“In my experience, true success comes for the designer and the business executive when the two can bridge the artificial lines that too often separate their worlds.” So says acclaimed designer Hartmut Esslinger in “A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping The Future Of Business,” a book he issued in 2009. Esslinger draws on his insights and experiences as founder of the San Francisco innovation consultancy, frog, as well as a long career spent establishing design’s strategic role in business. In “A Fine Line,” he provides a step-by-step overview of the innovation process—from targeting goals to guiding new products and services to the marketplace—and takes us through several riveting, design-driven strategy case studies involving some of the biggest global brands. A self-professed, realistic optimist, Esslinger advocates design as the vanguard of humanistic, economic and cultural progress; in other words, design is not merely the key to building better businesses and a more profitable future, but also a more sustainable one.

Just how did the modern workplace become what it is today? In his new book Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace, Nikil Saval sets out to explore the evolution that has led to the easily-recognized offices that are now so prevalent. Beginning with the “counting-house” clerks of the mid-nineteenth century, Saval explores the birth and institutionalization of so many fixed staples of the modern office: the vertical filing cabinet, the fluorescent light bulb, and of course, the dreaded cubicle, which serves as the namesake of the book.

In addition to examining the tangible features of the office, Saval, who was influenced by C. Wright Mills’ 1951 sociology text “White Collar,” examines the implications that the development of the office had upon notions of the American middle class. He touches on both the upside and downside of the emergence of the information economy and thus the modern office, and also notes the revolutionary effect of women’s entry into the workforce.

Despite the notion that his topic might be one that rarely inspires excitement and happiness, Saval’s writing is never dull or dry. As Dwight Garner of The New York Times writes, “Mr. Saval is a vigorous writer, and a thoughtful one…He turns each new fact over in his mind, right in front of you, holding it to the light.”

Towards the end of the book, Saval looks to the future. Silicon Valley companies such as Google are beginning to turn towards office designs that slowly whittle away at both the long-standing cubicle and the previously well-defined line dividing work and leisure, implying a return to an era before the rigidity of today’s workplaces. This trend certainly has become more pronounced at recent NeoCon’s where informal lounge and various other alternative workscapes are beginning to predominate. Ultimately, Saval’s writing provides insight into the settings that a vast majority of the workforce still inhabits every workday. He analyzes the relationship between the structure of a space and its functionality and philosophizes about how the changing design of the office has historically both influenced and reflected changes in America’s socioeconomic dynamics. Cubed thus examines design as a feature of larger cultural trends, stretching far into past and future alike.

Masterpieces: Office Architecture & Design by Lara Mezel explores the modern business world and how technology, creativity and branding all play a part in determining an office environment. The book presents 61 exceptional and different projects from all over the world, featuring office buildings and designs by famous architects as well as promising newcomers. Office Architecture & Design looks beyond purely functional considerations of offices to the creation of positive, motivating work settings and how they affect overall company performance.

The Architect’s Home by Gennaro Postiglione: While many are exposed to the buildings that architects have designed and created, they are never given the opportunity to see the space that they create and make their own. Postiglione provides a rare glimpse into the homes that architects build for themselves, with his 480-page book of beautiful color images and insightful text relating to the architect and the dwelling spaces that are a true reflection of their style and taste. By viewing the personal spaces created by some of the most brilliant architects in the industry, one is given not only an understanding of the inspiration behind and development process of the house’s constructions, but also a more full insight into the architect’s personal aesthetic and work.

Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture: As health becomes a central focus of political debate, are architects and designers seeking a new moral and political agenda to address these concerns? Imperfect Health looks at the complexity of today’s health problems juxtaposed with a variety of proposed architectural and urban solutions. Essays by Margaret Campbell, David Gissen, Carla C. Keirns, and Sarah Schrank deal with different aspects of the topic of health in the context of architecture such as: “An Architectural Theory of Pollution” and “Strange Bedfellows: Tuberculosis and Modern Architecture—How ‘The Cure’ Influenced Modernist Design.”

Talking Architecture: Interviews with Architects – By Hanno Rauterberg (more…)

The latest project from the IIDA (International Interior Design Association), What Clients Want has really caught our eye.  Following its debut at NeoCon 2012, there has been a lot of buzz about this new book, the first in a limited edition series that features an intimate look at client/designer relationships. (more…)

For this issue, instead of picking just one book that’s on our list, we wanted to share our favorite new website… www.designersandbooks.com. (more…)