Alpine Interiors (Jumbo S.) - Hardcover

Wedekind, Beate; Taschen, Angelika

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3822876364 ISBN 13: 9783822876367

Publisher: Taschen GmbH, 1998

Synopsis

If you think that laying your hat in the Alps means having to choose between a rustic mountain hut or a log-burning ski lodge, then you'll be amazed when you get a glimpse of this latest inspiring volume in the Interiors series. The mountains of the Alps are a unique terrain unlike anything else in Europe, thus when constructing and decorating a place to live, architects and designers have to be conscious of adapting to the extremes of landscape and climate. The desire to make your home a beautiful thing, to find a balance between Function and elegance, becomes particularly significant in the Alpine region. Primarily Famous as a location for skiing resorts and muesli, the Alps straddle the borders of so many European countries, and this has allowed for a lively interaction and exchange between many peoples and cultures. The selections in this book are impeccable. For example Reinhold Messner's castle. There's everything From baroque villas to farmhouses, famous designers/ architects to the ordinary Alp-lander with very good taste. All the interiors here are lavishly photographed and documented.

About this title

Review

If you thought Alpine style was all cow-shed and ski-lodge, think again. Beate Wedekind who assembled this huge, delightful addition to Taschen's Interiors series, would have you remember that Europe's most aesthetically created nations rub shoulders in these awe- inspiring surroundings. Adapting to each other and to the often harsh demands of the climate, Alpine styles are a strange admixture of the primitive and the sophisticated. Some of the region's flavours are suggested by Wedekind's inspirational but ultimately facile introduction. Alpine Interiors is weighty only in the picking up; a resource for ambitious Russian millionaires, fantasists with degrees in Art History and--let's face it--burglars, Wedekind's assembly of stunning photographs by the likes of Gert von Bassewitz and Peter Moody Meyer is the ultimate in good- taste escapism. In the kitchen of his baroque manor house Thaddeus Ropac "has installed sophisticated technology which remains invisible". The magic realist painter Balthus meanwhile, lives in an 18th-century chalet with his second wife Setsuko Ideka. Their daughter Harumi, a jeweller, is "a fragile natural beauty, even more ravishing than the girls in his famous paintings".

For covetous readers, keen to press their snow-blinded faces ever harder up against the windows of the glitterati a list of recommended museums points deeper into this incredible territory. -- Simon Ings

Synopsis

Featuring 39 interiors from farmhouses, summer houses, chalets and castles in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria, this illustrated text explores the work of a number of architects and interior designers including: Willy Bogner, Enoch Freiherr zu Guttenberg and Reinhold Messner.

Edition details

• Publisher: Taschen GmbH
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3822876364
• ISBN 13: 9783822876367
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 285
• Editor: Taschen Angelika