Gardens of the republic, set in the margins.

Kerber Verlag came with an argument in need of a book: that Portugal's public gardens — from the Jardim da Estrela in Lisbon to the Parque de Serralves in Porto — were one of the country's most under-examined civic inheritances. They had 340 pages of text from the architectural historian João Rodeia, 180 photographs commissioned from the studio Pedro Sadio, and a question: how do you make a book that rewards an hour of reading?

The answer was restraint. One typeface, Karmina, set at 10.5pt on 14pt leading — generous but not indulgent. Two colours: black and a warm green specified against a specific leaf in the photographer's ninth image. A single paper stock — uncoated, 120gsm — so the book feels the same in your hand on page 3 as it does on page 323. Nothing else.

The photographs live in the margins, deliberately small, because the gardens themselves are bigger than any photograph can contain. The index, set at the back in two columns of 9pt, is forty pages long. The book takes a week to read and about a month to forget.