Books

by Herbert Ypma

New York: Thames & Hudson, $65

256 pages, 550 illustrations (400 color)

French interior designer Christian Liaigre's signature taste for minimal lines, neutral colors, and luxurious materials, particularly dark woods, is evident throughout this handsome book. Images clearly dominate text, but who would want it otherwise? Eight residential projects appear in a satisfying amount of detail, among them a family retreat on the Galician coast, a Bavarian farmhouse, an artist's studio in Paris, a New York loft for Rupert Murdoch, and Liaigre's own summer house on the Ile de Ré, off the west coast of France. Though every design is clearly Liaigre's, each maintains an individual personality. Things turn a bit commercial in the final section, essentially a 20-page catalog of his furniture. But that, too, is very attractive.

Thomas O'Brien

Founder of Aero Studios in New York

Auguste Perret

by Karla Britton

New York: Phaidon Press, $70

256 pages, 250 illustrations (90 color)

"What I found most interesting was the use of reinforced concrete as a design element," O'Brien says of this monograph on French architect Auguste Perret, who lived from 1874 to 1954, building apartment blocks in Paris and the church of Notre-Dame in Le Raincy, France. "His choice of aggregate—either rough or smooth in finish—created such a sensual, textural feel. It's incredible that these works of art were essentially the product of a family business."