Kent Kleinman
Books Every Architect Should Read
I enjoy access to one of the finest collections of art and architecture books in the country at Cornell University. But there are books with which one forges a special bond, books that are not necessarily greatest hits but ones that become intellectual companions and need to be always within view and grasp. I have listed some of these: books I admire greatly, durable accomplishments in and around the subject of architecture, books that have informed my thinking and to which I return often.
I consider each book in its specificity—its binding, font, layout, and weight, the post-its and marginalia—as a gift of thought and a form of physical connection to the author. For this reason, too, it is important to me to have these volumes physically close.
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“A Point of View” is sometimes left off citations of this extraordinary publication, but it is key to the work. This is a manifesto, a declaration of intent, a collective effort by faculty and students forged into a powerful vision of an architectural pedagogy, a landmark, and a beautifully crafted book.
Spiro Kostof’s survey has special qualities that at the time were groundbreaking: he insisted that the drawing was as important as the built edifice as a object of study; he bucked the tradition of chronology as the only legitimate structure for the genre; and he insisted on including context as part of his subject matter, not just in his text, but also by producing new drawings of well-known sites showing surrounding conditions—often even the site’s topography. He oriented all site plans with north up as a didactic reminder of cardinal orientation as a kind of meta-context.
Geertz is among the most insightful writers on culture and its proper mode of study. He is also one of the sharpest wits in print. He treats the interpretation of cultures as an art of keen observation, precise inscription, and creative interpretation, more akin to that of a literary critic than a social scientist. If nothing else, read the first chapter called “Thick Description,” and see if you ever experience a wink as you once did….
Ben Katchor is one of the great chroniclers of New York City, even if that means inventing places for familiar events or inventing events for real places. This graphic novel introduces us to such architectural wonders as Foyer Hall—a theater on Gymsarchus Ave at 11th Street comprising principally a foyer with a gently sloped floor to encourage crowds to mingle; the Symmetry Shop on Ainsaint Avenue in the Beauty Supply District (directly across the intersection from the Hot Aura Frankfurt School store); and the waterproof, topographically precise Puddle Map of the expanded metropolitan area.
Lars’s compact book is a meditation on the ultimately futile desire for architecture to escape the domestic narrative that shapes its material and formal configuration, and to frolic off in a state of degree-zero euphoria. Peter Eisenman’s afterword is revelatory—of Peter’s intellectual project as much as Lars’s.
The crime is that the entire corpus of Loos’s essays has not been translated into English. This volume (the title translates as “Nevertheless”) contains gems such as “Keramika,” in which Loos embraces accident as an aesthetic principle; “Hands Off,” banishing the architect from touching anything that is supposed to have lasting value; and the obituary to Josef Veillich, with the observation celebrated by Aldo Rossi: “Man weiss, dass das ganze kunstgetue im wohnungswesen … keinen hund vom warmen ofen lockt” (roughly: “It is well known that all the artful novelties in housing . . . do not tempt the dog away from the warm stove”). As a discipline, we should get organized and get the entire opus translated and published.
Anyone who admires Pichler’s work will already own this early anthology of his major projects; anyone not familiar with his major projects should get this book. Pichler’s complex of farm buildings in Burgenland is the subject of, and site for, almost all of the drawings and building projects featured in this volume. The inventiveness produced by self-imposed constraints of site, materials, and processes is astonishing. It is a great loss that Walter passed away recently, on July 16, 2012.
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.
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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Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman
Love Letter to a Garden
By Debbie Millman
Contributions by Roxane Gay
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: April 15, 2025
From the award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening—and the philosophies that work conjures. Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden’s ingredients from Millman’s wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay.
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.”
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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