Human space, our edition of O.F. Bollnow’s Mensch und Raum, is at last finished. We signed the contract with the publishers of the originating edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, in December 2005! Apart from the work of translating the text, making this edition proved to be a demanding task, with a whole set of knotty editorial problems to be resolved. But we are pleased with the final result. Our translation, by Christine Shuttleworth, aims for an ordinary, jargon-free text. So too, Joseph Kohlmaier’s afterword goes to the heart of the book’s present status, opening it up to a wide audience, and passing beyond the specialists who may lay claim to it.

We are pleased too with the book as a physical object. Printed by DeckersSnoeck in Antwerp, and designed and typeset by Shoko Mugikura, with Joseph Kohlmaier, at Polimekanos in London, the book sits within our small-format paperback series, playing some variations on methods of construction we have used before.

The binding – by Binderij Hexspoor – is Otabind, the book block made up of sections of 16 pages, thread-sewn and cold-glued. A jacket (grey paper) is drawn on to a blue cover-sheet.