New Book Published: The Third Realm of Luxury

The Third Ream of Luxury: Connecting Real Places and Imaginary Spaces

A new book edited by Professors Joanne Roberts and John Armitage entitled The Third Realm of Luxury: Connecting Real Places and Imaginary Spaces will be published by Bloomsbury Academic Press on 30th October 2019. 

In a world that is obsessed with luxury, critical luxury studies is a rapidly emerging field. This is the first book to explore the interplay between the real and imaginary realms of luxury, considering the most significant developments in the theories and practices of luxurious places and spaces over the last fifty years.

Providing a critical approach to contemporary interpretations of luxury, the book interrogates the distinction between real places and imaginary spaces. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars, it features a range of case studies which take the reader from the Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge to expressions of sensuality in the 1970s domestic interior, and global conceptions of fine wine and art.

The Third Realm of Luxury considers the interplay between luxury and space in both the past and the present, examining the abstract conception of excess and exoticism, as well as the real locations of the home, hotel, apartment, and palace. Full of original research, it is a key contribution to the study of consumption, design, fashion, and architecture.

Table of contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Notes on Contributors

1 The third realm of luxury: Conceptualizing the connections between real places and imaginary spaces
Joanne Roberts and John Armitage

2 Being luxurious: On the Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge and beyond
John Armitage

3 The architecture of authoritarian luxury
Mark Featherstone

4 Inhabiting luxury spaces
Verena Andermatt Conley

5 A touch of the exotic: Sensuality as luxury in the 1970s' domestic interior
Jo Turney

6 The emptying of the interior: Luxury, space, and the hotel effect in contemporary life
Peter McNeil

7 “The Collective”: Luxury in lounge space
Samuel Austin and Adam Sharr

8 “The third realm of luxury” as I experienced it in the legacies of Getty and the Rockefellers: Elite enclosure, “as far as the eye can see . . .”
George E. Marcus

9 Secret spaces of luxury: Ignorance, free ports, and art
Joanne Roberts

10 Of space and time in California wine
Ian Malcolm Taplin

Notes

References

Index

Reviews
“With originality and insight, this book reveals luxury spaces in a far-reaching discussion of consumer imagination. A must-read for scholars and practitioners!”” –  Annamma Joy, University of British Columbia, Canada

“This tightly edited collection approaches new as well as established forms of luxury. Full of excellent conceptual insights, this brilliant book is indispensable.” –  Véronique Pouillard, University of Oslo, Norway

“Nowadays, luxury plays a relevant role in shaping urban identities, linking international trends and local contexts. The book explores the influence of luxury on the perception of a set of spaces, on the behaviors of their inhabitants and on the transformation of several cities.” –  Mario Paris, Politecnico di Milano, Italy