âDid you come out of personal conviction or are you from Germany?â was the question German Jews were asked when they arrived in Palestine in 1933. Few came out of conviction. The majority of 60,000 German Jews who took refuge in the then British mandate came because they had no other option. Palestine was not the land of their dreams, but rather a place of asylum where one would have to start life anew. Doctors became bus-drivers, lawyers raised chickens, and artists worked as waiters. For the young however, immigration to Palestine was a great adventure, the beginning of a new life free from old conventions and sometimes the beginning as well of a life or death battle.  Gad Granach still went by Gerhard when he arrived at Haifa Harbor in 1936 at the age of 21. The son of a famous actor, he encountered a land of neither milk nor honey, and took part in five major wars and a number of smaller ones, wishing all the while that that God would âchooseâ another people and leave the Jews in peace.

Where Is Home? Stories from the Life of a German-Jewish Emigre

Biographies & Memoirs

Granach, Gad

Historical

Atara Press

Since he followed it all of his life, Richard Neutra (1892-1970) must have relished the maxim of the Greek philosopher Socrates: "The unexamined life is not worth living." In his books, articles, lectures, correspondence, and even casual conversations, Neutra constantly examined, not only his own life, but the lives of others - present and past - and the human and natural world they inhabited. Nowhere was this truer than in his autobiography "Life and Shape", first published in 1962, which now, after years of being out of print, has again happily come back to life. 
 As opposed to "Survival Through Design" (1954), his superb collection of densely philosophical essays, Neutra took a different tack in "Life and Shape", following a lighter and more deliberately relaxed approach. It was as if the usually serious and intense Neutra was giving himself permission to reveal his richly ironic sense of humor and to probe areas in his personal experience which he had not examined as closely before. These included hitherto unrecorded memories of his parents, siblings, and his childhood and education in imperial Vienna, his numbing experiences as an Austrian artillery officer in World War I, and the beginnings of his architectural consciousness in his response to the work of Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Erich Mendelsohn, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright. 
 As in the autobiographies of Sullivan and Wright, "Life and Shape" concentrates on Neutra's earlier years, both in Europe and America. While he naturally recounts his memories of such well-known commissions as the Lovell Health House (1929), his own Van der Leeuw Research House (1933) and the von Sternberg House (1935), he also muses on such less famous buildings as the small, and now virtually forgotten, Mosk House (1933). "Life and Shape" also confirms Neutra's obsession with the passage of time and his firm resolution never to waste it. 
 Like Sullivan and Wright, Neutra eschewed writing a factual chronicle, and - at the age of 70 - composed instead a meditation on the aspects of his life and work that seemed, in retrospect, to be the most interesting and significant. He felt no need to try to "include everything" but rather to present an honest recounting of his memory of his life. In writing my own "Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture" [Oxford University Press, 1982; Rizzoli Press, 2006], I relied on "Life and Shape" when I wanted an account of Neutra's experiences told in his own authentic voice. For future generations of architects, historians, and readers, it is good to have it back. 
 - Thomas S. Hines, UCLA Professor Emeritus of History and Architecture

Life and Shape: The Autobiography of Richard Neutra

Richard Neutra

Arts & Literature

A seminal early text on lenticular and holographic imaging, Takanori Okoshi's "Three-Dimensional Imaging Techniques" provides analysis and insights into the fundamentals of 3-D perception and the creation of 3-D imagery as well as a history of its technological development.

Three-Dimensional Imaging Techniques

Science & Math

Ōkoshi, Takanori

Physics

Alexander Granach was born in 1893 in Werbowitz, a small village on the easternmost rim of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and would become one of Germany's most successful actors of both the stage and early cinema during the Weimar Republic. He appeared in seminal German expressionist cinema classics, most notably "Nosferatu" and, later in Hollywood, had supporting roles in films with Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy, and Ingrid Bergman. "There Goes a Mensch" is his early life memoir, a work that has found lasting resonance and continued success over many editions in Germany since its initial publication in 1945. Written in Los Angeles under wartime curfew for German emigres, Granach recounts the first half of a life that took him from remote Jewish shtetls in Galicia to the most renown acting school in Berlin, where he began his rise to theatrical prominence and became known as the ¿Koenig der Ostjuden¿ (King of the Eastern Jews). The Great War would intervene and he survives the Italian front, war captivity, and an escape across the Alps before returning to the stage. Steeped in Weimar Berlin's dyna­mic artistic circles, Granach was a friend to and colleague of many of the great writers, directors, and actors of the period. Lion Feuchtwanger called him ¿the most expressionistic of all the expressionist-era actors¿ and others referred to him as a primordial force of nature. Finally available with numerous photos, this edition strives to maintain the Granach legacy, a work that Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann urged him to complete, providing both a self-portrait and a portrait of the eras and milieus that shaped him.

There Goes a Mensch: A Memoir

Granach, Alexander

Architektur kann inspirierend und einnehmend sein, sie kann sogar im Sinne Goethes »das Leben steigern«. Wie kommt es aber, dass architektonische Entwürfe am Zeichentisch oder am Computer-Bildschirm zwar meist recht gut aussehen, in der gebauten Realität jedoch oft enttäuschen? Die Antwort hierfür, behauptet Juhani Pallasmaa, findet sich in der Vorherrschaft des Visuellen, die alle Bereiche von Technologie- und Konsumkultur umfasst und so auch in die Architekturpraxis und -lehre Einzug gehalten hat. Während unsere Erfahrung der Welt auf der Kombination aller fünf Sinne beruht, berücksichtigt die Mehrheit der heute realisierten Architektur gerade mal einen – den Sehsinn. Die Unterdrückung der anderen Erfahrungsbereiche hat unsere Umwelt sinnlich verarmen lassen und ruft Gefühle von Distanz und Entfremdung hervor. Erstmalig 1996 (in englischer Sprache) veröffentlicht, ist Die Augen der Haut inzwischen zu einem Klassiker der Architekturtheorie geworden, der weltweit zur Pflichtlektüre an den Architekturhochschulen gehört. Das Buch besteht aus zwei Essays. Der erste gibt einen Überblick über die Entwicklung des okularzentrischen Paradigmas in der westlichen Kultur seit der griechischen Antike sowie über dessen Einfluss auf unsere Welterfahrung und die Eigenschaften der Architektur. Der zweite Essay untersucht, welche Rolle die übrigen Sinne bei authentischen Architekturerfahrungen spielen, und weist einen Weg in Richtung einer multisensorischen Architektur, welche ein Gefühl von Zugehörigkeit und Integration ermöglicht. Seit der Erstveröffentlichung des Buchs hat die Rolle des Körpers und der Sinne ein gesteigertes Interesse in der Architekturphilosophie und Architekturlehre erfahren. Die neue, überarbeitete und ergänzte Ausgabe dieses wegweisenden Werks wird nicht nur Architekten und Studenten dazu anregen, eine ganzheitlichere Architektur zu entwerfen, sondern auch die Wahrnehmung des interessierten Laien bereichern. »Seit Architektur – Erlebnis (1959) des dänischen Architekten Steen Eiler Rasmussen hat es keinen derart prägnanten und klar verständlichen Text mehr gegeben, der Studenten und Architekten in diesen kritischen Zeiten dabei helfen kann, eine Architektur des 21. Jahrhunderts zu entwickeln.« –  Steven Holl Juhani Pallasmaa ist einer der angesehensten finnischen Architekten und Architekturtheoretiker. In allen Bereichen seiner theoretischen und gestalterischen Tätigkeit – welche Architektur, Grafik Design, Städteplanung und Ausstellungen umfasst – betont er stets die zentrale Rolle von Identität, Sinneserfahrung und Taktilität.

Die Augen der Haut: Architektur und die Sinne (German Edition)

Politics & Social Sciences

Pallasmaa, Juhani

Philosophy

A childhood memoir of South London during the swinging 1960s and 1970s, miniskirts and the Beatles, but where life was anything but normal. From villains and bent coppers to gun-running in Africa and imprisonment, all brought to a focus by an IRA terrorist assassination plot that punctuated the end of an era. This is the story of small-time scoundrel, Victor Richardson, a character larger than life but smaller than human, seen through the eyes of his son, Martin, who pieces together fragments from the past to present an insightful picture of gangland London at its height, painting an autobiographical account of his father's ill-fated life.

South Croxted: A Memoir

Richardson, Martin

Puesto que la siguió durante toda su vida, Richard Neutra (1892-1970) debía apreciar la máxima de Sócrates, el gran filósofo griego: "una vida sin examen no tiene objeto de vivirla para el hombre". En sus libros, en sus conferencias, incluso en sus conversaciones informales, Neutra reexaminaba constantemente no solo su propia vida, sino también la vida de los demás - presente y pasada - y el mundo, natural y humano, en que habitaban. En ningún otro lugar se hace esto más patente que en "Vida y forma", su autobiografía publicada por primera vez en 1962, y que ahora, tras años de estar descatalogada, ha vuelto felizmente a la vida. A diferencia de "Diseñar para sobrevivir" (1954), su magnífica colección de ensayos, profunda y filosófica, Neutra opta por otro enfoque en "Vida y forma", y adopta un acercamiento más ligero y desenfadado. Parece como si Neutra, normalmente tan serio y vehemente, se diera aquí permiso para mostrar su irónico sentido del humor y para sondear determinadas áreas de su experiencia personal que nunca antes había examinado tan de cerca. Esto incluye recuerdos hasta ese momento no contados de sus padres y hermanos, de su infancia, y de su educación en la Viena imperial, así como de sus duras experiencias como oficial de la artillería austríaca en la Primera Guerra Mundial y de los inicios de su conciencia arquitectónica en respuesta a las obras de Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Erich Mendelsohn, Louis Sullivan y Frank Lloyd Wright. Al igual que las autobiografías de Sullivan y Wright, "Vida y forma" se concentra en los primeros años de Neutra, tanto en Europa como en América. Como es natural relata en sus memorias los encargos más conocidos como la Lovell Health House (1929), su propia Van der Leeuw Research House (1933) y la casa Von Sternberg, pero también se detiene en algunas construcciones mucho menos famosas como la pequeña y casi ignorada casa Mosk (1933). "Vida y forma" también confirma la obsesión de Neutra con el paso del tiempo y su firme resolución de no perderlo nunca. Como Sullivan y Wright, Neutra evita escribir una crónica de los hechos, para proponer más bien, a sus setenta años, una meditación sobre los aspectos de su vida y su trabajo que retrospectivamente le parecen más interesantes y significantes. En vez de "incluirlo todo", prefiere presentar un relato honesto de la memoria de su vida. Al escribir mi propio libro "Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture" (Oxford University Press, 1982; Rizzoli Press, 2006), me basé en "Vida y forma" siempre que necesité presentar las experiencias de Neutra con su auténtica voz. Para las generaciones futuras de arquitectos, historiadores y lectores, es una gran noticia tener este libro disponible de nuevo. - Thomas S. Hines, Profesor emérito de Histora y arquitectura, Universidad de California Los Ángeles

Vida y Forma: Autobiografia de Richard Neutra (Spanish Edition)

Humor & Entertainment

Juhani Pallasmaa

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Books by Atara Press

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Atara Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Where Is Home? Stories from the Life of a German-Jewish Emigre

Life and Shape: The Autobiography of Richard Neutra

Three-Dimensional Imaging Techniques

There Goes a Mensch: A Memoir

Die Augen der Haut: Architektur und die Sinne (German Edition)

South Croxted: A Memoir

Vida y Forma: Autobiografia de Richard Neutra (Spanish Edition)

Die Augen der Haut: Architektur und die Sinne (German Edition)