We are proud to announce that two of our titles successfully participated in this years Architectural Book Competition by the German Architecture Museum DAM: "The Joinery Compendium. Learning from Traditional Woodworking" received is among the 10 books that received a DAM Architectural Book Award. The book has now received double honors, having previously been awarded by the Stiftung Buchkunst for being one of Germany's most beautiful books. "Lacaton & Vassal, It's Nice Today: On Climate, Comfort, and Pleasure" has been selected as one of the 20 best architecture books 2025 and has thus made it onto the shortlist of this year’s DAM Architectural Book Award.

In our latest release – "Cairo's Plaster Casts" – architect, designer and photographer Luc Merx gives us an insight into the world of stucco workshops in Cairo. When Merx discovered the stucco workshops in Cairo he felt as if „diving into the eighteenth-century Rome of Giovanni Battista Piranesi...."

Typology, as a structured way of generating knowledge, serves both as a tool for unpacking complexity and as a means for imagining new realities. What if we stopped seeing typological systems as fixed rules for building the future—and instead viewed them as frameworks that challenge and reshape how we perceive and relate to both the natural and built environments?

The Joinery Compendium was awarded by the Stiftung Buchkunst as one of the Most Beautiful German Books. Around 600 entries competed for the awards this year. Two Juries selected 5 books in each of 5 categories. Our "Joinery Compendium" was awarded in the catagory Specialist Books/Scientific Books/Textbooks. Here is the jury statement:

Check out the postcard leporello from the Latvian Pavilion at the Architecture Biennial in Venice 2025, curated by Ilka Ruby and Liene Jakobsone. It collects photographs by Reinis Hofmanis from the so-called “Borderland” – a two kilometer wide strip along the Latvian border to Russia and Belarus. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, this territory can now only be entered with a special permit. The photos document the encounter between nature, military presence and everyday life on the outermost edge of Europe and give an insight into a landscape that is now part of the new reality of European border politics.

"How to Not Demolish a Building", edited by 51N4E and l'AUC is available again!
Against all odds, the former World Trade Center in the Northern Quarter in Brussels has been reused, in ways previously unimaginable. This publication tells the story of the unlikely journey to obtain the building permit, tracing the events that led to this new lease of life. Starting from the initial dream of dismantling the World Trade Center, it recounts the complex and layered process that shaped the innovative adaptive-reuse project called ZIN.

Our latest publication “THE REAL DEAL – Post-Fossil Construction for Game Changers”, edited by Fabian Hörmann, is available now. The book marks the start of a multimedia project that aims to encourage decision-makers from the real estate, construction industry and politics to make their contribution to the urgently needed change in the construction industry.

"Besser als neu" (Better than New), edited by David Vaner and Ilka Ruby, with texts by Andreas Ruby and Charlotte Bofinger, was awarded by the German Architecture Museum as one of the best architecture books 2023. From the jury statement: "The strikingly small-format volume delivers on what the sub-title promises. Not only is the important and highly complex topic rendered accessible for a broad readership by means of a real-life example, but it is also presented very vividly and in an appealing manner. Especially worthy...

Together with a selected number of Berlin publishers, we participate in the SPINE book market. Come by on Sunday, Sep 17th 12am-6pm to check out our new releases, some older Ruby Press treasures, have a chat and a coffee.
  At 4:30 pm we will celebrate the release of the 2nd edition of Berlin Maps. Authors Sebastian Felix Ernst and Jonas Tratz will tell you about Berlin's extraordinary features: artificial mountains and walled island, underground and enclaves, geology and morphology,... 

Two new titles tell the story of two very different projects – in scale, context, ownership, and prerequisites – that are both dedicated to circularity: "How to not Demolish a Building" is about the adaptive reuse of the World Trade Center in Brussels, two big office towers from the 1970s, that stood empty and were to be demolished. "Besser als neu" (Better than new) explains how a fassade of a fully occupied office building from the 1960s in Basel was refurbished by reusing as much materials as possible and what impact this had on the carbon footprint.

Check out what we are cooking for spring/summer 23, books that are available again and ones that are still available.

Was macht einen Platz aus? Sind Plätze Flächen einer überschaubaren Größe, die von baulichen Platzkanten gefasst werden? Oder entstehen sie durch soziale Interaktionen? Kann die reine Präsenz von Akteuren einen (Platz)raum jenseits baulicher Fassung bilden? Am Beispiel von 25 Orten weltweit analysiert der Plätzchenatlas einen erweiterten Platzbegriff und fasst die Erkenntnisse in Form eines Katalogs zusammen. Und zu jedem Platz gibt es das passende Plätzchen. Zum Nachbacken gibt es zu jedem Buch zwei Ausstechformen aus Metall dazu. Und über einen Download-Link lassen sich...

We celebrated the award for the Best German Book Design 2022 given to the "Chapters" series for its first two issues "Skanderbeg Square Tirana" and "Design in Dialogue". Congratulations to editors Freek Persyn, Charlotte Lao Schmidt, Seppe De Blust, Charlotte Schaeben, all the contributors, and of course to designer Manuela Dechamp /Studio Otamendi.

We are unspeakably sad about the untimely passing of Edward Schwarz. Edi, as he was mostly called, was a marvel of a human being, passionate about his work, extremely generous to others and disarmingly humble about himself, even though he was one of the most hard-working and prolific people we have ever worked with. We were introduced to him by Marc Angélil in 2003 and saw him do his amazing logistical magic at the first Holcim Forum of Sustainable Construction “Basic Needs” in Zurich in 2004, ...

We are honoured that the Chapter series launched by 51N4E with its first two issues Skanderbeg Square Tirana and Design in Dialogue is among the most beautiful books from Germany. Every year, the Stiftung Buchkunst awards a total of 25 books, five each in the categories literature, scientific books, guidebooks, art books, and children's books. Congratulations to all the creators of these beautiful books.

We are happy to be part of MISS READ 2022: The Berlin Art Book Fair will take place on April 29th to May 1st at HKW and will present a wide selection of more than 300 publishers, art periodicals, artists and authors. The fair is accompanied by a series of lectures, discussions, book launches and workshops. Visit us for a chat and flip through our books. Entry is free.

Check out our lates releases: "Everyday Matters" by Vanessa Grossman and Ciro Miguel and "Seven Questions" by Jan De Vylder, Annamaria Prandi /Studio Jan de Vylder. The first describes how the everyday has influenced contemporary approaches to architecture and urbanism. The latter is the result of a series of online lunch lectures at ETH Zurich organized by Atelier Jan de Vylder.

We feel extremely happy and honoured that 'Migrant Marseille', edited by Marc Angélil, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, and Something Fantastic has been awarded an Honorable Appreciation in the international competition "Best Book design from all the World"!

The exhibition "Never Demolish", curated by Ilka Ruby and Andreas Ruby is presented in the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona from Nov 26th to Dec 16th 2021. The installation features the spectacular transformation of 530 dwellings across three high-rise buildings of the Cité du Grand Parc in Bordeaux, for which the architects Lacaton & Vassal, Frédéric Druot, and Christophe Hutin received the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award in 2019.

From Oct 5th to 9th the first transnational virtual book fair takes place. Chiara Dorbolò curated a selection of books dedicated to architecture publishing and its intersection with politics, technology, economy and social issues. Ruby Press is represented with three titles: "Design in Dialogue. 51N4E, Endeavour, Denkstatt" edited by ETH Newrope, "The Materials Book" edited by Ilka Ruby and Andreas Ruby, and "Addis Ababa. A Manifesto on African Progress" edited by Dirk E. Hebel, Felix Heisel, Marta H. Wisniewska, Sophie Nash.

"Migrant Marseille. Architectures of Social Segregation and Urban Inclusivity" by Marc Angélil, Charlotte Malterre-Bartes, and Something Fantastic was selected as one of the most beautiful books in Germany. In the competition launched each year by the Stiftung Buchkunst (Foundation for Book Art) there were 632 titles, out of which a jury of experts awarded 25 books. Migrant Marseille was one of the five books chosen in the category „academic books“. Other categories were “literature,” “art books,” „guidebooks,“ and “children’s books.”

"Berlin Maps" by Sebastian Felix Ernst and Jonas Tratz/FAKT and "Migrant Marseille" by Marc Angélil, Charlotte Malterre-Bartes, and Something Fantastic are on the longlist for Germany's most beautiful books. Out of 632 books submitted, the jury selected 182. From the longlist, 5 titles will be selected for each of the categories general literature, scientific books, non-fiction and guidebooks, art books, and children's books to be Germany's most beautiful books. The official release of the award winners...

We will release four new titles this spring: Berlin Maps is an atlas of the special, strange, or undiscovered phenomena of the German capital: artificial mountains, escape tunnels, enclaves, moors, and much more. Everyday Matters chronicles how the everyday has influenced both the practical and theoretical domains of architecture and urbanism. In Design in Dialogue 51N4E, Denkstatt, and endeavour advocate openness and dialogue in the design process. And finally It is nice today by Lacaton & Vassal on the thermal performance of winter gardens in architecture

When we think of Marseille and Architecture, we inevitably think of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, the famous and prototypical case study project for modernist housing of the 20th century. This book focuses on the much less known Grands Ensembles that were built in Marseille in the aftermath of the Unité. Larger in scale but arguably less ambitious in their design and program, these housing precincts were meant to supply the demand for new affordable homes.