Anouska Hempel - Tapa dura

"A lush monograph just out from Rizzoli, with text by Marcus Binney. . . [Anouska Hempel] features a number of projects Hempel has done over the years, beginning with Blakes hotel in London, the project that launched her design career more than 40 years ago. A bold design statement, the hotel also became a social phenomenon." -Vanity Fair

"If anyone could turn the stuffy, staid tassel into a totem of cool, it's Anouska Hempel, also known as Lady Weinberg. . . . Perhaps my favorite examples, though - spied in a new monograph of her work ([from] Rizzoli) - are at the Blakes Hotel in London, which opened in 1978 and is regarded as one of the world's first boutique hotels." -Wall Street Journal

"A new monograph on her work attempts to decode her complex style. A chapter on Hempel's inspirations cites everything from 'Water' and 'Masculinity' to 'Thailand and Color.' What makes this approach difficult is also what makes the book visually interesting -- Hempel's astonishing range, from the dark and moody neo-Classicism of Blakes, considered by many to be the first boutique hotel when it opened in 1978, to the stark whiteness of the Hempel, a row of townhouses near Hyde Park transformed into a shrine to minimalism in 1997." -New York Times Magazine

"This tome gives an in-depth look at how the London-based talent layers her evocative spaces with historical details, rich textures, and saturated tones." -Architectural Digest

"Whether her interiors are opulent and layered or pared down and sleek, Anouska Hempel leaves her unmistakable signature on every residence, hotel and boutique she designs." -Sotheby's

"At the risk of stating the obvious, decorating a hotel or other public space is very different from decorating a home. It takes some serious design chops to straddle both worlds and especially to do so in a way that feels authentic." -Martha Stewart Living

"The gorgeous images allow the reader to step into the luxurious spaces that she creates and see first-hand her signature style that combines magnificence with comfort and livability." -Bill Stubbs' Blog

"If you tend to swoon over formal English gardens (like we do), exploring the grounds of designer Anouska Hempel's Cole Park estate is like entering into a fantasy. . . . In her new self-titled book, Hempel illustrates her envy-inducing green thumb in ways that are achievable in any garden." -Lonny.com

"Architecture historian Marcus Binney takes us inside the world of celebrated designer Anouska Hempel and her sources of inspiration. Photographs of Hempel's own homes -- Cole Park, the stately country home where she lives with her husband Sir Mark Weinberg along with her sophisticated London abode on Addison Road -- mixed with photographs of some of the luxurious interiors she created for hotels like Blakes Amsterdam and The Hempel helps readers appreciate her style and understated extravagance." -Blouin Lifestyle

"From architecture and furniture to landscape, products and fashion, Anouska Hempel has an insatiable thirst and talent for every aspect of design." -Quintessence.com

"If I were an up-and-coming interior designer, I would inhale every page to understand how Anouska breaks paradigms with her particular work process and her visual inspirations that are often unconventional and improbable, yet thoroughly impressive." -ZavviRodaine.com

There has never been a designer quite like Anouska Hempel. With the sheer creativity of her work, its originality, its awe-inspiring ambition – and its lasting influence - few contemporary designers approach her importance.  This book is a first: it is both a breathtaking exploration of her achievement; and an authoritative insight into how this entirely original designer works.
 
Author Marcus Binney is one of the most internationally renowned writers on architecture and design. In interviews and in ravishing illustrated essays, he throws light on an astonishing process. Hempel’s work, which spans two Blakes hotels in London and Amsterdam; the minimalist Hempel in London and Warapura in Brazil; private houses, from the incomparable English country house, Cole Park, to properties across the globe; the iconic Turkish gulet Beluga, with its black sails caught in the sunset; and her garden designs....all are design elements interlinked. All come together in one extraordinary designer.