Decorating books could be divided between the ones that instruct, and the ones that display. Terence Conran began a different way of discussing how people live in spaces, and AT has been different in that it shows how people live in apartments -- which aren't just small spaces. They are, by definition, smaller parts of a whole space -- a building, a street, a neighborhood, a city. AT led the way for thinking about functional living in apartments - and the entire line of 'landing strip' furniture now available would seem to be their doing.
This book, Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces, unfortunately, doesn't do that -- it shows little snippets and still lifes organized by room (bed, bath, living, etc.) without showing floorplans, and entire spaces. (With the possible exception of the G-R storage space outside the door to their apartment which mentions how they keep the space neat in deference to their neighbors.)Its more decorating porn than erotica: it shows you what someone else does, with no way to draw on those ideas -- rather than excite your own senses about what's possible for you and your space.
For example, the old Gillingham-Ryan pad (as shown in "Apartment Therapy Presents: Real Homes, Real People, Hundreds of Design Solutions") was an object lesson in so many ways: rethink materials for their function, not purpose; expand one area (kitchen) and minimize another (lr) - but together, the sum is greater than the parts. In the bedroom, you need a place to sleep, and a place to store things -- but you don't necessarily need space to walk around.
It's unfortunate -- for all that AT has to say about living in (relatively) small spaces that this book misses the point. Much of what it DOES offer is said elsewhere, and often: get rid of clutter (your stuff)/hide wires/ light colors expand and dark colors. Really: do we need a book to tell us that mirrors can enlarge space?
It's too bad, because, for me, the previous book is a bible: it shows complete apartments, describes who lives there, shows floor plans, etc. The Small Cool contest as shown on AT's website did that, as well. But this book is like too many others: great photos filling lots of pages, and little more.