Doing Almost Nothing

This book reflects very well a magnificent blend of virtues that the two big names posses, namely Marc Treib and Georges Descombes.

The title Doing Almost Nothing itself inhabits the life-long professional credo of Georges Descombes and Treib’s ability to immediately find the essence of a complex design work with an acupunctural precision. The inside of the book is no less. As Treib himself notes, there has been a dearth of published material about Descombes. This book finally accomplishes to make a section through the 4 decades of projects by Descombes.

From redesigning Jean-Luc Godard’s studio in the 70′ to the more recent Renaturalisation of the River Aire, the book is a comprehensive monograph of Descombes’ approach to the design of landscape.

Treib in a remarkable way firmly anchors the landscapes of Georges Descombes on the international map of well known and stable coordinates, such as Richard Serra, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Robert Irwin, Peter Walker, Louis Kahn, Carlo Scarpa, Alvar Aalto etc. Of those, Treib showcases a series of beautiful photos, he has taken throughout the years. Combined with Descombes’ drawings, photos of models and other graphics, the book is also a 240 pages long eye-candy.

We highly recommend!