The Fall Winter season of the .Wonder Book marks the return in great style of Western design know-how, represented by a style that isolated Europe and the US in a big bubble for many years and that – over the years – somewhat dampened its creativity. Meanwhile, the creativity of Japanese designers stole the show with bold shapes and powerful use of colour. As is often the case, the mutual influence between profoundly different cultures requires a break-in period whose duration cannot be predicted. By admiring the projects of this autumn edition, it seems that the two worlds have indeed mixed with one another to once again form a single and very colourful world. Colour is precisely the link between the projects, regardless of geography. By browsing through the Book you can – among other things – find the colours chosen for the covers of the previous 18 editions.
It is a who’s who of architecture (Ab Concept, Sanaa, Peter Marino, Ennismore, Jean Nouvel, Thomas Heatherwick, Frank Gehry, André Fu, Raphael Vinoli, Richard Maier, and Kohn Pedersen Fox) featured in the pages of this .Wonder Book, and each one of them will surprise you for their choice of shapes and decorations. Among the many unexpected innovations we want to highlight two of them: the energetic return to a contemporary, solid, and elegant style of the new Dolce & Gabbana Korean flagship store, and the (perhaps) first Intercontinental Hotel in Dongguan with a conceptual interpretation.
Paolo Bleve, Editor-in-Chief
And when the richness of colour makes way for monochrome and black and white, another model of design sensibility and aesthetic taste takes the spotlight: the steel of Ecole Ducasse, the light and dark contrasts of the Nimbus of Mykonos, and the thousand greys of the Cusanus Academy blend harmoniously with the most colourful projects.
This new edition introduces the new .Wonder Monogram collection, 12 pages in a removable insert of an in-depth dive into projects from a different angle, which highlights the ingenuity, creativity, and know-how of the players in the manufacturing sector at the service of the big world of design and international contract.
Let the new season begin!
