A library in winter...
Problemata researchers share their reading. On the second shelf of our library, texts and reflections shed light on our disciplines. From books to architecture, from colour to social issues, from lawyers to writers, the subjects and authors suggest that we don't stick to the beaten track. This is the way of the acute eye...
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Stéphane Mallarmé, Un coup de dé jamais n’abolira le hasard, first edition, Nouvelle Revue française, 1914 articleOn the transformation of the written word
In a short text, Walter Benjamin examines the effect of advertising on writing...
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Advertisement of a German central heating manufacturer, 1903 articleUnder the floor... central heating
Anthropologist Irene Cieraad points to the invisibilisation phenomena at work in urban housing.
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Bernhard Riff and Franz West, Gedanken zu einer neuen Heimatkunst, photograms, 2000 articleDid you say Passstücke?
A rereading of the work of the artist Franz West and his Passstücke by Nicolas Bourriaud.
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The Sea Shepherd M/Y Robert Hunter follows the Nisshin Maru, factory ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, off the Antarctic coast, 9 February 2007 articleResearch and destroy... design through research
This is the claim of graphic designer Daniel van der Velden: a practice built on research.
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Louis-Léopold Boilly, After supper, after 1830 articleBalzac’s little mechanics
Descriptions of dining rooms in Balzac’s work, or the cogs of a well-oiled machine.
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Direction indicator, Simler, n.d. articleFasten your seatbelt!
A history of automobile safety in the United States... and related innovations
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Martino Gamper, Total Trattoria, The Aram Gallery, London, 2008 articleAt the table with Martino Gamper
In this interview, the designer talks with Emily King, Rai von Rabeneau and other friends...
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Nigel Henderson, photo of Hunstanton Secondary Modern School, Norfolk, during construction, ca. 1949–1954 articleAnother Brick in the wall
Architectural historian Anthony Vidler offers an archaeology of ‘new brutalism’.
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Pierre Auguste Renoir, The Reader, 1874-1876 articleFrom public reading to silence
Questioning a gendered vision of reading, historian Elizabeth Haines imagines a living, inclusive library.
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Marco Zanuso, seggiolina, Kartell, 1964 articleBeware the ‘chromatic bombardment’!
When Italian designer Marco Zanuso expresses alarm at the proliferation of coloured objects...
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View of the entrance to Kelmscott Manor, wood engraving, 1892 articleThe ideal book according to W. Morris
A ‘proto-manifesto’ for an exemplary book, based on its architectural arrangement.
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Ed Sommer, portrait of Vilèm Flusser, 1988/89 articleThe point of coincidence of different fictions
Or the definition of reality according to the Czech philosopher Vilèm Flusser.
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Colleen Tighe, Design is Not Neutral, 2018 articleDesign is not neutral…
An invitation to chart a new course for the teaching of graphic design in art schools.
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U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS), 1945 articleWar against the Center
How military and defensive strategies shape our cities and spaces.
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The first Watermark workshop, founded in 1973, United States. articleThe death of the book? An opposing narrative
From his parent's bookbinding workshop to the production of his own books, artist Oscar Tuazon examines the way books are conceived.
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Cora T. Walker, photo: Mike Lien, 1969 articleA plea for the people of Harlem
A little-known and important speech from the famous year when Aspen went off the rails... Cora T. Walker, a black lawyer, spoke to an audience of designers about living conditions in the Harlem ghetto.
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Cornel Windlin, Jürg Lehni and Uli Franke, We Try Harder, Kunsthaus Zürich, 2002 collectionA collection on the shelves
A visual journey through the second library.
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Dunne & Raby, “Draught Excluder” in domestic setting, “Placebo Project”, 2001 lineA Library of One’s Own
A reading Cabinet with about thirty texts proposed by Problemata researchers