – social, cultural, financial, etc – that this is the future of business, and the future of design. As I set out to create my own small disruptive movement, I am constantly thinking about a few things over and over again. My need to make money so that I can sustain my own family and my desire to see, to know where my fabrics are coming from. It weighs on me that I don’t always know where the fabrics I use are coming from, or who has made them. I keep telling myself that Rome was not built in a day, and that it is important to have goals, to have ideals to work towards, and that I will get there. Because it matters. It really matters.”

Read the full blog here.

– Terence Riley, architect and curator

“The injustice of Horace Gifford’s early death was compounded by the fact that his important contribution to American domestic architecture of the 1960s and ’70s has been overlooked by history. No one can bring Gifford back, but Rawlins emphatically corrects the second injustice by telling Gifford’s story in this important book, at once a work of architectural and social history.”

– Paul Goldberger, architecture critic, Vanity Fair, and author, Why Architecture Matters

“Rawlins deftly melds biography, architectural criticism, and social history to provide a rich portrait of Horace Gifford and a vivid explanation of how the architect’s design aesthetic contributed to the formation of modern gay culture. This is a meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated volume that deserves a very wide audience.”

– Charles Kaiser, author, The Gay Metropolis

“Finally, a treatise on one of the most important, if overlooked, voices in modern domestic architecture. It is thoughtful and provocative, balancing Gifford’s formal proclivities with his social ones. And it couldn’t be better timed. Gifford’s architecture is simple yet rich. In short, it is a model for the future: sustainable, aspirational, and fun.”

– Charles Renfro, Diller Scofidio + Renfro

“Rawlins’s excellent book follows Gifford’s exploration of modernism’s possibilities, a journey that was both deeply personal and a reflection of his times. He is proof that American modernism wasn’t a single austere style after all; it gave a public voice to a surprising range of communities and ideas.”

– Alan Hess, author, Julius Shulman: Palm Springs and Oscar Niemeyer Houses

“Here is the moving and enlightening story of an unknown chapter of modernism that flourished on Fire Island at midcentury, especially in the gay community of Fire Island Pines. Rawlins’s compelling account weaves the story of the people and the place with the houses, revealing the many ways in which they were intertwined, and elevates Gifford to his rightful place in the pantheon of great American modernists.”

– Andrea Truppin, editor-in-chief, Modernism magazine

“Horace Gifford, the subject of this gorgeous book, was taken by the plague, like so many. But Rawlins’s detailed research and beautiful writing resurrects the remarkable life and immense talent of an architect who once told a client, ‘You will now have twenty closets to come out of.’ A great read, beautifully published.”

– Sean Strub, activist and founder, POZ magazine

“Tracing Horace Gifford’s path from the beaches of Florida to those of Fire Island, juxtaposing gay sexual liberation with ecological sensibilities, this book is a wide-ranging cultural history. Rawlins conveys the poignancy of Gifford’s life and the exuberant yet simple delight of his architecture.”

– Gwendolyn Wright, professor of architecture, Columbia University; author, USA: Modern Architectures in History; and co-host, History Detectives

Four new and noteworthy titles have been announced in the new ARTBOOK | D.A.P. Spring 2013 catalog. Titles include: Visible | Invisible: Landscape Works of Reed Hilderbrand, Never Built Los Angeles, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America, and Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction. The Spring 2013 catalog also includes and represents, for the first time, Vitra Design Museum’s program, and the renowned architecture imprint, nai010.

See our forthcoming titles page for more information on the books.

]]> http://metropolisbooks.com/forthcoming-titles-announced-in-artbook-d-a-p-spring-2013-catalogue/feed/ 0 http://metropolisbooks.com/eve-blossom-lip-blog/ http://metropolisbooks.com/eve-blossom-lip-blog/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:39:55 +0000 admin http://metropolisbooks.com/?p=1582 Eve Blossom, author of Material Change and founder of Lulan Artisans is going to be launching a new e-commerce site, we’ve, a new phase of the Lulan Artisan company. Recently featured on the Luxury in Progress blog, here is an excerpt of an interview with Eve about the project.

Click images to enlarge

The LiP:  What does Lulan Artisans do? 

EVE BLOSSOM:  We partner with master artisans, combine contemporary design aesthetics with the artisans’ incredible unique talents and highlight them — their work and their process. We also connect the artisans with multiple markets to build strong economic opportunities.

The LiP:  Can you give us a little background on Lulan Artisans and how that led to we’ve? 

EVE BLOSSOM:  I started my career in design as an trained architect and in 1995, I was fortunate enough to live and work in Hanoi, Vietnam, renovating old French villas. During my first few months in Hanoi, I overheard two European men talking about how later that night, one of the men was meeting a six-year-old girl whose father sold her for sex. I tried to intervene but was unsuccessful in changing the outcome for that little girl. I didn’t know anything about human trafficking. I was a designer.

I began to research human trafficking and business models that would help prevent it. I learned that artisans are one of the groups at risk for falling into human trafficking, because their incomes are often below poverty level.

In 2004, I founded Lulan Artisans to generate livelihoods for artisans, create job stability and help prevent human trafficking. While writing my book Material Change a couple of years ago, I reflected on the years of our work and what we had accomplished so far. I felt committed as ever to the work but recommitted to the idea of using the latest technology and distribution to evolve Lulan further. Thus the idea of we’ve.

The LiP:  What exactly is we’ve? 

EVE BLOSSOM:  we’ve is a design-curated, e-commerce community that supports closer relationships between buyers, designers and artisans, using a novel way to purchase artisanal products through story. We have a patent pending for the process. we’ve‘s geographical reach is global and the artisanal products are diverse and include textiles, jewelry, ceramics, recycled products and more.

The LiP:  How did you come up with the idea for we’ve? 

EVE BLOSSOM:  The concept of we’ve advanced in early 2010, when Lulan Artisans sponsored a textile design competition online. Designers from around the world, interested in collaborating with artisans, submitted more than 1600 designs. It was clear that there was need and desire for an online community serving designers, artisans, and buyers.

The LiP:  Describe your creative process.

EVE BLOSSOM:  We use a design process that is very collaborative with the artisans. We first see samples of their techniques and skills and then, create designs that highlight what is unique about their cooperative’s capabilities. We produce collections by using different cooperatives in different countries integrated into one cohesive offering. It makes for a richer collection that goes well together.

By working with artisans as peer-to-peer partners, we share design knowledge as a technology transfer, infusing a broader design understanding and aesthetics so it lives within them. The goal is the cooperative will acquire the skills to be self-sufficient and have long-term sustainability. We call these Design Sprouts — cooperatives that teach each other and grow contextually and locally. The cooperatives embody design and business skills to be self-sufficient for the long-term.

The LiP:  How will this work contribute to the evolution of your industry?

EVE BLOSSOM:  I think it already has in some ways. In our early years, people would ask me, “What is the connection between working with artisans and prevention of human trafficking?” People rarely ask that now. Other businesses are starting to use similar models. Job stability, job creation and economic options help anyone anywhere in the world to have better economic options.

In the future, we think manufacturing will change dramatically and the maker movement will continue to be a major change agent. we’ve reflects the maker movement and how it helps establish a better way to produce with a transparent relationship chain, closer relationships and high design.

The LiP:  What inspires you?

EVE BLOSSOM:  What inspires me most is working with incredible artisans and also using design as the main differentiator to make a difference in the world.

The LiP:  Have there been any past unrealized projects that have recently become possible through new techniques and innovations? If so, please describe what, how and why. 

EVE BLOSSOM:  Great question, and the answer is howwe’ve came out of Lulan…we’ve is the unrealized project that is about to be realized.

The LiP:  What’s your big-picture ambition with this work?

EVE BLOSSOM:  I have three objectives:

1. High-design artisanal products that produce stable jobs impacting many cooperatives throughout the world including in the United States with US makers.

2. Transparency in the supply/value chain, which I call the “relationship” chain.

3. Influence other companies to find processes to help get rid of slave labor in their supply/value chain.

The LiP:  What is the most progressive idea/concept you have come across recently that you would like to see grow?

EVE BLOSSOM:  For me it is we’ve…