It’s British summertime—which for many means taking some time to quickly get away. Whether you are going to the seaside, hiking in the mountains or visiting a big city. Here’s a (hefty) list of the season’s best new design books you should take with you..

The Architecture of Bathing: Body, Landscape, Art by Christie Pearson

From ancient Greece’s open-air showers for men and western India’s storied Stepwells to Álvaro Siza’s salt-water pools in Porto and Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s conceptual Blur building, this intimately personal yet exhaustively researched book hones in on the enduring relationships between the built form and our bodies, and between public rituals and social order.

Kuma by Philip Jodidio

An authorative new book chronicling the oeuvre of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, with over 430 pages featuring 500 photographs, drawings, illustrations and more that vividly capture career-defining works from the Great (Bamboo) Wall House in Beijing to the more recent Exchange building in Sydney and the Japan National Stadium designed for the Olympic games. 

Contemporary House India by Rob Gregory

In this eye-catching volume, photographer Edmund Sumner and architect Rob Gregory come together to explore modern architecture in India. Separated into four chapters — Urban Living, Remote Villas, New Settlements, and Improvisations — Contemporary House India delves into India’s thriving residential architecture scene.

Opening on an interview with Pritzker winner Balkrishna Doshi, the first Indian architect to be awarded the prize in 2018, the tome’s projects range in context from India’s rural plains to dense urban centres.

Basic Art Series Books by Various Authors

Look at these beauties! We have six amazing books in the Basic Art Series: Warhol, Gauguin, Degas, Renoir, Monet, and a collection of Pop Art featuring works from a selection of artists from the movement. Take your pick on your travels..

Art as Therapy

There is widespread agreement that art is “very important” but it can be remarkably hard to say exactly why. Yet if art is to enjoy its privileges, it has to be able to demonstrate its relevance in understandable ways to the widest possible audience.

The purpose of this Art as Therapy is to introduce a new method of interpreting art: art as a form of therapy. The authors propose that certain artworks provide powerful solutions to our problems.

What Artists Wear, Charlie Porter

In What Artists Wear Charlie Porter takes a witty look at the iconic outfits worn by artists in the studio, on stage, at work, at home and at play.

From Yves Klein's spotless tailoring to the kaleidoscopic costumes of Yayoi Kusama and Cindy Sherman; from Andy Warhol's signature denim to Charlotte Prodger's casualwear, Porter's roving eye picks out the magical, revealing details in the clothes he encounters.

It’s essential style inspiration for your summer outfits.

Yellowface, R.F. Kuang

R.F. Kuang, author of award-winning book Babel, takes on the topics of racism and cultural appropriation in her new novel.

The story centers around an author who takes another’s work on the contributions of Chinese laborers and publishes it under a pseudonym and racially ambiguous author photo.

Where Art Belongs, Chris Kraus

In her book Where Art Belongs , writer and filmmaker Chris Kraus talks about the use of time as material for art making. Kraus is most known for her musings on the life of the artist, namely what it means to be a creator and thinker and a social being in the world simultaneously.