Customer Reviews

Architecture and Design Library: Retro-Modern (Arch & Design Library)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked this book up on a whim at a local book store, so I had an opportunity to look through it before buying. You should be aware that it's mostly pictures, with relatively little text aside from the captions. However, if what you want is a book of photos of Modern architecture and furniture, it's superb.

There is a seemingly endless series of photos showing various diverse interpretations of the Modern style, with excellent captions explaining the details of architecture, furniture, and decoration. It both looks at rooms as a whole and at details in specific, in separate sections of the book. The rooms shown are almost universally stylish and inspiring to the budding home decorator. The book shows furniture and design from throughout the Modern period, ranging from the 1920's through the 1970's, and also shows how Modern pieces can be blended smoothly with Contemporary designs of today.

As it is largely a photo book, I should comment that the paper and printing quality are excellent, with superb color, fine detail, and gorgeous glossy pages.

If you like the modern style and are looking for some inspiration on how to decorate your home, this is a wonderful book to have, and in my opinion [inexpensive] for its quality. If you're looking for a reference book with long discussions of the style and its influences, this is not the book you're looking for.

Not much substance for anyone looking to use this as a reference (I recommend Taschen's series for this) but the layouts and photography are superb. There is a wide range of furniture and accessories illustrated with many of the "famous" designs being shown in quite interesting arrangements.

Definitely for the afficianado, this is something you flip through for inspiration when trying to decide how to reupholster that old Danish chair you found at a yard sale.

The nicest picture is the one on the cover. I was looking for images of retro homes to model my rooms after, but didn't find what I was looking for in this book. I like books where items are named specifically so one can track them down. This book fell short.

I purchased this book thinking I could use it as a reference book for my Master's thesis paper on Art Nouveau's influence on the De Stijl and Bauhaus movements. I was wrong. This book contains a lot of really nice photos, but there is very little description about the photos. It even lacks identification of many of the subjects in the photos. If you're looking for a "pretty book" this is it, if you want an informative book look for Stephen Escritt's "Art Nouveau."

A definite for retro afficionados