All the architects in this book deserve international recognition. The reality is, though, that few are household names. Over the last decade, awareness of the need for gender balance in architecture has gained traction. Within the profession, women remain underrepresented, underpromoted and underpaid. Failure to acknowledge women’s contribution to the built environment has perpetuated this cycle and impoverished us all. By showcasing 100 exceptional architects – who happen to be women – this book provides a flagship reference to inspire and support everyone working in the profession, no matter how they identify. Global in outlook, the book presents an equitable sample of architects from every continent. We all need heroines as much as heroes. Through illustrated interviews, each woman shares how they are responding to a profound disconnect between architecture and the people and landscape it serves. Their visions, methods and models of leadership are essential to connecting the needs of humans and the planet. In the words of Indigenous Canadian architect Eladia Smoke: ‘Now is a critical time to seek out every opportunity to transmit this knowledge to future generations.’ Featuring: 100 interviews with leading women architects, including: Tatiana Bilbao, Odile Decq, Liz Diller, Julia Gamolina, Dorte Mandrup and Farshid Moussavi. Over 400 photographs and drawings. Geographically balanced selection, with profiles across every continent.

Sie waren nicht nur zwei der herausragenden Künstler des Bauhaus, sondern zugleich auch ein bekanntes Paar. Von ihrem Leben und Schaffen zeugen ihre berühmten Werke sowie die von ihnen als Lehrer und Vorbilder geprägten Künstler. Das ist aber noch nicht alles, wie uns ein zeitgenössisches Künstlerpaar vor Augen führt: Das Fotografinnen- Duo Lake Verea hat in der Josef and Anni Albers Foundation den materiellen und gedanklichen Spuren der künstlerischen Schöpfungskraft im Nachlass nachgespürt. Briefwechsel mit Bauhaus-Kollegen, Farbtuben und Stofffasern werden dabei in außergewöhnlicher Haptik und Lebendigkeit erfasst. Das Sehen der Gegenstände verleiht der Vorstellungskraft Flügel. Denn unweigerlich sieht man durch die Dinge die beiden Künstler am Werk, die aus diesen Gegenständen, Gesprächen und Gedankengängen ihren ganz eigenen Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts formten.

Fifty years ago, Stefan Zweig, who committed suicide in 1942, was the most widely read and translated living writer in the world. Zweig's Vienna was a world of bright, brittle superficialities, in which the bourgeoisie "gradually elevated the eternal business of seeing and being seen to the purpose of the existence." To break through the facades of this society, Zweig developed a remarkable literary and psychological method. In The World of Yesterday's Humanist Today, thirty scholars of history, literature, and music share their studies of Zweig and their insight into his works.

France (1837) was the third volume published in Cooper's Gleanings in Europe series, but first in the chronology of his European experience. Less sequential than his other travel narratives, France distills his impressions of French and European culture during his first two years abroad. Exhibiting many qualities of the familiar essay, it considers a wide range of topics of interest to Cooper, his friends, and potential readers in the United States. As a celebrity thoroughly at home in the brilliant society of Bourbon Paris, Cooper was able to provide fascinating glimpses of personalities, spectacles, institutions, and manners--from his distinctly American perspective. Indeed, as Professor Philbrick remarks, "No other of Cooper's works, perhaps, brings us closer to his speaking voice or puts us more directly in contact with the man himself, with all his idiosyncratic preoccupations, his quick resentments, his restless curiosity, his surprising humor, and his nobility of principle." The reader of this edition is brought even closer to Cooper in the draft of a hitherto unpublished letter, probably intended for this book, which illustrates Cooper's grasp of the still finer points of French customs and attitudes.

'Global Monitoring Report 2008', the fifth in an annual series, is essential reading for those who wish to follow the global development agenda and debate in 2008. The year marks the midpoint toward the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is also an important year to work toward a consensus on how the world is going to respond to the challenge of climate change, building on the foundation laid at the Bali climate change conference in December 2007. The report spans this agenda. It provides a comprehensive assessment of progress toward the MDGs and related policies and actions. It addresses the challenge of climate change and environmental sustainability and assesses its implications for development. The report's assessment of MDGs at midpoint presents a mixed picture, one of both significant progress and formidable challenges. The first MDG, reducing extreme poverty by half, is likely to be met at the global level, thanks to a remarkable surge in global economic growth over the past decade. But, on current trends, the human development MDGs are unlikely to be met. Prospects are gravest for the goals of reducing child and maternal mortality, but shortfalls are also likely in the primary school completion. nutrition, and sanitation MDGs. The potential effects of climate change compound the challenge of achieving the development goals and sustaining progress. The report's messages are clear: urgent action is needed to help the world get back on track to achieve the MDGs; and urgent action is also needed to combat climate change that threatens the well-being of all countries, but particularly of poor countries and poor people. The goals of development and environmental sustainability are closely related, and the paths to those goals have important synergies.

People interested in architecture evolution will find in this book an opportunity to verify the advances and transformations that have occurred in this area, based on a compromise between form and function, between aesthetics and pragmatic judgement, which accepts scientific truth only in function of practical application, but in the other hand, in the search of harmonic balance between both tendencies.