Architecture

Pureness and a Poetic Dimension: Vincent Van Duysen’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter June 11, 2013

Vincent Van Duysen

Architect Vincent Van Duysen: Vincent Van Duysen Architects (Antwerp, Belgium)

“I like to surround myself with books, not only in my library but also in the bedroom, living room, and kitchen. In most spaces in my home you will find books. This allows me to pick up a book at any moment, at any place,” remarks Belgian architect and interior designer Vincent Van Duysen. He continues, “Through reading books I am able to enter another’s world while being inspired in a poetic way.”

Recognized for his elegant, minimalist residential and commercial spaces in locations ranging from the Belgium and the Netherlands to New York, as well as for his furniture and decorative objects, Van Duysen sent us a book list that highlights various sources of inspiration. The list also speaks to many of the characteristics of his own designs: an attention to formal details, and to the essence—the poetry—and texture of materials.

Van Duysen (along with recent book list contributor Michael Maharam) cites Donald Judd: Furniture, the catalogue of a 1993 exhibition of the artist’s furniture designs in Rotterdam, commenting: “I have never read about an artist who materialized the link between art and architecture in such a pure way as Donald Judd. I especially like his clean way of working and simple compositions using industrial materials.” Another of Van Duysen's selections is Jean-Michel Frank (also on Alexa Hampton’s book list), written by Frank’s studio assistant, Adolphe Chanaux. About this Parisian master of Art Deco interiors and furnishings, Van Duysen comments: “He worked very well with luxury and natural materials. I love the pureness of his designs, which are timeless.”

Vincent Van Duysen, interior detail of Residence B, Zwevegem, Belgium, 2010. Photo: Stijn Rolies

A book on Iwao Yamawaki, the Japanese photographer of the Bauhaus era whose images often explore the connection between human beings and architectural spaces, is also on Van Duysen’s book list. And Van Duysen’s “passion for Swiss minimalist architecture,” an architecture that he describes as “a tribute to craftsmanship and to life,” leads him to include Peter Zumthor Works: Buildings and Projects 1979–1997 (on Juergen Riehm’s book list as well). “Zumthor pays a lot of attention to the quality of space through volumes, materials, and textures and their composition,” says Van Duysen.” His work has a poetic dimension.”

Vincent Van Duysen’s work is the subject of two monographs. The first, Vincent Van Duysen, was published in 2001 by Gustavo Gili; the second, Vincent Van Duysen: Complete Works, was released in 2010 by Thames & Hudson.

View Vincent Van Duysen’s Profile

View Vincent Van Duysen’s Book List

See more architects’ blog posts and book lists

Lightness and Colors: Matteo Thun’s Book List

Book List of the Week: Five Dutch Designers and the Books That Inspire Them

comments powered by Disqus

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

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.”

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.