Books published by August Editions

"In 1953, Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura designed a now-classic Japanese house and garden that he called Shåofusåo. It was built in Nagoya, Japan, and shipped to New York in 1954, where it was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and then relocated to Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The curators of MoMA's House in the Garden exhibition highlighted its synthesis of historic Japanese architecture with modern architecture: the clarity of the house's post and beam structure, its flexibility of use and the close relationship of indoor and outdoor spaces. This extensively illustrated volume centers on Yoshimura's design for Shåofusåo and two allied sites located in New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Raymond Farm (1939-41), a live-work residence built by Antonin and Néomi Raymond within the fabric of an existing 18th-century Quaker farmhouse; and Nakashima Studios, a complex of structures designed by George Nakashima over three decades (1947-77) to serve his furniture-making business and as his family's home. Each site, in its own way, is the embodiment of the personal relationships and cross-cultural collaborations among this group of architects and designers. The Raymonds, along with Yoshimura, Nakashima and others, came to understand Japan's changing environment through the act of building, through collaboration and travel. Together, they extended these lessons into the furniture and furnishings of modern living in both Japan and the United States. This volume documents an exhibition of objects and ephemera mounted at Shåofusåo. New York-based architectural photographer Elizabeth Felicella captures each site in a portfolio of newly commissioned images. Essays by Ken Tadashi Oshima and William Whitaker, illustrated with historical photographs, family snapshots and architectural drawings, further elucidate this important chapter in the history of modern architecture and design"--

A photographic meditation on the empty spaces between time, inspired by Japanese aestheticsThe Dutch-born photographer Martien Mulder‿s (born 1971) new book of images springs from the Japanese concept of ma, which can be described as a pause in time, an interval, or emptiness in space. Teaming up with Amsterdam-based creatives Stef Bakker and Carsten Klein, Mulder embarked on an extensive quest to reveal the ma in her own images, editing from an archive of 25 years of photography. The images in this book are studies of the in-between; some center on details photographed at such close quarters that they lose their context, while others show only the negative space, inactivity or quiet nothingness. The viewing direction of the book is not dictated, nor is the beginning or the end, nor the pace: it can be opened to any page at any time, functioning as an object of contemplation.

An alluring portrait of three beautiful homes and the art and design objects that populate themOver a lifetime spent in London, New York, Los Angeles and points in between, collector Ronnie Sassoon has put together an unparalleled grouping of radical artworks, design objects and houses that elucidate her definition of "selection" important works by Group Zero and Arte Povera artists such as Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Alighiero Boetti; midcentury designers such as Carlo Scarpa, Frederick Kiesler, Jean Prouvé and Gae Aulenti; and many more. At the center of the collection are three important houses that hold the collection: the Levit House by Richard Neutra in Los Angeles, the Stillman II House by Marcel Breuer in Connecticut and the iconic Dean/Ceglic Loft in SoHo, New York. Each of these structures defines its period and place in design history, and is redefined by the objects that now inhabit it. As Sassoon states, "Following one's passion and desire creates the most pleasing and sensual atmosphere, reminiscent of every intoxicating past experience, whether it be in film, print, or travel. Those memories influence our selections in our quest for the perfect objet nonpareil."Sensual and illuminating in turn, Selection documents--through beautiful photographs of thought-provoking tableaus of artworks, objects and interiors--a blueprint for a highly selective way of living. As Philippe Vergne writes in his introduction: "Ronnie's talent is an uncanny ability to integrate all these elements: the art, the design, the architecture, the color (or the absence of color) are the results of deliberate decisions that raise the bar of aesthetic standards, of quotidian gestures.... The room, the gestures, the spirit of the moment shared in Ronnie's homes are the moment of generosity."

Photographed over a 10-year period, Dog Houses is a collection of 30 forlorn and often humorous color images of canine shelters found throughout the Southern California desert landscape. American photographer Mark Ruwedel (b. 1954), known for his majestic Westward series of residual landforms created by the expanding railroad lines across the 19th-century American West, turns his discerning eye to the last western frontierthe American desert. Dog Houses, part of Ruwedels larger Desert House series, published by MACK (2016), takes us to a place where the signs of human activity in the landscape are much more recent and revealing. Like their human counterparts, the doghouses in these photographs constitute an inventory of an iconic yet surprisingly flexible form. Often made from discarded material left over from the construction of the human houses, the funny and sometimes haunting structures evoke the asymmetrical yet reciprocal relationship between owner and animal. Ruwedel is represented in museums worldwide: Tate Modern, J. Paul Getty Museum, LACMA, National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) and National Gallery of Canada, among others.