An essay on the dialogue between architecture and painting, a reflection on the permanence of temporary structures, a magazine dedicated to manufacturing techniques… For the arrival of spring 2025, AA is presenting a selection of publications to be discovered without delay.

Carefully chosen by the editorial team, these books have in common their cross-disciplinary approach, in line with the spirit of AA, and their focus on the issues of our contemporary societies.

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Window Wall
Pezo von Ellrichshausen 

Extending the figure-ground visual paradox to a fundamental architectonic problem – that of the reciprocity between a wall and a window – this book by Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen reflects on the intersection between painting and architecture. If a window is inherently a subtraction of a wall’s surface but also an infill with a “view” beyond it, a painting is as much a flat, opaque surface as the illusion of space beyond. Containing over 1,000 works, including paintings, sketches, and line drawings, this alphabetical catalogue presents a broad examination of the Chilean duo’s practice to date. The book also includes an essay by the authors and an index of the artworks.

Mauricio Pezo et Sofia von Ellrichshausen
Architectural Publisher B, Danemark, 2024, 416 pages
www.b-arki.dk

Temporary Tecture. Structures of Necessity.
KOSMOS Architects

Scaffolding, barriers and building sites ensure the functioning of multiple processes, from construction to deconstruction, including maintenance, orientation and protection. Temporary Tecture presents a new perspective on this type of contemporary vernacular architecture, often overlooked in public and professional discourse despite its ubiquity. These ‘structures of necessity’ provide an architectural language from which architects can draw inspiration in terms of adaptability, use of local resources, circular economy and conceptual radicalism. Ultimately, what about their temporary nature in an ever-changing world?

KOSMOS Architects, with Jan De Vylder, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Philip Ursprung
Birkhäuser, Basel, 2025, 312 pages 
birkhauser.com

Tools magazine

Tools magazine is an annual publication that aims to highlight and decipher manufacturing techniques and know-how in art, design, interior architecture, industry and crafts. Each issue is devoted to a particular manufacturing technique (moulding, folding, etc.), which guides the selection of subjects, pieces and personalities interviewed. Tools provides an overview of design, past and present, from history to the transmission of techniques, paying close attention to the people who make these cult objects of our daily lives, and who convey the stories behind our shared imagination. Following To Mold, To Weave, To Fold and To Cut, the latest issue “To Spin” will look at the act of spinning.

Clémentine Berry
les presses du réel, Dijon, since 2021, 248 pages 
www.lespressesdureel.com

School Models
Florian Graf

Swiss artist Florian Graf conceived his School Models art project for the public space in the city of Zurich. Situated within the school yard of a public secondary school, it is comprised of models of three buildings on the campus, each representing a period of architectural history. Graf’s white limestone sculptures of 1:20 scale are supported by oversized, multi-colored Terrazzo toy blocks. Students are invited to view their school buildings in entirely new ways, such as seating or as meeting places. The interplay of proportions between oversized blocks and miniature school buildings, as well as the actual school buildings used as a backdrop, prompts a re-evaluation of the underlying power dynamics and interpretations that shape educational systems.
This book documents a unique public art project that evokes interaction through images and supplementing texts. It illuminates key terms such as education, model, collaboration, and resonance. It also invites a reflection on the evolution of education and its institutions over time.

Florian Graf 
Scheidegger & Spiess, Lausanne, 2024, 132 pages 
www.scheidegger-spiess.ch

Designing the American Century
The Public Landscapes of Clarke and Rapuano, 1915–1965
Thomas J. Campanella

Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano were the foremost spatial designers of the American century. Their vast portfolio of public landscapes propelled the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux into the motor age, touching the lives of millions and changing the face of the nation. Designing the American Century recovers the forgotten legacy of Clarke and Rapuano, whose parks and parkways, highways and housing estates helped modernize—for better or worse—the American metropolis. Campanella describes how Clarke and Rapuano helped create some of the metropolitan region’s most iconic landscapes, from the Central Park Zoo and Conservatory Garden to the Henry Hudson Parkway and Riverside Park, Jones Beach, the Palisades and Taconic State Parkways, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and elsewhere. 

Thomas J. Campanella
Princeton University Press, New Jersey, États-Unis, Juillet 2025, 408 pages
press.princeton.edu

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Textes issus des communiqués de presse des différentes maisons d'édition.