MILAN — With winter behind us and spring industry events approaching, it’s the ideal time to welcome a fresh wave of design inspiration. To spark ideas for creative spaces and places, WWD has chosen a selection of books for the coffee table or office. These titles offer insights into stylish homes in the Mediterranean, the U.S. East Coast, and the deserts of Egypt, Arizona and India. They also explore the artisan techniques and visionary minds that make these designs remarkable.
Mediterranean Homes: The Art of Embracing Light
The cover of “Mediterranean Homes: The Art of Embracing Life.”
Courtesy of Rizzoli
“The Mediterranean is a way of life — a rhythm, a dialogue, a sense of place,” said author Orna Tamir Schestowitz. Her new book, “Mediterranean Homes: The Art of Embracing Light,” is a journey and exploration of her homes in Tel Aviv, Israel; Cap Ferrat, France, and Paros, Greece. In this latest book, the curator and design journalist captures the dialogue between light, color, material and human connection that defines Mediterranean living. The book, which has been published by Rizzoli New York and will be released in April, is a collection of photographs by Israeli photographer Dudi Hasson. With this latest release, he captures the essence of seaside spaces, scapes and sunset moments, revealing their richness through the play of light and shadow.
U.S. design writer Beth Dunlop’s text examines the inspirations and philosophies behind Schestowitz’s work.
Relaxed Luxury
“Relaxed Luxury” by Chad Dorsey.
Courtesy of Assouline
Over the past 25 years, Dallas and Los Angeles-based Chad Dorsey, founder of the eponymous interior design and architecture practice, has developed a style that is popular from the Lone Star State to all over the world. He has a passion for natural materials, handcrafted details and distinctively American casual luxury living. His new book, “Relaxed Luxury,” published by Assouline and released in February, offers a glimpse into a dozen of the Texan’s most notable projects over the past two decades. It’s complete with space saving tips, insight and mood boards from Dorsey on how to convey relaxation in any space. “Incorporating natural tones means you know how to live easy,” he told WWD. Readers will tour penthouse pied-à-terres, historic homes and modern bungalows around Texas.
A relaxed luxury space by Chad Dorsey.
Assouline
Drawn Together
“Drawn Together”
Rizzoli New York
Partners in life and work, Britt and Damian Zunino are known in and around New York for their elevated, playful vision. For more than a decade the founders of Studio DB have merged their backgrounds and design vision: Damian Zunino’s mother worked in fashion and his father in architecture and Britt Zunino is a former snowboarder. With “Drawn Together,” published by Rizzoli New York, the duo take the reader on a journey of homes around the Tristate area: from the Montclair, N.J., Tudor home of film director Ruben Fleischer and his wife, Holly Shakoor Fleischer, a former Hollywood publicist turned producer and podcaster, to their own getaway home in Dutchess County, N.Y. They also highlight their relationship with design-forward brands like New York-based Apparatus and the moment they “fell in love” with their Cloud chandelier, which suspended a canopy of frosted glass globes from a single rod. The duo pushed for a more expansive model and this conversation resulted in a more dramatic chandelier that became a permanent addition to the Apparatus catalog, known today as Cloud XL. With Beni Rugs, the duo also designed the largest Moroccan rug the company had ever produced, “which was a source of pride among the weavers,” they wrote in the book.
Damian and Britt Zunino
Rizzoli New York
Desert by Design
“Desert by Design”
Courtesy of Abrams
“Desert by Design: Creative Minds, Arid Places, Tailor Made Spaces” published by Abrams explores the interior worlds found in Earth’s driest regions and highlights the lives of famous dwellers like designer India Mahdavi and Yves Saint Laurent. It also highlights the ongoing age of adaptability and the resilience it takes to maintain homes and thrive in these environmentally sensitive areas.
The journey is led by Marfa, Tex., residents, arts and culture writers and photographers Molly Mandell and James Burke, who embarked on a quest to discover 30 remarkable spaces around the globe. Given that deserts constitute a third of our planet’s land area, the duo’s adventure spanned from the southwestern United States, parts of Mexico and Argentina and then to Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, the Canary Islands, Rajasthan in India, and even a micro-desert in New Zealand. From high to low deserts, and from urban environments to remote villages, they encountered an array of remote settings including the Siwa Oasis, Egypt-home of Paris-based India Mahdavi’s escape. Named Tamazid, Mahdavi shares the escape with sustainable living pioneer Mounir Neamatalla, who is the founder of Environment Quality International in Egypt’s Siwa Oasis.
India Mahdavi’s Egyptian escape.
Courtesy of Abrams
They also follow Dushyant Bansal and Priyanka Sharma of design firm Studio Raw Material to their home, Thar House, nestled in a grove of native Khejri trees on the outskirts of Makrana, India.
Mandell and Burke explained that Tucson-based ethnobotanist, professor and author Gary Paul Nabhan inspired their voyage. “Deserts, he said, are laboratories for the future. He meant that humans in these settings have long been learning to adapt to elements — whether water scarcity or severe temperatures — associated with climate change. Resilience, self-confidence coupled with a respect for the natural environment, and a sense of know-how, or at least a willingness to learn how, come across as near requirements for desert dwellers,” they wrote.
At the Arcosanti community, an urban style community envisaged by Paolo Soleri, an Italian visionary, and Frank Lloyd Wright, they encountered curious south-facing structures allowing the sun to provide natural heat in the winter, noting that contrary to popular belief, homes in that part of the desert need to be heated more than they need to be cooled.
Desert by Design will be released April 8.
The Book of Printed Fabrics
“The Book of of Printed Fabrics,” published by Taschen.
Courtesy of Taschen
France’s Musée de l’Impression sur Etoffes traces its roots to 1746, when Mulhouse natives Samuel Koechlin, Jean-Jacques Schmaltzer, Jean-Henri Dolfus and Jean-Jacques Feer founded the city’s first textile printing works. Over the next two centuries Mulhouse and the Alsace area would become leading destinations for printed cloth and today the museum is a treasure trove of global textiles.
Art historian Aziza Gril-Mariotte, who is also director of Lyon’s Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs, compiled two volumes that are a colorful and ornate exploration of some 900 printed fabrics from four continents housed in the museum’s highly protected vaults. From the first imports in the 16th century from India, Persia and the Levant, to modern-day manufacturers selling their creations all around the world, the “History of Printed Fabrics” published by Taschen focuses on the industry’s early prowess and artistic and commercial relations. Gril-Mariotte traces the decorative art of printed cloth’s origins to Indian fabrics also illuminating little known facts like the French monarchy’s 1686 ban on Indian fabrics in the pretext of protectionism.
