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

Super Constellation Christoph Asendorf On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Swedish House Ingalill Snitt et al. On Hugh Newell Jacobsen’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Making of Classical Edinburgh 1750–1840 Alexander John Brown Youngson On Alan Balfour’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Theories and History of Architecture (Teoria e storia dell’architettura) Manfredo Tafuri On Jorge Silvetti’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	Thermal Delight in Architecture Lisa Heschong On Craig Dykers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Thinking Architecture Peter Zumthor On Sam Hecht’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Thinking Drawing/Working Drawing Glenn Murcutt On Peter Bohlin’s Book List Add to My Reading List
To Engineer Is Human Henry Petroski On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List On Ada Tolla’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Too Much Is Never Enough Morris Lapidus On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Towards a New Architecture (Vers une Architecture) Le Corbusier On Norman Foster’s Book List On Michael Graves’s Book List On Richard Meier’s Book List On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List On Andrés Duany’s Book List On R. Craig Miller’s Book List On Winka Dubbeldam’s Book List On Cesar Pelli’s Book List On Victoria Meyers’s Book List On Emanuela Frattini Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Town and Revolution Anatole Kopp On Mels Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Traditional Islamic Craft in Moroccan Architecture André Paccard On Diana Balmori’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays Robin Evans On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List On David Adjaye’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Tropical Modernism James Grayson Trulove On Hugh Newell Jacobsen’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Trotzdem, 1900–1930 Adolf Loos On Kent Kleinman’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Trutg dil Flem: Seven Bridges by Jürg Conzett Wilfried Dechau et al. Add to My Reading List	The Turning Point of Building Konrad Wachsmann On Norman Foster’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Twenty Minutes in Manhattan Michael Sorkin On Paul Goldberger’s Book List On list of Books by Michael Sorkin Add to My Reading List	Unbuilding David Macaulay On Richard Saul Wurman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Uppercase 3 Alison and Peter Smithson On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Utzon Richard Weston On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Venezia Minore Egle Renata Trincanato et al. On James Biber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio On Daniel Libeskind’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	Walter Pichler: Zwei Troge, Wasserrinnen Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Add to My Reading List	Watermark Joseph Brodsky On Juhani Pallasmaa’s Book List Add to My Reading List	What If...?: The Architecture and Design of David Rockwell Chee Pearlman, ed. et al. On Jules Fisher’s Book List On list of Books by David Rockwell 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	What Is Modern Design? Edgar Kaufmann Jr. On R. Craig Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	When the Cathedrals Were White Le Corbusier On Richard Meier’s Book List Add to My Reading List	White Walls, Designer Dresses Mark Wigley On Jürgen Mayer H.’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Why Architecture Matters Paul Goldberger On Calvin Tsao’s Book List On list of Books by Paul Goldberger Add to My Reading List	Without Rhetoric Alison and Peter Smithson On Richard Meier’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Wooden Houses Makoto Suzuki et al. On Michael Maharam’s Book List Add to My Reading List	You Have to Pay for the Public Life Charles, W. Moore et al. On Paul Goldberger’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Your Private Sky: R. Buckminster Fuller Claude Lichtenstein et al. On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Zone 1/2 Michel Feher et al. On Terence Riley’s Book List On Neil Denari’s Book List On Greg Lynn’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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