Bruno Munari: Square, Circle, Triangle - Softcover

Munari, Bruno

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616894121 ISBN 13: 9781616894122

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2015

Synopsis

Circle: “God is a circle whose center is everywhere but whose circumference is nowhere.” Circle means perfection, cyclicity, superiority of the divinity, but also instability and movement. In nature soap bubbles are spherical and internal trees’ rings are circular; the legend tells that Giotto drew a perfect O, while perfection is tangible on Michelangelo’s Tondo Doni and Botticelli’s Vergine col Bambino. King Arthur’s knights were pairs around a round table, and nowadays people sit in circle to make a decision or watch a show. Bruno Munari selects and describes in this little, extraordinary encyclopedia, several uses of this fascinating and mysterious form, unstable and hieratic at the same time. Square: Square has much importance in man's life: a lot of churches, monuments, games (like chess), and fonts are square-based. But man seems not to realise it... one more time Bruno Munari amazes us with an historical, anthropological, scientific square book. Triangle: From the vegetable structure of the coconut to the diagram of human settlements by Le Corbusier, one can frequently find the shape of the equilateral triangle in many different occurrences, both in a natural environment and in artificial works. Along with the circle and the square, the equilateral triangle is one of the three basic forms, and is suitable to be combined in modular frameworks to generate a structured field in which endless other combinatorial forms may be constructed. From classical Arab and Japanese decorations to the contemporary architecture of Buckminster Fuller and Wright, the familiarity with the equilateral triangle, in all its formal and structural resources, generates curious and fascinating experimentations. After the books of the same collection dedicated to the circle and the square, a new reprint by Bruno Munari about the many uses of this evocative shape throughout the centuries. These studies were originally published in 1976 in the series Quaderni di design, curated by Munari himself for Zanichelli.

About this title

Review:

"Even if you're not a designer, the trilogy on shapes encourages a closer look at the repeating structures around us and their deep human and natural histories, in which the simple square can simultaneously be an ancient symbol with "the power to drive out the plague," and the boundaries for a game of chess." - Hyperallergic

"Picasso once called Munari the "Leonardo of our time," and now is the time to invest time in one of the great thinkers of the last hundred years." - Juxtapoz

"Like shapes structured into a pattern, the works form something greater than the sum of their parts." - Surface

"I would consider it required reading for everybody engaged in a design discipline. No matter what field-be it architecture, industrial design, urban designer, painting, etc.-you are sure to find a lot of meaningful and relevant content, as it covers the fundamentals of these shapes, so rarely available in a single volume. As such, Bruno Munari: Square Circle Triangle certainly does justice to one of the great designers and thinkers of the twentieth century." - Spacing

From the Author:

Bruno Munari was one of the greatest graphic designers of the twentieth century.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1616894121
• ISBN 13: 9781616894122
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280