Shiro Kuramata

Description

This first ever monograph on highly influential Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata (1934-91) is a two-volume title presenting all of his compelling and idiosyncratic work for a diverse audience of designers and design enthusiasts who love Kuramata but will be surprised to discover the breadth and depth of his remarkable body of work. The first volume includes text by Deyan Sudji, which covers Kuramata's whole life and the radical changes in Japan through which he lived, and explains in detail the ideas, relationships and technical innovations that made his work possible. It also presents a selection of Kuramata's writings that have been translated into English for the first time, giving the reader a sense of his poetic, humorous and thoughtful intellect. The second volume is a catalogue of works, presenting the over 600 pieces of furniture, products and interiors that Kuramata designed in his lifetime, most of which have never been published (and many of which, including nearly all the interiors, have been demolished). Each project is illustrated with an image from the Kuramata archives and accompanied by an extended caption plus key information. The two volumes are presented together in a specially designed acrylic slipcase.

Deyan Sudjic is Director of the Design Museum, London and a former Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Kingston University. He was previously editor of Blueprint and Domus magazines, and Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale (2002). Former architecture critic for the Observer, he has written and contributed to many books, including The Language of Things (2008) and The Edifice Complex: The architecture of power (2005), as well as Living in the Endless City (2011), The Endless City (2008) Future Systems (2006), John Pawson Themes and Projects (2002), John Pawson Works (2000), all published by Phaidon.

"Long-overdue."-Eve Kahn, The New York Times