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