Wood Works

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.