All the essential books architects must read in their career.
The Reading List:
Architectural History
Click titles to open up description
Hundertwasser: Architecture- Edited and designed by Angelika Taschen
Oh Hundertwasser, if only you were 70 years younger and not dead, I would of been your number 1 naked groupie. I love this book. It features his architecture alongside his essays, all of which are beautiful. Click here for GoodReads.
The Feeling of Things- Adam Caruso
Caruso walks you through beautiful case studies of the architectural system, with intelligent and insightful critique. Click here for GoodReads.
Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing- John Boughton
An all encompassing epic of Britain’s council housing. From it’s Victorian origins to the Grenfell fire, Boughton uncovers the story of how the dream was born and why it’s faltering. Click here for GoodReads.
Talking to Architects- Colin Ward
The late Colin Ward was a renown anarchist thinker. This collection of his public speeches is a beautiful requiem of his professional work and excellent intro in one of our greatest architectural thinkers. Click here for GoodReads.
Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution- David Harvey
Harvey explores exactly how our cities are at the heart of both capital and class struggles. Why urban space controls our narratives and how we can reorganise them to fight for us. Click here for GoodReads.
Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture- Justin McGuirk
The Latin America guide you need. Uncovering the new ways communities are building their cities for themselves. With radical architects and maverick politicians helping McGuirk shows us a whole new world of living. Click here for GoodReads.
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture- Robert Venturi
I actually don’t like this one but unfortunately, it does have to be read. Click here for GoodReads.
Learning from Las Vegas- Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour
Same as above. This is where you discover I have one way beef with Venturi. Click here for GoodReads.
“No design works unless it embodies ideas that are held common by the people for whom the object is intended.” – Adrian Forty
Forty Ways to Think About Architecture: Architectural history and theory today- Edited by Iain Borden, Murray Fraser, and Barbara Penner
A collection of essays from architectural history experts. Click here for GoodReads.
Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture- Adrian Forty
Forty revolutionised architectural history. The way he talks through even the most complex ideas, leaves you feeling like a genius. Instead of stuffy language, he opens the door to a whole new way of thinking and talking about architecture. Click here for GoodReads.
Objects of Desire: Design and Society 1750-1980- Adrian Forty
Once again, Adrian Forty is remarkable. Read his books and weep that you never got to be taught by him. Click here for GoodReads.
Concrete and Culture: A Material History- Adrian Forty
I’m not joking, you have to read his books. All of them. Click here for GoodReads.
The Pursuit of Pleasure: Gender, Space and Architecture in Regency London- Jane Rendell
Philosophy
The Poetics of Space- Gaston Bachelard
This is THE architectural philosophy book. Published in 1958 this book takes you on a lyrical journey through what home truly means. Click here for GoodReads.
In Praise of the Shadows- Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
In just 60 pages Tanizaki will change how you view the dark. With his gentle appreciation of the overshadowed, he’ll make you want to sit in candlelight and dwell. Click here for GoodReads.
Difference and Repetition- Gilles Deleuze
Deleuze is one of the more architecturally minded philosophers, and this goes through some of his biggest ideas. Click here for GoodReads.
All About Love- bell hooks
How are you meant to be a middle-class educated urbanite without this tucked under your arm? yes it’s become stereotyped but it is a good book and a great introduction into race, feminism, and class. Click here for GoodReads.
The Ethics of Ambiguity- Simone de Beauvoir
I think this is the closest we’ve got to understanding the meaning of life. Like all good things it started out as joking bet; That it’s impossible to base an ethical system on her partner’s (Jean-Paul Sartre’s) philosophical work. What she produced in this book surpassed anything Satre wrote, a methodical understanding on humanity and our freedom. Click here for GoodReads.
Being and Nothingness- Jean-Paul Satre
Satre talks through the fundamental dilemmas of human freedom, choice, responsibility & action. AKA all the decision architects make for others. Understanding the importance of freedom and where it comes from means we can build environments that encourages real living. Click here for GoodReads.
“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.“
-Simone de Beauvoir
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails- Sarah Bakewell
This is the best introduction to modern philosophy I’ve ever read. Witty and intelligent, Bakewell makes it easy to understand the complex history of the birth of existentialism. Click here for GoodReads.
Feminist Theory
Sexuality and Space- Beatriz Colomina
A collection of essays by the leading feminist thinkers. Entertaining and insightful each essay is a masterclass in architectural theory. Click here for GoodReads.
Feminist City: A Field Guide- Leslie Kern
Discrimination by Design: A Feminist Critique of the Man-Made Environment- Leslie Weisman
Architecture and Feminism- Debra Coleman, Elizabeth Danze, Carol Henderson
Gender Space Architecture- Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner, Iain Borden
Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture- Lori A. Brown
Making Space: Women and the Man Made Environment- Matrix
Pornotopía- Paul B. Preciado
Urbanismo Feminista: Por una transformación radical de los espacios de vida.-Col-lectiu Punt 6
Where Are the Women Architects?- Despina Stratigakos
The Grand Domestic Revolution- Dolores Hayden
The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution- Shulamith Firestone
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