This year's «best architects» publication pays tribute to classical book art. With painstaking craftsmanship and technical know-how, the traditional book form with curved spine has been reinterpreted in modern and abstract fashion. The binding was developed in Switzerland especially for «best architects 19». Taking advantage of the resulting flowing transition between the front cover, spine and back cover, the title, «XIX», runs across the entire «skin» of the book, which must be examined as a whole in order to discover it.
The string of characters «XIX» not only represents the year of the current edition but also graphically evokes the concept of the binding. Coarse, deep-black linen, likewise newly developed in Switzerland, was used for the cover and then screen-printed with loving attention to detail. The new book is hence an «artwork» that does justice to the «award-winning» content.