This book appeared on the occasion of the fourth International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, the theme of which – the open city – was designed to focus attention on community life in today’s rapidly changing cities. The book consists of two main parts: essays by authors from a range of disciplines and a presentation of projects and designs. For this major commission, designers Armand Mevis and Linda van Deursen gave a number of master’s students at the Werkplaats Typografie (Typography Workshop) in Arnhem the task of creating their own individual sections on the basis of a set of instructions, such as the font that they were allowed to use in three sizes.

Despite the freedom that this gave the students, the book emerges as a single whole with its largely pale yellow printed sheet pages. At the same time the different ways in which text and images have been handled make for an agreeable variety. However complex the city and its community may have become, the book looks both attractive and accessible. The dust jacket, a coarsely screened colour photo of a city scene, returns inside the book as a divider between the various parts and themes.

Honourable mention, Best Book Design from all over the World, Leipzig 2010