Oríkì: Material Affirmations in Three Acts
Nifemi Marcus Bello
Apartamento, 2025
Oríkì: Material Affirmations in Three Acts is the debut monograph of Nigerian designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello, spanning his three-part sculptural Oríkì series. Named Oríkì after the Yoruba practice of praise poetry, the volume includes Nifemi’s own personal oríkì, composed by his mother, Folake Marcus-Bello, as well as a personal essay tracing his artistic development from childhood through the present. The book includes both full-colour portraits of the series, alongside a photo diary of process images and personal archive, uncovering the inspiration and personal journey behind Nifemi’s award-winning creations, embodying his ongoing dialogue between materiality and identity.
Mollino A-Z
A cura di Fulvio Irace e Sergio Pace
Electa, 2026
The volume sets out to free Mollino from the mythology that has long cast him as an eccentric and isolated figure. Its A–Z structure becomes a critical framework made up of 68 entries, each contributing to a broader portrait that explores not only the work of the Turin-born architect, but also his personal, cultural and social world. Each entry highlights a different facet of his multifaceted practice - as an architect, designer, photographer, writer, pilot and set designer - while also revealing his recurring obsessions, from mountains and flight to visual culture and the mythology of Turin. The formal exploration of objects is interwoven with the history of architecture and the city, while the private dimension of his life intersects with the public sphere of design.
Shiro Kuramata
Deyan Sudjic
Phaidon, 2025
A new edition of the definitive monograph on the highly influential Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata (1934-1991) is a two-volume title presenting all his compelling and idiosyncratic work in a stunning, specially designed acrylic slipcase. Designers and design enthusiasts who love Kuramata will be astonished by the breadth and depth of Kuramata’s remarkable body of work, from the iconic Miss Blanche chair, made from artificial flowers and resin, to his idiosyncratic umbrella stand that incorporates a walking stick into its design, and the armchair How High the Moon, which is made from metal mesh, many of which are still in production today.
Il design di Emilio Ambasz. La pratica dell'invenzione
Elena Dellapiana
Quodlibet Studio. Design, 2026
The volume examines Emilio Ambasz’s work in the field of industrial design. Best known for buildings that give form to the debate surrounding the relationship between architecture and nature, Ambasz was also active in the design of objects for domestic and workplace environments, focusing on the relationship between designer, user and technology. These two strands shaped a designer who did more than simply move across scales “from the spoon to the city”: he applied a modern, holistic approach to design. Alongside the products themselves, the book explores Ambasz’s professional methods, corporate strategies and the theoretical debates underlying his work. Company archives, interviews with the architect, patents, lectures and exchanges with fellow designers, supported by an extensive visual apparatus, help reveal “the other Emilio”.
Mendini + Alchimia. Allestire l’abitare
Isabella Giola
LetteraVentidue, 2025
Mendini+Alchimia. Allestire l’abitare offers a new perspective on Alessandro Mendini’s approach to domestic design. Together with Studio Alchimia, the post-radical avant-garde group, Mendini created a series of installations that brought the emotional and performative dimension of the Italian interior to the fore. Based on archival research and interviews, the book shows how these projects, rooted in Radical Architecture and Postmodernism, moved beyond the boundaries of industrial design to become poetic, narrative and critical spaces. The installations produced between the 1980s and 1990s trace a decade of experimentation, reflection on the language of design and cross-disciplinary exchange, evolving from conceptual and provocative interventions into more self-aware environments. The volume concludes with an independent project from 2016 that renews the same visionary tension and offers a still-relevant reflection on contemporary living.
Lightness. Ilkka Suppanen Design
Ilkka Suppanen, Gustaf Kjellin
Lars Müller Publishers, 2026
Lightness: Ilkka Suppanen Design offers an in-depth look at one of the Nordic world’s most influential designers. Known for his elegant, forward-thinking aesthetic and experimental approach to materials, Suppanen brings philosophical nuance and formal elegance to his work and collaborations, spanning product, furniture and conceptual design. Co-edited by Suppanen and design curator and writer Gustaf Kjellin, this book asks: What does it mean to design with lightness, to create in ways that resist weight, not only in materials, but also in ideology and practice? Organized around thematic chapters, such as gestures, material, resilience and structures, the book pairs Suppanen’s work and reflections with essays by designers, philosophers and writers, offering a poetic lens on design’s potential to uplift and transform.
Gianfranco Frattini. Design 1953-2003. Catalogo ragionato
A cura di Silvana Annicchiarico
Silvana Editoriale, 2026
The book is the most comprehensive study ever devoted to Frattini’s work in the field of design. More than 430 projects - including furniture, lighting, objects and jewellery - trace fifty years of activity, from 1953 to 2003, portraying a designer capable of combining rigour and sensitivity, experimentation and restraint, technique and poetry. The volume opens with a professional and family biography that follows his architectural education, his years in Gio Ponti’s studio-workshop and his dialogue with the leading figures of twentieth-century Italian industry.
Read the article on the centenary of Gianfranco Frattini
Martino Gamper
Marco Sammicheli
Electa, 2026
In Martino Gamper’s work, reuse is never merely an ethical stance or a response to the circular economy. Above all, it is a design method and a way of thinking. Found objects, furniture fragments, anonymous chairs and pieces by past masters become open-ended repertoires to be dismantled, reinterpreted and “re-signified”, as Marco Sammicheli writes in the book. Recently published by Electa, the book is part of the new The Design Series, devoted to leading figures in contemporary European design. It retraces more than thirty years of Gamper’s practice through projects, his London studios, installations and collaborations, portraying a designer who has always moved freely across different disciplines, languages and scales.
Read the full review of the monograph on Martino Gamper
Tag: Books Design Fuorisalone tips
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