The spread of capsular civilization is a worst-case scenario that is taking shape before our very eyes, without us even being aware of it. In the face of the speed of our technology, the suburbanization of our daily lives and the ever more extreme but poignant polarization of our society, we feel obliged to return to the capsules of our vehicles, in architectural cocoons or urbanistic enclaves: malls, gated communities, amusement parks. Since September 11, the war in Iraq and the War on Terrorism, it has been almost impossible to dissociate architecture from its political and social context. Add to this the massive influence of capitalism on architecture, the disturbing demographic developments and the associated political, social and ecological catastrophes, and you get the robotic snapshot of a society dominated by fear, exclusion and simulation. De Cauter sketches a realistic and alarming account of the new world order that is an everyday concern for the architects and planners of the contemporary city as well as for its inhabitants and users.
Starting his career as a glassblower at the Leerdam glass works factory when he was just 14 years old, Andries Copier (1901-1991) went on to become the greatest glass designer that the Netherlands has ever known. Copier was influenced by the Bauhaus design ethos, and, following its lead, established a clean, geometric Dutch style for the glass arts that combined affordability with elegance. Made in association with the Dutch National Glass Museum on the occasion of their momentous Copier retrospective, The Oeuvre of A.D. Copier catalogues the prolific designer's life's work. Cataloging nearly 2,000 works--with more than 1,200 examples reproduced in full color--it also includes designs, sketches and scholarly writings that elucidate Copier's wide-ranging inspirations and techniques. This publication is the definitive monograph on a canonical figure in Dutch design.