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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
  • Book 1&2: Architect and Entrepreneur by Eric W Reinholdt 
  • architect, verb: The New Language of building by Reinier de Graaf 
  • Junkspace with Running Room by Rem Koolhaas & Hal Foster
  • 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
  • A Pattern Language: Towns, Building, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Mary Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, & Schlomo Angel
  • 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
  • Reflections on Architectural Practices in the Nineties edited by William S. Saunders​
  • Architecturally Speaking by Eugene Raskin

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

ESSAYS & ARTICLES
  • 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
​

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