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.

title a–z

Nonfiction, Architecture

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318 books

A Place of My Own Michael Pollan On Ernest de la Torre’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Planned Assaults Lars Lerup On Kent Kleinman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Power Broker Robert Caro On Nancye Green’s Book List On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Prefab Architecture: A Guide to Modular Design and Construction Ryan E. Smith On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Presence of Mies Detlef Mertins On Terence Riley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Prisons (Le Carceri) Giovanni Battista Piranesi On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media Beatriz Colomina On Jessica Helfand’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Prodigious Builders Bernard Rudofsky On Juergen Riehm’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture Ulrich Conrads On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Projective Cast Robin Evans On Richard Meier’s Book List On Victoria Meyers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Pyramid David Macaulay On Philip Freelon’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Quotidiano sostenibile Ezio Manzini et al. On Paolo Deganello’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Re: CP Cedric Price Add to My Reading List	Re-cycle Pippo Ciorra, ed. On Paolo Deganello’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Recueil et Parallèle des Edifices de tout genre Anciens et Modernes Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand On Michael Graves’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Robert Maillart Max Bill On Diana Balmori’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Roma Barocca Paolo Portoghesi On Michael Manfredi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Rome of Borromini Paolo Portoghesi On Peter Pennoyer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ronchamp Le Corbusier On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Roots of Contemporary American Architecture Lewis Mumford On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Round Buildings, Square Buildings, and Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish Philip M. Isaacson On Paul Goldberger’s Book List Add to My Reading List	S, M, L, XL Rem Koolhaas et al. On Terence Riley’s Book List On Farshid Moussavi’s Book List On Florian Idenburg’s Book List On Mels Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Saarinen’s Quest: A Memoir Richard Knight et al. On Jonathan Olivares’s Book List Add to My Reading List	SANAA: Spiel der Gegensätze/The Play of Opposites Kazuyo Sejima et al. On Fritz Frenkler’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	740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building Michael Gross On Ernest de la Torre’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Shack Chic Craig Fraser On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Shingle Style and the Stick Style Vincent Scully On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Shingle Style Today Vincent Scully On Jaquelin Robertson’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	Sir John Soane: The Architect as Collector, 1753-1837 Peter Thornton et al. On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Snøhetta Works Snøhetta, ed. On list of Books by Craig Dykers Add to My Reading List
Space Calculated in Seconds Marc Treib On Steven Holl’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Space, Time and Architecture Sigfried Giedion On Norman Foster’s Book List On Richard Meier’s Book List On Paul Marantz’s Book List On Cesar Pelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Sphere and the Labyrinth (La sfera e il labirinto) Manfredo Tafuri et al. On Paolo Deganello’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Stones of Venice John Ruskin On Barry Bergdoll’s Book List On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Storia dell’Architettura Moderna, vol. 2 Bruno Zevi On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Strange Death of Architectural Criticism Martin Pawley et al. On Norman Foster’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Studies in Tectonic Culture Kenneth Frampton On Terence Riley’s Book List On Barry Bergdoll’s Book List On list of Books by Kenneth Frampton Add to My Reading List	Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts; or, Practical Aesthetics Gottfried Semper On David Adjaye’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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.

Order the book.

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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