![]() ![]() The sequence, which is organized by continent, begins in Oceania, with the Alice Springs Desert Park in the Northern Territory of Australia (think red dirt paths and woolly oat grass) and ends in South America, with the architect Juan Grimm’s Jardín Los Vilos in Coquimbo, Chile (bare rocks, cactuses and bromeliads). Relying on a team of uncredited experts, its editors selected 250 public and private gardens from 45 countries each is laid out neatly on single or double pages. Phaidon departed from its trademark 10-curators-times-10-projects approach in showcasing contemporary gardens from around the world. Thanks to the inclusion of Miles Kemp, an interactive designer, as one of the 10 curators, there’s also a sampling of glowing installations, including E/B Office’s swooping fiber-optic sculpture at the Jackson Hole, Wyo., public library it lights up in response to patrons’ catalog searches. Commercial projects include the world’s most stunning orthodontist’s clinic, in Tokyo (designed by Contemporary Architecture Practice, it’s biomorphic white on white, with rhythmic lozenges of lawn), and an unimaginably inventive Starbucks, also in Tokyo (the work of Kengo Kuma & Associates, it’s like a nest built by a Brobdingnagian O.C.D. You’ll find more stores, restaurants and offices than residences (it’s easier to drop in on cutting-edge design than to live with it). Apart from the fact that the projects were completed in the last five years, there appear to be no criteria for their selection. The latest expression of Phaidon’s formula (ask 10 art or design specialists to pick 10 examples in a particular genre and present the 100 selections in a generous, well-produced format) is this fascinating compendium of interior designs. Ultimately this book is not just a collection of game-changers but a guide to what design is: a crazily diverse world of objects created because someone, somewhere, had a burning need to try something new. It’s an excellent way to approach works that are fun but frivolous, like Harry Allen’s piggy-bank cast with surprising fidelity from an actual pig (“it had already died of natural causes,” we are told), as well as those that have made a serious cultural impact, like the iPhone. Roberts, a collector of contemporary product design, is stressing the engaging nature of these objects, and there’s nothing bombastic in her claims for them. “Or a new typology that alters our expectations about what something should look like.” In an earlier age, one may have used the word “revolutionary,” but Ms. “It could be a product that pioneers the use of new materials or a new production process,” Lisa S. “DesignPop,” which, in the spirit of its title, has a hot-magenta cover with a blast of chartreuse, seeks to identify “game-changing” designs from the last couple of decades.
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