January 27, 2011

Vintage Movable Review: Stairs





Back in 1981, an architect from Amsterdam created a sparse pop-up book called Stairs. Rein Jansma, trained as an artist and set designer, and studied biology before heading into the world of architecture. His contemplations on stepped structures sit quietly on the page and the designs seemed to draw inspiration from his varied background.


Produced by Joost Elffers Books in New York and assembled in Singapore, Stairs must have been a refreshing change of pace from the other more colorful or explosive pop-up books of that era. While it is more likely to find this title on an architect’s shelf (which I did) then a child’s room, this it one book that I like to come back to every once in awhile and thumb through in search of transendance.


~Kyle

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