No-one loves a manifesto more than an architect.
Here are some of the best world changing essays, articles and manifestos that by the end will make you a better architect.
click titles to open up their descriptions
Essays
Playgrounds and Bombsites: Postwar Britain’s Ruined Landscapes- Ben Highmore
Highmore excellently uncovers the life of children
Between City and Desert- Manuel Herz and Eyal Weizman
The Jewish eruv tiptoes the line of what constitutes as home. It also brings up the more confusing question for local councils, does a piece of string need planning permission? Herz and Weizman talk us through the history of ‘home’ for Jewish people and how it has directly affected their interpretation of architecture and home.
Being at home: space for belonging in a London caff- Suzanne Hall
The London caff is an institution of greasy grub and interesting characters. Hall delves into how the unique spatial dimensions of a caff can create belonging, understanding and family; asking what does it mean to be a regular?
Essay: The map of four kisses- Nuar Alsadir
From the Poetry Society, Alsadir uncovers the erotic in writing. Dancing through Sontag, Barthes, Derrida with ease in a stream of consciousness style, she come to revelations such as “you situate yourself in space and time, which situates your reader in space and time, lets you have a body, lets them have a body, and, within it, the capacity to experience erotically.”
Manifestos
Wages Against Housework- Silvia Federici
Published in 1975, Federici calls out the subjugation of women by the domestic sphere. Still revolutionary today, she argues that women are essentially unpaid slaves being forced to undertake all domestic tasks with no compensation. As architects it is important to understand how our work contributes to inequalities, and how we can design differently.
“To be modern is not a fashion, it is a state. It is necessary to understand history, and he who understands history knows how to find continuity between that which was, that which is, and that which will be.”
-Le Corbusier
Toward an Architecture- Le Corbusier
The architectural manifesto.
The Athens Charter- Le Corbusier
Inspired by the CIAM 1933 meeting, Corbusier revealed his vision of post war urban development.
Programme of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar- Walter Gropius
Thank you for reading!
For more must read literature for architects, head over to my ultimate booklist which has every book a architect needs on their bookshelf.
