Chosen Books

Invited designers and commentators have chosen these as the books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.

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Nonfiction, Architecture

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318 books

Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford Federico Bucci On Paul Marantz’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Eliot Noyes Gordon Bruce On Niels Diffrient’s Book List On Jeffrey Bernett’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Architectural Ornament Brent C. Brolin On Chris Bangle’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Watermark Joseph Brodsky On Juhani Pallasmaa’s Book List Add to My Reading List	La Prima Architettura Barocca (The First Baroque Architecture) Cesare Brandi On Ada Tolla’s Book List On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List Add to My Reading List	How Buildings Learn Stewart Brand On Tom Coward’s Book List On Daisy Froud’s Book List On Nancye Green’s Book List On Vincent Lacovara’s Book List On Geoff Shearcroft’s Book List On Andrés Duany’s Book List On Craig Dykers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Opus Architecturum Francesco Borromini On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Journeys: How Travelling Fruit, Ideas and Buildings Rearrange our Environment Giovanna Borasi, ed. On Phyllis Lambert’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Friedrich Kiesler: Architekt, Maler, Bildhauer, 1890–1965 Dieter Bogner, ed. On Jürgen Mayer H.’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Le Corbusier: Oeuvre Complète (Complete Works) Willy Boesiger, ed. On Emilio Ambasz’s Book List On Norman Foster’s Book List On William Georgis’s Book List On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List On Cesar Pelli’s Book List On James Biber’s Book List On Michael Manfredi’s Book List On Mels Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Robert Maillart Max Bill On Diana Balmori’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Arcades Project Walter Benjamin On Akiko Fukai’s Book List On David Piscuskas’s Book List On Farshid Moussavi’s Book List On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	History of Modern Architecture (Storia dell’Architettura Moderna ) Leonardo Benevolo On Paolo Deganello’s Book List Add to My Reading List	For an Architecture of Reality Michael Benedikt On Craig Dykers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Horizons Norman Bel Geddes On Craig Hodgetts’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Italian Splendor Jack Basehart On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Barragán Guide Luis Barragán et al. On David Rockwell’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Megastructure Reyner Banham On Mels Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Theory and Design in the First Machine Age Reyner Banham On Norman Foster’s Book List On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Michael Sorkin’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List On R. Craig Miller’s Book List On Carl Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies Reyner Banham On Norman Foster’s Book List On Nathalie de Vries’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Critic Writes: Essays by Reyner Banham Reyner Banham On Deborah Berke’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment Reyner Banham On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Informal Cecil Balmond On Terence Riley’s Book List On Florian Idenburg’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Super Constellation Christoph Asendorf On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Walter Gropius e la Bauhaus Giulio Carlo Argan On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Sense of Unity Nader Ardalan et al. On Philip Freelon’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Sigurd Lewerentz, 1888-1975 Architectural Association On Peter Bohlin’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Pamphlet Architecture 27, Tooling Benjamin Aranda et al. On Terence Riley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Apartments for the Affluent Alpern Andrew On Alexa Hampton’s Book List On Peter Pennoyer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Italy: The New Domestic Landscape Emilio Ambasz, ed. On R. Craig Miller’s Book List On James Biber’s Book List On list of Books by Emilio Ambasz On Marco Romanelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Pattern Language Christopher Alexander et al. On Niels Diffrient’s Book List On Nancye Green’s Book List On Andrés Duany’s Book List On Witold Rybczynski’s Book List On Chris Bangle’s Book List On Peter Bohlin’s Book List On Carola Zwick’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Notes on the Synthesis of Form Christopher Alexander On Niels Diffrient’s Book List On Cino Zucchi’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Carlo Scarpa: Architecture in Details Bianca Albertini et al. On David Piscuskas’s Book List Add to My Reading List	On the Art of Building in Ten Books Leon Battista Alberti On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	What is an Apparatus? and Other Essays Giorgio Agamben On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Eileen Gray Peter Adam On Jeanne Gang’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Architecture of Michelangelo James S. Ackerman On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Palladio James Ackerman On Phyllis Lambert’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

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Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

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Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

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Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

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Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

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Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

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