Working in collaboration with recognised experts, proHolz Austria produces a practice-related handbook for two dozen native kinds of wood, which, in a concentrated way, compiles technical values, botanical characteristics and references from cultural history. In visual terms the main part is made up of magnificent colour prints of the selected kinds of wood. These were directly scanned and printed at the very highest quality. The book “Holzspektrum” was awarded a diploma of honour in the international competition “The Finest Books from throughout the World 2007”. On 16 and 17 February 2007 in the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Leipzig seven jury members from China, Germany, France, Austria and Hungary examined 545 books from 33 countries. These books had either already received an award in their respective national competitions or had been selected by committees of experts in their country of origin. 14 different awards were decided upon.

The works of architect Roger Boltshauser provide the framework for a differentiated examination of the human perception of space and of its basic elements. In the first half of the book theories of spatial perception are presented, illustrated and discussed. This part reflects the joint teaching work of Roger Boltshauser and Aita Flury and, in the form of a dialogue, links various approaches and scales ranging from the individual building to urban planning. The second part forms a complement to the first and presents Bolthauser’s works. These are, at one and the same time, both a link and a contrast to the discussions in the first section. The functional, severe and reading-oriented design of the first half of the book here gives way abruptly to a fully illustrated and generously wrapped layout that expresses the strongly defined tectonics and powerful structure of Boltshauser’s buildings. German and English are ascribed equal importance and are consistently placed side by side. The typogramm used to differentiate the languages and to organize the contents hierarchically contains two families of typefaces from the 1950s – Univers by Adrian Frutiger and Melior by Hermann Zapf. The special challenge lay in preventing the book, which has two (apparently) different halves, from “breaking part”. The integration is achieved by directly meshing different examples of images and by the use of certain design measures: a finely articulated basic grid, graphic severity, deliberate breaches of the rules in the layout, and black and white Duplex reproductions throughout on finely coated, matt art paper.

This sentence, taken from an ancient stele in the Apulian town of Kalimera, is used as the title for a new book about seven journeys that followed the traces of Greek (language) culture outside Greece. The contributions, which are in German and Greek, appear in the spring programme of Residenz Verlag in St. Pölten and the publisher Ianos in Thessaloniki. The travel report by Kunrich Gehrer is a cogent contribution to interpreting and understanding European western culture and its Greek roots. All the carefully made photo reports are by Paul Rachbauer. Reinhard Gassner provides information on the development of lettering in the countries visited and the relationship to Greek lettering, illustrate with graphics and alphabets.

Hermann Kaufmann is a European pioneer in the field of modern building with wood. This book presents an interim balance of the projects he has carried out in the last decade. 25 works are organised in five thematic groups and comprehensively documented. Through the design of the book the complex contents and the descriptions, which are in three languages throughout, are presented in as clear a form as possible. A double page is divided into four columns. In the first column the chapter or project title, short introductory texts and paginated footnotes are positioned. The language mutations – typographically slightly differentiated – are given equal value and arranged beside each other in the remaining three columns. The typographical design invites you to read, gives the layout a rhythm, and provides the necessary interim stops amidst the generously laid out pages of images and plans. “Wood Works” is illustrated with top class reproductions of images and plans and provides construction details of important aspects along with specially designed tables and diagrams. Photographer Nikolaus Walter’s picture essay on the everyday world of the buildings provides a view that expands on Bruno Klomfar’s objective architecture photography. In accordance with the “aesthetic” of Hermann Kaufmann’s buildings instead of heavy, smooth art paper a fine and open-pored substrate is used. The fine grain and the reduced colour contrasts of the illustrations are entirely intentional. In terms of the kind of paper, the binding and format the book-block is deliberately light and “soft”, flexible and handy. With a width of 216 mm and a height of 270 mm the volume has 256 pages and, including the linen cover, a thickness of 25 mm.

The dwelling house and studio in Schlins, Vorarlberg erected by clay builder Martin Rauch together with architect Roger Boltshauser is a model of contemporary building with clay. The publication describes the development of a house built of earth, documents the construction details and shows the ecological nature of the material clay. The motivation lies in coming closer to the varied aspects – largely unknown in the current architecture discourse – of this special rammed clay building and awakening an understanding of the material’s qualities and potential. Through formal quality the theme is rescued from the alleged naivety of the ecological movement and is given a new presence. Calm sections of text contrast with exciting sequences of images. The reader is invited to explore the house visually and in terms of content. For the lamination of the cover, the front and back endpapers and in the core a highly voluminous substrate with a haptic velvety surface was used. The book itself is more like a textbook than an illustrated book. The reliefs on the half-linen cover tell about genesis and decay.

A magazine with a rich tradition, “KONstruktiv” is the media flagship of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Architects and Consulting Engineers. For a re-launch of the magazine the professional transfer of knowledge was prepared in a contemporary form and revitalised. For the cover concept the title images were placed on one side and different decorative colours used. Other elements include an exciting use of text wrapping and careful macro and micro-typography with interwoven narrative and factual typefaces, editorially oriented explanatory graphics and lexically built-up pages in-between. Additionally, there is also a kind of “display case” with a consistent design line that provides a new form of presentation for advertisements.

The title materialegno is derived from the words material and legno (wood). It thus conveys the content in a clear and concentrated manner. materialegno is an Italian language magazine that appears at irregular intervals, produced by promo_legno, Milan – an Italian platform for timber marketing. The magazine is directed at designers and those interested in building. materialegno shows new methods of production, construction, design and implementation of the material timber. To embed the messages from the start in a good reader environment this extra-large medium appears as a supplement to the Italian architecture magazine Domus“. The aim of the design is to convey the language of modern architecture through visual communication. The concept of the magazine alone makes it clear that here information is not to be disturbed by foreign images or advertisements. It is not the name of the main sponsor that is placed on the back cover but art connected to the material wood. Every cover is in a different decorative colour. Thus the key visuals are viewed through coloured sun-glasses, as it were. Inside the magazine the typographical interventions are combined with generous amounts of pictures. The layout is cleanly organized but also variable and fresh.

The Walgau region, which lies in the south of Vorarlberg, consists of numerous very small communities. To encourage citizen participation between the communities and to integrate this in the regional planning process a dialogue-oriented image was to be developed. Graphically combining the words “im Walgau” to create a single noun positions and grounds the theme of planning, which is essentially an abstract one and, at least in part, is dominated by experts. The curving line between the points suggests the meandering space, the mountains and valley of the landscapes, and the concept of planning. As communication instruments unusual cartographies, visual documentary standards for the planning process and – in collaboration with author photographer Nikolaus Walter – pictures of the region are made and information pages appear every two weeks in the local newspaper, the Walgaublatt.

From a poster designed in 1978 for the Jazzclub Lustenau, a logo was also made. It represents the transformation of a mustard tube into a saxophone and tells the story of jazzy sounds that are squeezed into a saxophone and then breathed or bellowed out. Today this image is the key image and logo of the association and the poster has been used as the basis for a number of different applications.

Under the title “Konstruktive Provokation – Neues Bauen in Vorarlberg” (Constructive Provocation – New Building in Vorarlberg) in 2003 an exhibition was shown in the headquarters of the Institut francais d’architecture (ifa) in Paris. Since then it has toured through other French cities. The publication “Konstruktive Provokation – Neues Bauen in Vorarlberg” appeared at the same time as the eponymous exhibition in ifa. As well as short texts it is above all images that are used to tell about the development of the small province of Vorarlberg. Three levels of images are chosen: 1.) A visual essay about the province and its people in black and white photography. These are images, one could almost say small films, which always have a story to tell and which, when looked at closer, reveal further layers. 2.) The presentation of the current situation of architecture by means of pictures of architecture which, instead of depicting individual buildings in the usual manner of architecture photography, show ensembles which tell something about architectural neighbourhoods and relationships. 3.) Explanatory images that present numbers, facts, and statistics by means of informative, and at times also ironic, graphics. For instance the contour line from Paris to Vienna is shown, or cows are placed on guest beds to illustrate the fact that Vorarlberg has roughly the same number of cows as guest beds. The title shows a sketch by the author of the chronologically organised web of relationships in the architecture scene – who built for whom and with whom; which people and events worked together when; when which architect began to produce his or her own works. On the inside of cover this history is told in a somewhat more precise manner by means of a synchronoptic visualisation.