Papercraft 1:1 Assault Rifle AK-47 by Martin Postler

The AK-47, also called the Kalashnikov after its inventor, is one of the most successful industrial products of all time. Since its introduction in 1947, an estimated 80 million AK-47s have been built. Its success is based not only on its resourceful construction, but also its affordable production, dependability, functionality and high demand. The AK-47 is one of the icons of the twentieth century, but it is also a deadly weapon.

For a new art project, the designer Martin Postler has investigated the history, the aesthetics and the lethal seductiveness of the Kalashnikov. He has freed the AK-47 from its terrible capacity to injure and kill by deconstructing it into a paper model construction set. When putting the detailed model together, the builder is automatically confronted with the Kalashnikov and its significance – both historical and personal. At the end of the construction process each person can decide if they would like to hang their own AK-47 on the wall, paint it, customize it with stickers or simply burn it. Then ultimately this AK-47 thankfully remains a piece of paper.

AK47, Paper Gun Model Kit, by Martin Postler
Available here: Van Stockum

Monograph: Wonderwall: Masamichi Katayama Projects N˚2

The internationally renowned interior and retail designer Masamichi Katayama is synonymous with exquisite quality and applies his distinctive trademark showmanship to create visionary retail environments.
This publication introduces over forty recent projects by Japan’s hottest retail designer with an extraordinary selection of interior designs for boutiques and retail outlets from high-end luxury spaces to mega stores in Japan, Great Britain, France, the United States and Hong Kong. Masamichi Katayama skilfully integrates diverse interior design elements including light, furniture, material and proportion in a unique and unrivalled fashion that translates into flawless design, comfort and functionality. Insightful text by John C. Jay, Wieden+Kennedy’s Creative Director and quotes by Tyler Brulé, the Editor in Chief of Monocle and many more affirm this appraisal.

Wonderwall: Masamichi Katayama Projects N˚2, Edited by Satoko Suzuki.
Buy it Here: Amazon

Books: The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century Architecture

Explore the best architecture of the 21st century in this collection of 1037 exemplary buildings sited all over the world in the Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture. Divided into six world regions, the Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture provides an important overview of global and local trends in architecture. This truly unparalleled resource presents easily accessible world data exploring the geographical contexts for 21st century architectural production in a global framework. Each of the six world regions is introduced by an analysis of urban and architectural issues. This statistical information has been researched and elaborated by a team from the London School of Economics.

The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century Architecture, by the Phaidon editors, 800 pp.
Buy it here: Amazon

Books: crEATe, Eating Design and Future Food

Food is not just a hot topic in design and cutting edge creativity today but also an enormous industry with changing standards and perceptions. Based upon research by trend analysts Chris Sanderson and Martin Raymond from the London firm The Future Laboratory, crEATe investigates recent trends and visual developments in and around food. The book examines everything from the way we eat, the interiors and furniture of innovative restaurants and shops, industrial design and the packaging of food to branding and consumerism.

crEATe, Eating Design and Future Food, Edited by Chris Sanderson, Martin Raymond, R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, S. Moreno
Buy it here: Amazon

Books: beautyLIGHT by Matthew Rolston

beautyLIGHT is a new book published in collaboration with Remy Martin Louis XIII who are supporting visionary artists from the world of art, design, photography and architecture.
The book showcases some of Matthew Rolston’s best photographs from the past 20 years including those of Selma Hayek, Charlize Theron, Bjork, Bob Dylan, Christina Ricci and Julianne Moore.
Matthew Rolston was discovered by Andy Warhol at an early age to shoot for Interview Magazine, and has shot iconic covers for numerous publications including Rolling Stone and Harper’s Bazaar.

beautyLIGHT, published by teNeues, Available in two formats: Standard book, $75, Collectors’ Edition$2500 (limited to 600 copies with a signed print)

Wallpaper* City Guides add New Destinations

Wallpaper* City Guides have added 10 new destinations: Delhi, Hamburg, Kuala Lumpur, Kyoto, Marseille, Montreal, Moscow, Reykjavik, Seoul, and Venice. The guides present a tightly edited, discreetly packaged list of the best a location has to offer the design conscious traveller.

Whether you are staying for 48 hours or five days, visiting for business or a vacation, the editors have done the hard work for you, from finding the best restaurants, bars and hotels (including which rooms to request) to the most extraordinary stores and sites, and the most enticing architecture and design. Wallpaper* City Guides enable you to come away from your trip, however brief, with a real taste of the city’s landscape and the satisfaction you’ve seen all that you should.

Wallpaper* City Guide, Published by Phaidon. Buy them here: Amazon

Books: Strike a Pose

Strike a Pose documents a new extroverted architectural language. The iconographically charged scenes and futuristic spaces featured are playful and experimental and range from private residences to schools and operas, museums and interior design. Manifested in spectacular structures, eccentric forms and vivid colours, this expressive approach goes way beyond conventional stylistic and geographic boundaries.

Strike a Pose, Eccentric Architecture and Spectacular Spaces,
Edited by R. Klanten, L. Feireiss. Buy it here: Amazon

Books: How to Wrap Five Eggs

How to Wrap Five Eggs, a mid-60s classic of Japanese design, is back in print. Assembled by graphic designer Hikeyuki Oka in 1965, this stunningly laid-out paean to traditional Japanese packaging is rife with sumptuous black and white photos by Michikazu Sakai of all manner of boxes, wrappers and containers that appear at once homely and sophisticated, ingeniously utilitarian yet fine and rare.
- dwell

“what we have lost for sure is what this book is all about: a once-common sense of fitness in the relationships between hand, material, use and shape, and above all, a sense of delight in the look and fell of very ordinary, humble things.”
- George Nelson

How to Wrap Five Eggs: Traditional Japanese Packaging, Edited by Hikeyuki Oka.
Buy it here: Amazon
via: dwell

Books: 3deluxe Design Collective

Expansive projects accomplished by the interdisciplinary design collective 3deluxe over the last five years. Their skillful interplay graphics, interiors and architecture to create powerful spatial situations and graphics that combines a sensitive intellectual and sensual balance. The multi-media theme world Cyberhelvetia, the interior and corporate design for the CocoonClub in Frankfurt, events and exhibitions for the 2006 FIFA World Cup as well as the corporate architecture for Leonardo are only but a few of the multitude of projects featured in this luxurious volume.

3deluxe, Transdisciplinary approaches to design, by Frame Publishers.
Buy it here: Amazon

Books: New York—The Magnum Edition

Magnum will launch a towering book: New York—The Magnum Edition, on november 5th with an event at the National Arts Club in New York City.
Published by Gloria, this giant of a book, weighing in at 12Kg is book as architecture: it comes with its own base and skeletal frame. 1500 images, 756 pages, and features the most iconic images of New York by some of the most respected photographers of our times – including 28 Magnum photographers. The editon includes a silver gelatin print by Leonard Freed (estate stamped). There are only 25 of prints available worldwide.

New York contains thirty three chapters covering every aspect of the New York story, including history, architecture, design, art, fashion, music, film, television, dance, sport and 9/11.
28 Magnum photographers have work featured in the book. Some of the photographers featured in this book include Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold, David Bailey, Henri Cartier- Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Patrick Demarchelier, Elliott Erwitt, Philippe Halsman, Evelyn Hofer, Annie Leibovitz, Steve McCurry, Helmut Newton, Norman Parkinson, Jacob Riis, Jerry Schatzberg, Edward Steichen, Dennis Stock and Weegee among others.
Chapters have been written by the cream of New York literary talent including Ric Burns, Anthony DeCurtis, Don DeLillo, Paul Goldberger, David Halberstam, Pete Hamill, Michael Kantor, David Remnick, James Sanders, Gay Talese, John Updike, EB White, Colson Whitehead and Tom Wolfe.

New York—The Magnum Edition, $4000, Limited Edition of 25, Published by Gloria, for Magnum