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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1650 books
The American City from the Civil War to the New Deal
On Alan Balfour’s Book List
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Mayhew’s London
On Alan Balfour’s Book List
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A Romance of the Equator
Brian Wilson
On Peter Bohlin’s Book List
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The Divine Comedy
Dante
On Peter Bohlin’s Book List
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Das Kapital (Capital)
Karl Marx
On Aric Chen’s Book List
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Flatland
Edwin A. Abbott
On Elizabeth Diller’s Book List
On Nancye Green’s Book List
On Ricardo Scofidio’s Book List
On Shashi Caan’s Book List
On Michael Maharam’s Book List
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Jansen
James Archer Abbott
On Susan Weber’s Book List
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The Woman in the Dunes
Kobo Abe
On Antoine Predock’s Book List
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Else/Where
Janet Abrams et al.
On Zoë Ryan’s Book List
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Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
On Nancye Green’s Book List
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The Architecture of Michelangelo
James S. Ackerman
On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List
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Eileen Gray
Peter Adam
On Jeanne Gang’s Book List
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Balfour: The Last Grandee
R.J.Q. Adams
On David Easton’s Book List
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Why People Photograph
Robert Adams
On Rudy VanderLans’s Book List
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The White Tiger
Aravind Adiga
On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List
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What is an Apparatus? and Other Essays
Giorgio Agamben
On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List
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The World as Design
Otl Aicher
On Sam Hecht’s Book List
On Jeffrey Bernett’s Book List
On Fritz Frenkler’s Book List
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Analogous and Digital
Otl Aicher
On Fritz Frenkler’s Book List
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Carlo Scarpa: Architecture in Details
Bianca Albertini et al.
On David Piscuskas’s Book List
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Tuesdays with Morrie
Mitch Albom
On Deborah Sussman’s Book List
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The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics 2
Alan Aldridge
On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List
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Ci sarà un altro mare
Manuel Alegre
On Cleto Munari’s Book List
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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
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Notes on the Synthesis of Form
Christopher Alexander
On Niels Diffrient’s Book List
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The Deposition of Richard Prince: In the Case of Cariou V. Prince et al.
Greg Allen, ed.
On Prem Krishnamurthy’s Book List
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The House of Spirits
Isabel Allende
On Alexa Hampton’s Book List
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Eva Luna
Isabel Allende
On Alexa Hampton’s Book List
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Book of Psalms
Robert Alter, trans.
On Margie Ruddick’s Book List
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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
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Magnificence of the Tsars
Svetlana A. Amelekhina
On Claire Wilcox’s Book List
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The Holy Bible, King James Version
American Bible Society
On Stanley Tigerman’s Book List
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Specimen Book and Catalogue, 1923
American Type Founders Company
On Gail Anderson’s Book List
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The Golden Book of Biology
Gerald Ames
On Todd Oldham’s Book List
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The Information
Martin Amis
On Alexa Hampton’s Book List
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The Rachel Papers
Martin Amis
On Alexa Hampton’s Book List
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London Fields
Martin Amis
On David Weeks’s Book List
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The Red Shoes
Hans Christian Andersen
On Stephen Burrows’s Book List
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Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise, The Interface Model
Ray C. Anderson
On Susan S. Szenasy’s Book List
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Confessions of a Radical Industrialist
Ray C. Anderson et al.
On Susan S. Szenasy’s Book List
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The Letters of Mozart & His Family (3 vols.)
Emily Anderson, ed.
On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List
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Best-Selling Design Books at Van Alen Books, New York

1
Building Seagram
Phyllis Lambert
2
Clog 6: Brutalism
Kyle May et al., eds.
3
Project Journal Issue 1
Project
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Newest Designers and Commentators

Matteo Thun
Architect, Interior Designer, Product/Industrial Designer, Lighting Designer; Italy
Michael Maharam
Writer; Executive; United States
Fritz Frenkler
Product/Industrial Designer; Germany
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Newly Chosen Books

De Kooning: An American Master
Mark Stevens
A Book of Spoons
Jasper Morrison
Hidden Forms
Franco Clivio
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20 Books on Textile Design

British Textiles: 1700 to the Present
Linda Parry
Katsuji Wakisaka: Japanese Textile Designer
Katsuji Wakisaka
Textile Arts of India
Kokyo Hatanaka
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Recent Books by Our Contributors

Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Lincoln Center Inside Out
Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, and Charles Renfro
Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced
Stephen Burrows
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec: Drawing
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
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Contributors Who Chose...

Delirious New York
Rem Koolhaas
On 8 lists
Jeanne Gang
Architect; United States
Mohsen Mostafavi
Designer; Educator; United States
Galia Solomonoff
Architect; United States
Adam Tihany
Architect, Interior Designer, Product/Industrial Designer; United States
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