The W* Library: flick through December’s new titles

Norman Bel Geddes Designs America
Edited by Donald Albrecht

This comprehensive catalogue explores the life and work of Norman Bel Geddes, a prolific and eclectic industrial designer who set the template for his profession. Bel Geddes' pioneering achievement was the GM Futurama pavilion at the 1939-40 World's Fair, a vast animated panorama of a prosperous, techno-filled future that helped cement the ambition and drive of the post-war American dream. Bel Geddes began his career as a theatre designer and he never lost the love of the spectacle. Able to turn his hand to anything from automobiles to window displays, he also shaped American war games at the dawn of the Cold War.

Published by Abrams (opens in new tab), £40

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Eugène Vernier: Fashion, Femininity & Form
Essays by Robin Muir and Becky E. Conekin

The first book to cover the life and work of photographer Eugène Vernier, the subtitle 'fashion, femininity & form' tells you all you need to know about the milieu of this mid-century fashion specialist. Contracted to Vogue during the 50s and 60s, Vernier was the last of the old school era, working alongside Beaton and Parkinson and foreshadowing the strident new world of Bailey, Donovan and Shrimpton (who he was first to photograph). Richly illustrated with covers, spreads and behind-the-scenes shots, this is an insight into the ways of high fashion half a century ago.

Published by Hirmer Publishers, £39.95, www.hirmerverlag.de (opens in new tab)

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Long Island Modernism 1930-1980
By Caroline Rob Zaleski

Few periods of architectural history can claim to be as fertile as the flowering of residential architecture on the east and west coast of the US at the height of International Modernism. California usually cops most of the credit, but great things were happening out east, as well. Long Island Modernism looks at many of the major works completed in this era, including houses, churches, stores and offices by Marcel Breuer, Edward Durell Stone, Richard Neutra, Philip Johnson, John Johansen, Richard Meier, Paul Rudolph, Frank Lloyd Wright and many more.

Published by W.W. Norton & Co. (opens in new tab), £55

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Le Corbusier Redrawn: The Houses
By Steven Park

One for the true architectural fetishist, Steven Park's painstaking project has been to plot, plan, section and render twenty-two of Le Corbusier's residential masterpieces. Each house has been reduced to a crisply delineated diagram, lightly coloured and shaded to add depth and space. To the uninitiated, 200-plus pages of plans, sections and axonometrics might seem rather dense, but floorplan fans will be in their element as they traverse the master's spatial gymnastics.

Published by Princeton Architectural Press (opens in new tab), £15.99

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Colossal: Engineering the Suez Canal, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and Panama Canal
By Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby

More of a social history than a straightforward tale of engineering derring-do, Colossal looks at the life and work of the men who shaped some of the major structures of the Victorian era, and the role of the engineer in all walks of life, as well as the interconnected nature of these projects (Eiffel's structure underpinned Bartholdi's giant Liberty, while the French engineer also drew immense fees for France's abortive work on the Panama canal, which in turn were ploughed into the tower in Paris). Everything is connected.

Published by Periscope Publishing (opens in new tab) and distributed by Prestel Publishing (opens in new tab), £45

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Kengo Kuma: Complete Works
By Kenneth Frampton

Of all contemporary Japanese architects, Kengo Kuma is hardest to associate with any one material. Instead, the fifty-eight year old architect is adept at transforming a multitude of building materials and structural systems, exploiting each for the job in hand. A typical Kuma project might be predominantly composed from glass, timber, thatch, steel, concrete, stone, bamboo, or even clay. Kenneth Frampton, perhaps the world's most distinguished architectural historian, provides the theoretical framework while Kuma describes his complete oeuvre in detail.

Published by Thames & Hudson (opens in new tab), £39.95

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Thanks for the View, Mr Mies
Edited by Danielle Aubert, Lana Cavar, Natasha Chandani

This forensic overview of Detroit's Lafayette Park looks at the legacy of Mies van der Rohe's expansive housing projects. Less well known than his pristine towers at Lakeshore Drive, the Lafayette Park buildings exhibited the German architect's characteristic rigour but have enjoyed a long life with rather less exacting occupants. Thanks for the View looks at the history, surroundings and shifting perception of these icy slices of modernism, examining how some inhabitants have stepped up their game to live in period perfect surroundings, while others are just happy to have a building that works. A quirky, unconventional and intriguing monograph.

Published by Metropolis Books (opens in new tab), £21.95

Writer: Jonathan Bell