Book List of the Week

The Book List of the Week highlights the list of books provided by invited designers (including architects, fashion designers, graphic designers, interior designers, landscape architects, product designers, urban designers, and other design professionals) who have chosen books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.
189 blog entries
Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter July 2, 2013

Architect Mels Crouwel: Benthem Crouwel Architects (Amsterdam and Aachen)
Profile     Book List
A list of a dozen books sent along by Mels Crouwel showcases the Dutch architect’s affinity for modernist classics, contemporary culture, and sprawling storytelling. Crouwel is a founding partner in Benthem Crouwel, whose high-profile portfolio of architectural and infrastructure projects in the Netherlands include the recent renovation and expansion of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the restoration and expansion of the Anne Frank House, and the master plan for Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. He calls his book list “just a selection—old and new.” More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 16, 2013

Graphic designer and curator Prem Krishnamurthy: Project Projects and P! (New York)
Profile     Book List
A founding principal of the New York studio Project Projects, graphic designer Prem Krishnamurthy has made text and the written word a major focus of what he does. The studio’s artists’ books and exhibition catalogues, along with its work in a range of media—from websites to exhibition design, signage, and visual identities with clients including the Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and SALT Istanbul—have been widely acclaimed for their progressive approach to visual form. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter July 26, 2011

Interior design editor and author Stanley Abercrombie: Interior Design magazine (Sonoma, CA)

book list
For someone whose long career has been devoted in large part to words, Stanley Abercrombie has some impressive numbers: In his more than 50 years at the forefront of reading and writing on architecture and interiors, he has been editor in chief of three eminent design magazines (Interiors, Abitare in America, and Interior Design—which he ran for 14 years, beginning in 1983); authored 11 books; written over 1,500 articles for 46 different magazines; and has roughly 12,000 books in his personal library. In addition, he currently serves as books editor at Interior Design magazine, reviewing a steady stream of books each year.  More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter June 25, 2013

Furniture designer and sculptor Wendell Castle: Wendell Castle Inc. (Le Roy, New York)
Profile     Book List
Celebrated as the father of the American studio furniture movement, Wendell Castle has been designing sculptural tables and seating as well as lighting and other functional objects for more than 50 years. Examples of his signature work in stack-laminated wood and fiberglass have become part of the permanent collections of major U.S. museums. More...

Book List of the Week
March 17, 2014

Our celebration of the three-year anniversary of Designers & Books, launched in February 2011, continues. Following our round-up of five vintage book lists on March 3, we’ve brought together five additional book lists from our archive of more than 300 lists of books that have inspired designers and design commentators. More...

Book List of the Week
March 3, 2014

To celebrate the three-year anniversary of Designers & Books, launched in February 2011, we’ve brought together five book lists from our archive of more than 300 lists of books that have inspired designers and design commentators. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter September 30, 2013

“Today a lot of information can be found on the Internet, but for me books have more authority,” says architect Christian Wassmann. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter November 18, 2013

“Encountering knowledge is like encountering love,” writes Milan-based architect Cino Zucchi in the introduction to his book list. “The books that have been meaningful to us are more often ‘found’ than searched for.” More...

Architecture
By Steve Kroeter May 15, 2012

Architects Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano: LOT-EK (New York and Naples)
Profile    Book List
Profile    Book List

LOT-EK (read “low-tech”) founding partners Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano have gained high visibility for their groundbreaking approach to construction, materials, and space and through the adaptive reuse (“upcycling”) of existing industrial objects and systems not originally intended for architecture. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter December 13, 2012

Product/industrial designer Stefano Giovanni: Giovannoni Design (Milan)
Profile     Book List
On industrial designer Stefano Giovannoni’s book list for Designers & Books are five titles by the French philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard. Why? Giovannoni thinks it’s very important for a designer “to open one’s vision to the philosophical and sociological aspects related to the evolution of our society.” “I’ve never found a design book deep enough for a broad vision of our profession,” he says in the introduction to his book list. More...