January 25, 2011

100 books - the architect's version

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC came up with some silly list that most people have read a small number of 100 books listed.

I think that is total bollocks since I've spent much of my adult life reading architecture books.

So I made a new list and I'm seeking the help of my friends to carry it to 100. Instructions: I've added a few seminal texts... suggest some others and let's give the BBC a real show.

1. City of Bits - William Mitchell
2. Event Cities (1, 2 & 3) - Bernard Tschumi
3. The Curves of Time - Oscar Niemeyer
4. SMLXL - Rem Koolhaas/Bruce Mau
5. Towards a New Architecture - Le Corbusier
6. Architecture After Modernism - Diane Ghiardo
7. The Architecture of Happiness - Alain de Botton
8. Design Like you Give a Damn - Architecture for Humanity
10. Architecture and Utopia - Manfredo Tafuri
11. The Space of Encounter - Daniel Libeskind
12. Thinking Architecture - Peter Zumthor
13. Experiencing Architecture - Steen Eiler Rasmussen
14. 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School - Matthew Frederick
15. For an Architecture of Reality - Michael Benedikt
16. The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard
17. Discrimination by Design - Leslie Weisman
18. The Temple in the House - Anthony Lawlor
19. Athens Charter - CIAM (Le Corbusier)
20. Delirious New York - Rem Koolhaas
21. Manhattan Transcripts - Bernard Tschumi
22. Radiant City - Le Corbusier
23. An Essay on Architecture - Marc-Antoine Laugier
24. The Ten Books on Architecture - Vitruvius
25. On the Art of Building in Ten Books - Leon Battista Alberti
26. Essential Texts - Louis Kahn
27. City Planning According to Artistic Principles - Camillo Sitte
28. Team 10 Primer - Alison Smithson (ed.)
29. The Architecture of the City - Aldo Rossi
30. Learning from Las Vegas - Robert Venturi, et. al.
31. Collage City - Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter
32. Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings - Louis Sullivan
33. Space, Time and Architecture - Sigfried Giedion
34. The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs
35. The Four Books of Architecture - Andrea Palladio
36. Design with Nature - Ian McHarg
37. The Seven Lamps of Architecture - John Ruskin
38. Scope of Total Architecture - Walter Gropius
39. Building with Nature - Richard Neutra
40. Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays - Adolf Loos
41. The Living City - Frank Lloyd Wright
42. A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander
43. Eyes Of The Skin - Juhani Pallasmaa
44. Mask of Medusa - John Hejduk
45. Architecture Of Disjunction - Bernard Tschumi
46. Topology Of A Phantom City - Alain Robbe-Grillet
47. Education Of An Architect - Elizabeth Diller, John Hejduk, etc
48. Architecture Theory Since 1968 - K. Michael Hays
49. Teach Your Chicken To Fly - Trevor Weekes
50. Palace of the Peacock - Wilson Harris
51. Why Buildings Stand Up - Mario Salvadori
52. The Place of Houses - Charles Moore et al
53. How Designers think - Bryan Lawson
54. Chambers for a Memory Palace - Charles Moore et al
55. The Design Studio - Donald Schon
56. city of slums mike davis
57. the Sphere and the Labyrinth - Manfredo Tafuri
58. Programs and Manifestoes of 20th century architecture - Ulrich Conrads
59. Inside Architecture - Vittorio Gregotti
60. Critical History of Modern Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
61. Architecture of Four Ecologies - Reyner Banham, Anthony Vidler
62. The Image of the City - Kevin Lynch
63. House for Mr. Biswas - VS Naipaul
64. Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture - Steven Holl, etc
65. The World of Perception - Maurice Merleau Ponty
66. Phenomenology of Perception - Maurice Merleau Ponty
67. Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge - Perez-Gomez & Pelletier
68. The Troubadour of Knowledge - Michael Serres
69. 13 Ways - Richard Harbison
70. Kaz Antiye Jan Moun Ka Rete: Caribbean Popular Dwelling - Jack Berthelot
71. Cities: X Lines: Approaches to City and Open Territory Design - Joan Busquets
72. The Landscape Urbanism Reader - Charles Waldheim
73. Recovering Landscape - Essays in Contemporary Landscape Theory - ed James Corner
74. File under Architecture - Herbert Muschamp
75. Labour Work and Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
76. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in 19 & 20th c Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
77. Emergency, Deadline, Duration - Marc Jalet
78. The Honeywood File: An Adventure in Building - H.B. Creswell
79. The Social Logic of Space - Hillier and Hanson
80. Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone - Fry and Drew
81. Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures - Andrea Deplazes
82. Constructing Landscape: Materials, Techniques, Structural Components - Astrid Zimmeman
83. Plusminus 20/40 Latitude: Sustainable Building Design in Tropical and Subtropical Regions - Dirk Hindrichs
84. Typographie - Otl Aicher
85. The World as Design - Otl Aicher
86. Analogous Digital - Otl Aicher
87. Intermediate Natures - the Landscapes of Michael Desvigne
88. The Architect in Practice - Chappell & Willis
89. Intermediate Natures: The Landscapes of Michel Desvigne - Elizabeth Zugler
90. Die Küche zum Kochen: Das Ende Einer Architekturdoktrin - Otl Aicher
91. Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies - Rafael Moneo
92. The Public Chance: New Urban Landscapes - Aurora Fernandez Per & Javier Arpa
93. Roberto Burle Marx: Landscapes Reflected - Rossana Vaccarino (ed)
94. Latin America Architecture 1929 to 1960 - Brillenbourg & Riley
95. ANY series (Anything, Anyone, Anywhere, Anyway, Anyplace, Anywise, Anybody, Anyhow, Anytime, and Anymore) - Cynthia Davidson (ed.)
96. Sites of Memory: Perspectives on Architecture and Race - Craig Evan Barton
97. Agenda: Can we sustain our ability to crisis - JDS architects
98. Architecture NOW! (series) - Philip Jodidio
99. Space & Place - Yi-Fu Tuan
100.Analysing Architecture - Simon Unwin


Special thanks to Architects Mark Raymond, Jacquiann Lawton, Donna Sink, Ken Koense, Phillip Crosby, Rohan Bailey, Barry Lehrman, Ana María León, Daren Moncrieffe and students Vanessa Hartley, Dwayne Webb, Stein Carrington & Sheena Marston for their contributions 

5 comments:

  1. Planet of slums - Mike Davis

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  2. Thank you so much for your list- I adore YI-Fu Tuan, and am glad to have so many new books to look for!!

    I also have two favorites- but my interest is more Spatial Dynamics than Architectural,so I'm not sure if they will be of interest-
    The Hidden Dimension - Edward T. Hall
    Tower & Dungeon - Gloria House
    Memories, Dreams and Reflections by Carl Jung (there is a section in this book about the Tower, a home he built- amazing reflections on place and time)

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  3. "Complexity and Contradiction"? Robert Venturi

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  4. how about these?

    "delirious new york" from rem,
    "cities of tomorrow" from edward hall,
    "a pattern language" from christopher alexander

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous12:46 AM

    none from Christian Norberg-Schulz?

    also my personal favourite..
    Elements of Architecture: From Form to Place by Pierre von Meiss

    btw note #87 & #89

    ReplyDelete