6 books on design not to be missed in March 2023

• Piero Portaluppi, curated by Piero Maranghi (Skira, 85.50 euros)

An extensive monograph on the great Milanese master, protagonist of 20th-century Italian architecture.

To Piero Portaluppi, designer in the 1920s and 1930s of hydroelectric plants but also of elegant villas and palaces for the upper middle class that changed the face of Milan, together the volume published by Skira produced in collaboration with the Piero Portaluppi Foundation is dedicated to other of his great works.

An eclectic figure, Portaluppi was not only an architect, but also a cartoonist, traveller, collector, puzzler, cinematographer, and much more and this work tries to retrace them all, including a large photographic album with new color images of the architecture and interiors of Portaluppi, taken by Ciro Frank Schiappa.

In addition, the volume collects three unpublished essays, illustrated with vintage photographs by Antonio Paoletti, project perspectives and models, cartoons, diagrams, postcards and clippings, which tell the personal passions of the architect.

The volume is completed by an interview by the director Luca Guadagnino with the architect Piero Castellini, nephew of Piero Portaluppi and an unpublished essay by Paolo Portuguese.

• Awe belongs to everyone by Luca Molinari (Einaudi, 14 euros).

The freshly printed book by the critic and historian of architecture Luca Molinari is entirely dedicated to the very special emotion of marvel.

A sentiment that has always been linked in art and literature to what landscapes, monuments and architecture arouse.

And it is precisely the wonder, today, which according to the author can become the engine to start forms of care in a rapidly changing world. In these pages, Luca Molinari thus offers the reader a reflection on the idea and importance of collective spaces as forms of care for the city and the landscape.

• Angelo Mangiarotti. When structures take shape (Electa)

The Electa volume dedicated to Angelo Mangiarotti completes the itinerary of the exhibition underway (until April 23) at the Milan Triennale.

A journey along sixty years of the architect, designer and sculptor's career with a wide selection of unpublished works, projects, documents and materials, together with essays and testimonials from designers, intellectuals and his collaborators such as Francesca Albani, Giulio Barazzetta, Luisa Bocchietto, Enrico Bona, François Burkhardt, Beppe Finessi, Martino Gamper, Franz Graf, Motomi Kawakami, Tullia Iori, Fulvio Irace, Valentina Marchetti, Luca Pietro Nicoletti, Renzo Piano, Marco Ragone, Marco Sammicheli, Toshihiko Suzuki and Alberto Vintani.

A precious book to remember the journey of an eclectic and curious architect and designer who, since the 1950s, has been able to combine a training as a humanist and intellectual with a technical and experimental one, always attentive to materials and animated by continuous research.

• Book 1 by Stefania Agostini and Luca Mostarda (pencil edition).

The book by the founders of AMA Architectrue tells through the illustrations of the artist Catherine Cordasco how environments such as the cinema, the train, the school corridor, the bus, the living room or the playground from the eighties to today.

This is the first release of the series of silent books for children created by a new publishing house, Pencil, illustrated by artists and architects.

Books without text,but not without history, suitable for children aged 3 to 6 years offering a range of illustrations of architecture, landscapes, urban centers and buildings. To begin to orient yourself in beauty.

• Alcantara. The matter of art curated by Luca Masia (Skira, 50 euros).

Not a simple business story but the story of a very strong bond between a manufacturer of a unique fiber, born from a Japanese patent, with designers and creatives from all over the world who have been able to decline its use in interiors as in 'art.

A book that is also a gallery of the main products of Alcantara S.p.A, a company founded in 1972 and today present in Milan and in its headquarters in < strong>Terni, in the heart of Umbria.