Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind’s Book List
The Prey of Unknown Zones —
The Pillage of the Sea
The Tabernacles of the Minds
That told the Truth to me —
— Emily Dickinson
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The Renaissance comes to life even in the rhetorical tropes of the Leoni translation—with incredible art by a man who was also a family lawyer!
A must for all designers! When I first read it I thought it was boring. Now it is eternal again . . .
My favorite book about the “inner” reality of places, by perhaps the best theoretician of the last century.
An amazing book of master drawings of architecture—truly an eternal inspiration!
A must for anyone seeking a reflection on both the seen and unseen.
The clearest and most rational of all philosophy books. Very useful in the era of fuzzy cloud logic.
The sheer beauty of geometry brought to light. A treatise that shows more geometic wonders than any computer can.
The only manifestos that are still relevant for design—because the future is always just ahead. The most forward-thinking and relevant design manifestos. Includes Marinetti’s “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” (1909).
This was my first, and still favorite, art book—I bought it with all my savings. My favorite Cubist by far.
To design is to struggle. This collection of van Gogh’s letters are a lesson in loneliness in art. Truly relevant in this economy-obsessed era!
You can’t do urban planning without this book because it is a labyrinth that you can never leave.
Dreams and beauty of mystery with Early Renaissance woodcut illustrations. Eroticism and Constructivism combine in an Early Renaissance myth.
My favorite book about time, clients, cash, persistence, and competition in architecture. A practical manual for work!
Written by my former teacher, this is one of my absolute favorite books on the city. No nonsense or pseudo-facts. A true classic.
A fantastic description of what a city means to a citizen, a revolutionary, and a terrorist. In my opinion, even better on the city than Joyce’s Ulysses.
Poetry, wilderness, and madness become one’s own in a psychotropic trip of dancing letters and hallucinating colors.
A book that can never be exhausted—showing that someone from Mauritius can be more cosmopolitan than someone from New York or Paris.
This book opened my imagination and freed me from oppressive spaces.
A new language developed as a consequence of the Holocaust. Intellectually penetrable because of its opacity.
A book that is so fantastic that it even inspired Borges to see that the world is only a myth.
Unsurpassed analysis of contemporary dilemmas. More relevant now than in the late 19th century when it was written. Flaubert knew who the idiots were. Really important for our new era.
The wonders of red-white-black and fantastic composition with two squares! And meaning! You can become as smart a designer as a child of the revolution.
Mystical, intellectual, and ecstatic—for anyone interested in truly understanding architecture and thought that is not “philosophical”!
Written by my mentor, a deep investigation into what it means to build through drawings and texts. Amazing how a book of drawings and ideas is much more inspiring than a book of techniques and buildings!
The best insight into the soul of an artist. My favorite book by a poet who writes prose. A book that is imaginatively, aesthetically, and fetishistically Number One.
“The best books have pictures,” says Alice, and this is the best—and most scary!
Einstein wrote the introduction to this mind-distorting fantasy on the fourth dimension. Should suffice as cosmology for mere mortals.
A view into Corbusier’s mind and how utterly crazy modernism actually is! You will find out the danger of the right angle.
Announcements
Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing
Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing
Edited by Michael Merrill
Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
Published: October 2021
The first in-depth study of drawings as primary sources of insight into architect Louis Kahn’s architecture and creative imagination. Based on unprecedented archival research, with over 900 illustrations and written contributions by Michael Benedikt, Michael Cadwell, David Leatherbarrow, Louis Kahn, Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, Michael J. Lewis, Robert McCarter, Michael Merrill, Marshall Meyers, Jane Murphy, Gina Pollara, Harriet Pattison, Colin Rowe, David Van Zanten, Richard Wesley, and William Whitaker.
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.
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 25, 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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Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn
By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: October 2020
An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.
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.”
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian by Rick Poynor
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian
By Rick Poynor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: September 2020
A comprehensive overview of the work and legacy of David King (1943–2016), whose fascinating career bridged journalism, graphic design, photography, and collecting. King launched his career at Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, starting as a designer and later branching out into image-led journalism, blending political activism with his design work.
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