10 Best Books about Architecture
1. Architecture: Form, Space, & Order by Francis D. K. Ching
For more than forty years, the beautifully illustrated Architecture: Form, Space, and Order has served as the classic introduction to the basic vocabulary of architectural design. The updated and revised Fourth Edition features the fundamental elements of space and form and is designed to encourage critical thought in order to promote a more evocative understanding of architecture.
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2. Thinking Architecture by Peter Zumthor
Winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture 2009, Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is considered to be one of the most extraordinary and controversial architects working today.
Thinking Architecture allows readers a direct glimpse into his mind through a series of essays, titles such as “The Light in the Landscape,” reflecting his minimalist style. Peter Zumthor articulates what motivates him to design his buildings, which appeal to visitors’ hearts and minds and possess a compelling and unmistakable presence and aura.
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3. A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture by Virginia Savage McAlester
This revised edition includes a section on neighborhoods; expanded and completely new categories of house styles with photos and descriptions of each; an appendix on “Approaches to Construction in the 20th and 21st Centuries”; an expanded bibliography; and 600 new photographs and line drawings.
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4. World History of Architecture by Michael Fazio
This guide to the global history of architecture was first published in 2003, and is beautifully formatted. A series of maps precedes the informative and well-written text. The book gives a deep knowledge and wide perspective of traditions in architecture throughout the world — from prehistoric through modern structures.
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5. Bauhaus by Magdalena Droste
In a fleeting 14-year period between two world wars, Germany’s Bauhaus School of Art and Design changed the face of modernity. With utopian ideas for the future, the school developed a pioneering fusion of fine art, craftsmanship, and technology, which they applied across media and practices from film to theater, sculpture to ceramics.
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6. The Architecture Reference & Specification Book updated & revised: Everything Architects Need to Know Every Day by Julia McMorrough and Dan Wheeler
Most architectural standards references contain thousands of pages of details-overwhelmingly more than architects need to know to know on any given day. Architecture: An Indispensable Guide contains vital information that’s essential to planning and executing architectural projects of all shapes and sizes, in a format that is small enough to carry anywhere. It distills the data provided in standard architectural volumes and is an easy-to-use reference for the most indispensable-and most requested-types of architectural information.
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7. The Future of Architecture in 100 Buildings (TED) by Marc Kushner
A pavilion made from paper. An inflatable concert hall. A building that eats smog. A bridge that grows grapes. This book captures the soaring confidence, the thoughtful intelligence, the futuristic wonder, and at times the sheer whimsy of the world’s most inspired and future-looking buildings. As author Mark Kushner explains, ‘The future of architecture is not one of any dominant style, but rather a world of constant innovation and experimentation.’ Like an architectural cabinet of wonders, the book captures this glorious global diversity. From soaring steel towers to bamboo bungalows; from iconic monuments to ingenious children’s playgrounds, each page offers an unexpected glimpse of architecture’s potential.
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8. Architecture: A World History by Daniel Borden, Jerzy Elzanowski, Joni Taylor and Stephanie Tuerk
Lavishly illustrated and super-condensed, Architecture: A World History is the perfect gift for any architecture buff. In this pocket-sized book bursting with 600 illustrations, page after page is dedicated to significant architectural movements, time lines that explore the evolution of the practice, and capsule biographies of great architects and examinations of their masterpieces.
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9. Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning by Leland M. Roth and Amanda C. Roth Clark
This widely acclaimed, beautifully illustrated survey of Western architecture is now fully revised throughout, including essays on non-Western traditions. The expanded book vividly examines the structure, function, history, and meaning of architecture in ways that are both accessible and engaging.
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10. Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide by David Bergman
Written for students and practitioners in the fields of architecture and interior design, our new Architecture Brief Sustainable Design provides a concise overview of all the techniques available for reducing the energy footprint of structures and spaces. With clear, simple language and a practical “can do” approach, author David Bergman covers everything from the profession’s ethical responsibility, to design structures and spaces that sustain our natural resources, to specific considerations such as rainwater harvesting, graywater recycling, passive heating techniques, solar orientation, green roofs, wind energy, daylighting, indoor air quality, material evaluation and specification, and how to work with green building certification programs.
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