The English Tradition in Design


Book Description

From medieval craftsmen to modern industrial designers.







Sir Edwin Lutyens


Book Description

A reissue in hardback under the National Trust imprint of a classic, superbly illustrated book tracing Sir Edwin Lutyens's formidable achievements of both grand public buildings and his many beautiful country houses. Through his architecture of New Delhi, Lutyens had the unofficial status of Britain's 'architect laureate', but it is in his wonderful country houses that his creative genius can most fully be appreciated. Elizabeth Wilhide traces the development of the Lutyens style and illustrates his remarkable blend of function and artistry, from the imposing granite of Castle Drogo and Lindisfarne to the restful appeal of Munstead Wood, which he designed for his long-term collaborator and friend, Gertrude Jekyll. Wilhide also devotes a large section of the book to Lutyens's wonderful interiors. With a foreword by Sir Edwin's granddaughter Candia Lutyens and specially commissioned photographs showing interiors and gardens, as well as original designs for furniture, this elegant monograph provides a fresh insight into a rich and enduring heritage of design.




Twentieth Century Design


Book Description

A look at the wider issues of design and industrial culture throughout Europe, Scandinavia, North America, and the Far East. The book explores the way in which 20th-century designs such as the Coca-Cola bottle have affected our culture more than those considered true classics




Designing Modern Britain


Book Description

Employing numerous examples of classic British design, Designing Modern Britain delves into the history of British design culture, and thereby tracks the evolution of the British national identity.




Inspired by Tradition


Book Description

Fifteen lavishly detailed Southern houses in Atlanta, Georgia, South Carolina, the Virginia Piedmont, along the Florida coasts, and in the mountains of North Carolina, from a leader in traditional architecture. Esteemed Atlanta architect Norman Davenport Askins made his name with his mastery of historical precedent. His gracious and livable designs recall such diverse sources as Italian Renaissance country villas, hillside castles in the Dordogne, and the very strong presence of the Colonial Revival and Federal houses in Atlanta and the greater South. Inspired by Tradition presents a portrait of Southern elegance through Askins’s trademark infusion of traditional design with understated innovation and style. New color photographs of interiors and landscape, commissioned specially for the book, complement traditional hand-drawn plans and elevations. In a special section dedicated to “Elements of Tradition,” Askins identifies the key components of traditional design and the parameters for using them successfully. Ultimately he believes in approaching tradition with innovation and individuality—adding touches of glamour, humor, and romance that bring his houses to life.




Domestic Interiors


Book Description

In general, householders took advantage of what was available nearby; homes in the south-east, for example, made use of the cast and wrought iron products of Kent and Sussex, and those in Devon had locally-made earthenware fire-backs and firedogs." "Ayres has assembled a mosaic that provides a vivid picture of the interiors of smaller domestic dwellings of the past. Embellished with illustrations from early sources, the author's own line drawings together with photographs of surviving interiors and their details, the book provides evidence for the treatment of historic interiors and inspiration for schemes of decoration today."--BOOK JACKET.




On Design


Book Description

This volume presents for the first time a curated selection of essays written over the last 30 years by leading design thinker and educator, Tevfik Balcioglu. With a focus on Turkish and British design, his writing examines questions of national and transnational design history and provides a critical insight into contemporary global design issues. Structured into four thematic sections with contextualizing introductions, this anthology addresses various aspects of design history, theory, education and practice. Essays look at the impact of industrialization and globalization on design cultures and highlight local and global design developments from the late 20th century to the present day. They cover reproduction techniques and technological progress in recent decades, the changing nature of mass-produced objects and the introduction of new methods, systems, shapes, forms and styles over time. Addressing issues relating to education and practice, case studies draw on Balcioglu's work at various institutions such as Izmir University of Economics, Turkey where he established a faculty of design departments and introduced a new model of integrated programmes, and Kent University, UK where he established the BA (Hons) 3D Design course. His writing explores the nature and transferability of knowledge in the design field through critical analysis of the emergence of new degree programmes, the evolution of design education and the relationship between theory and practice.




The English Traditional Ballad


Book Description

Ballads are a fascinating subject of study not least because of their endless variety. It is quite remarkable that ballads taken down or recorded from singers separated by centuries in time and by hundreds of kilometres in distance, should be both different and yet recognizably the same. In The English Traditional Ballad, David Atkinson examines the ways in which the body of ballads known in England make reference both to ballads from elsewhere and to other English folk songs. The book outlines current theoretical directions in ballad scholarship: structuralism, traditional referentiality, genre and context, print and oral transmission, and the theory of tradition and revival. These are combined to offer readers a method of approaching the central issue in ballad studies - the creation of meaning(s) out of ballad texts. Atkinson focuses on some of the most interesting problems in ballad studies: the 'wit-combat' in versions of The Unquiet Grave; variable perspectives in comic ballads about marriage; incest as a ballad theme; problems of feminine motivation in ballads like The Outlandish Knight and The Broomfield Hill; murder ballads and murder in other instances of early popular literature. Through discussion of these issues and themes in ballad texts, the book outlines a way of tracing tradition(s) in English balladry, while recognizing that ballad tradition is far from being simply chronological and linear.




Wild Things


Book Description

What do things mean? What does the life of everyday objects reveal about people and their material worlds? Has the quest for 'the real thing' become so important because the high-tech world of total virtuality threatens to engulf us? This pioneering book bridges design theory and anthropology to offer a new and challenging way of understanding the changing meanings of contemporary human-object relations. The act of consumption is only the starting point of object's “lives”. Thereafter they are transformed and invested with new meanings and associations that reflect and assert who we are. Defining designed things as “things with attitude” differentiates the highly visible fashionable object from ordinary aretefacts that are too easily taken for granted. Through case studies ranging from reproduction furniture to fashion and textiles to 'clutter', the author traces the connection between objects and authenticity, ephemerality and self-identity. Beyond this, she shows the materiality of the everyday in terms of space, time and the body and suggests a transition with the passing of time from embodiment to disembodiment.