WHAT SHOULD I READ?
There are hundreds of worthwhile architecture books, articles, and essays out there, but far-too-many web searches will lead you to the same recommendations and with a limited perspective; a lot of form with very little content. Below is list of texts, in no particular order, that are often overlooked but are obligatory for any serious-minded architecture student or practicing architect looking to expand his or her mind.

BOOKS​

• How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built by Stewart Brand
• In the Scheme of Things: Alternative Thinking on the Practice of Architecture by Thomas R. Fisher
• Out of Architecture by Jake Rudin & Erin Pellegrino
• Material Reform: Building For a Post-Carbon Future by Material Cultures
• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
• Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton
• Redefining Designing: From Form to Experience by C. Thomas Mitchell
• Architect & Developer: A Guide to Self Initiating Projects by James Petty, AIA
• The Creative Act: A Way of Being By Rick Rubin
• Architect? A Candid Guide to the Profession By Roger K Lewis
• Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture By Stephen Cairns & Jane M Jacobs
• Refabricating Architecture by Stephen Kieran & James Timberlake
• From Bauhaus To Our House By Tom Wolfe
• Architectural Practice: A Critical View by Robert Gutman
• Architecture Depends by Jeremy Till
• Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century by Matthew Soules
• The Four Elements of Architecture by Gottfried Semper
• Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession by Reinier de Graaf 
• Professional Practice: A Guide To Turning Designs Into Buildings by Paul Segal, FAIA
• Architecture: The Story of Practice by Dana Cuff
• Out of Site: A Social Criticism of Architecture (edited) by Diane Ghirardo
• Books 1 & 2: Architect and Entrepreneur by Eric W Reinholdt 
• architect, verb: The New Language of building by Reinier de Graaf 
• Against Architecture by Franco La Cecla
• The Limits to Growth by The Club of Rome
• Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Saumel D. Gosling
• Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth
• A Theory for Practice: Architecture in Three Discourses by Bill Hubbard Jr.
• Lessons for Students of Architecture by Herman Hertzberger
• Architecture of the Absurd: How "Genius" Disfigured A Practical Art by John Silber
• What Kind of Architect Are You? by Udo Greinacher
• Millennials in Architecture: Generations, Disruption, and the Legacy of a Profession by Darius Sollohub
• Building Bad: How Architectural Utility is Constrained by Politics and Damaged by Jonathan Ochshorn
• Tips from the Top: Architects Share Their Advice for Success Hardcover by Clifford Pearson, Ken Yeang, Raghda AlHayali
• Design Plus Enterprise: Seeking a New Reality in Architecture & Design by James P. Cramer
• How Real Estate Developers Think: Design, Profits, and Community (The City in the Twenty-First Century) by Peter Hendee Brown
• Concrete Repair and Maintenance Illustrated: Problem Analysis; Repair Strategy; Techniques by Peter H. Emmons and Brandon W. Emmons
• Reflections on Architectural Practices in the Nineties edited by William S. Saunders​
• Architecturally Speaking by Eugene Raskin
• Building: A Carpenter's Notes on Life & the Art of Good Work by Mark Ellison
• How to Build Impossible Things: Lessons in Life and Carpentry by Mark Ellison
• The Space Within: Interior Experience as the Origin of Architecture by Robert McCarter
• Towards an Architecture of Today by Nicola DiBattista
• ​Architect's Essentials of Cost Management by Michael D. Dell'Isola 
• Reconfiguration: In the Study and Practice of Design and Architecture by Marvin J. Malecha, FAIA
• Design Management for Architects by Stephen Emmitt
• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick M. Lencioni
• Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice by Eric Cesal
• The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks 
• Becoming an Architect: Masters at Work by Janelle Zara
• Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro
• Common Architecture by Sunwoo Kim
• The Birth of a Building: From Conception to Delivery by Ben Stevens

​NOTE: While the links above are to the books on Amazon, this is not an endorsement. Purchase books, new or used, from wherever you prefer. 

​ARTICLES & ESSAYS

• Design Was Never About Design by Menno Cramer
• Architecture is Now a Tool of Capital, Complicit in a Purpose Antithetical to its Social Mission by Reinier De Graaf
• Environmental Perception and Interior Design by Samuel D. Gosling, Robert Gifford, & Lindsay McCunn
• Guide to Architectural Services By George Valdes
• 7 Steps to Make Your Architecture Firm Profitable By Emily Mahon Fischer
• Death to the Calling: A Job in Architecture Is Still a Job by Marisa Cortright
• The Redesign of Studio Culture by The AIAS Studio Culture Task Force
• Architecture and Contingency by Jeremy Till

• This is the Next Hurdle in the Construction Industry's Race to Net-Zero by The World Economic Forum
• How to Build Smart, Zero Carbon Buildings and Why it Matters by The World Economic Forum
• The Gap and Its Effect on Architectural Education by Chris Ford
• Towards A Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance by Kenneth Frampton
• Jencks’ Theory of Evolution, An Overview of 20th Century Architecture by Charles Jencks
• Imagine a Renter's Utopia. It Might Look Like Vienna by Francesca Mari​
• Whole Earth Catalog by Stewart Brand
• 21 Sustainable House Design Ideas by Jorge Fontan
• For Sustainable Buildings, Architects Need Better Post-Occupancy Data By Holly Dutton
• Slashed by Joan Ockman
• Tending to the Detail by Patrick Doan
• The Architect’s Greatest Fear: The Usurper by Jared Banks
• Five Steps to Successful Collaboration by Drew Lang
• Manifesto 1991: The Real Meaning of Architecture by Christopher Alexander
• The Princely Vision by Thomas Fisher
• The Architect Has No Clothes by Christopher Alexander
• Why Didn’t I Become An Architect? by Orhan Pamuk
• BSI-001: The Perfect Wall By Joseph Lstiburek
• RR-0404: Roof Design By Joseph Lstiburek
• Adaptive Reuse by Deborah Berke Partners; Atelier Ten
• How adaptive reuse can help reimagine, repurpose and revitalize cities by Anu Devi & Sarah Franklin; WEF
• Dear Architects, I am sick of your shit. (An Open Letter) by Annie Choi
• Dear Annie, A reply from an Architect (Jody) to open letter by Annie Choi 
• Vernacular Modernism by Thomas de Monchaux
• Whatever It Is, I’m Against It by Ian Volner​​​​
• America's Favorite Architecture
• Incomplete Manifesto for Growth by Bruce Mao
• Domicology: A new way to fight blight before buildings are even constructed by Rex LaMore, George H. Berghorn, & M.G. Matt Syal
• Michigan State University: Domicology Research Documents
• Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer by William Pena & Steven Parshall
• ​Architects and Architecture and by Michael Meredith
• Bridging the Gap between Architectural Education and Architectural Practice​ by Osho Yusuf A. Babajide et al.
• Truth in Numbers by Suzanne LaBarre 
• The Death and Life of Great Architecture Criticism