From the spare, blond wood dining set and blank pale walls of a home in Stockholm to the nearly bare, blue-tinged spaces of a Madrid apartment, the eating areas in Daab's most recent compact design book exude a clean, almost chilly elegance. Like its predecessors in the series (New Furniture Design
, New Home Office Design
, New Indoor Pool Design
, etc.), this volume is small (6½"×7/"), slick and dedicated to showcasing new talent—in this case, projects by nearly 40 design firms from around the world—working on contemporary architectural and decorating trends. It's also nearly devoid of text: a single opening paragraph (printed in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian) describes how today's dining rooms often bleed into living spaces, since "[i]nterior areas designed in this way are open and create large spaces, which promote social interaction." One imagines that social interaction as being of a certain rarefied sort: champagne glasses may belong in these spaces, say, but sippy cups do not. Nor do pillows, picture frames or paisley curtains—these rooms are all stark lines, bright colors and clean surfaces nearly devoid of accessory or ornament. In other words, they are striking, bold and gorgeous—but sterile in their beauty. (Mar.)
