December reading list: four new-in architecture and design books

Small, prized (and not for sale), Le caffettiere dei maestri published to accompany the exhibition (Lavazza flagship store) features the images of 24 coffee pots, drawn, catalogued and commented by Giulio Iacchetti: “Small pieces of domestic architecture”, from the Moka Express Bialetti (1933) to Chipperfield’s Moka (2019).

Edited by Carlo Vinti, Argomenti per un dizionario del design contains Ugo La Pietra’s theories in 100 texts, many previously unpublished, written since 1972. Under 30 headings (fashion, home furnishings, craftsmanship, the city...) and in 480 pages, it describes the designer’s research angle and explains his method of decanting and encroachment, against all sectorial specialisms. It also mentions his staunch defence of public space featuring the slogan “Home design is being at home everywhere.”

Condensing his teaching experience at the Faculty of Architecture of Rome’s La Sapienza University in one book, Marco Falsetti explores the origin of the cityscape, fruit of the relationship between a culture and its surrounding environment. Paesaggi oltre il paesaggio proceeds by topic, utopia, Mediterranean, complexity and ruins being the keys to the codes behind the formal aspects of a cityscape. The plentiful and stimulating artwork ranges from cartoons to illustrations, classical art and photography.

From the steam engine invented by James Watt in 1763 to Alberto Meda’s Solar Bottle (2006), a prototype plastic bottle that makes water drinkable, the Manuale di storia del design, edited by Domitilla Dardi and Vanni Pasca, traces the guidelines of a discipline in which design and innovative technology are inextricably bound.