“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” — Joyce Carol Oates, American Writer
In our crazy and forever-evolving field of architecture, we are required to see things from different perspectives to understand various clients. Undoubtedly, self-learning has always been an essential aspect of an architect’s life no matter how old they get. Books are the teachers that will never get bored of you or give you bad grades. In fact, you can consider them the intellectual companions who will never abandon you. Here is a list of architecture books recommendations with evolutionary books that offer timeless ideas.
Even if you are not a bookaholic, you will find a book in this list that relates to you, teaches you, and moves you. Some are classics, and some are more recent. However, one thing they all have in common is that they have highly influenced the cultural scene and made a breakthrough in the world of architecture. If you want to download free architecture books you can check out our previous article “Download +500 Architecture Books Legally free“
1. Experiencing Architecture by Steen Eiler Rasmussen
© Ketsiree Wongwan
If you are an architecture student struggling with the concept of spatial experience, then this is your go-to book. “Experiencing Architecture” is written in an easy and clear language that can be understood by a wide variety of audiences. Steel Eiler presents a series of buildings and overviews their details beautifully and clearly. He also analyzes the unique spatial experience in historical old buildings and in some modern examples as well. While we cannot go back in time, we can still design beautiful and functional spaces by understanding architecture as an art form that humans interact with.
Rasmussen explains that an understanding of good design comes not only from one’s professional experience of architecture as an abstract and individual mission but also from our everyday contact with architecture in real-time. He discusses in each chapter how we respond to light, color, shape, scale, texture, rhythm, and sound. He also talks about buildings as if they are common objects we use daily, like golf balls and teacups.
This is the book that will make you comprehend how we as human beings experience spaces with our five senses. Thus, it is equally important for students and practitioners in the fields of architecture, interior design, and landscape design.
2. Architecture, Form, Space, and Order by Francis DK. Ching
Courtesy of Amazon
This is one of the essential books that you will need in your self-learning journey in the field of architecture. It is a technical and practical source that you can use as a constant reference. The book is a visual library that helps both students and professionals understand the vocabulary of architectural design. It gives you the 411 on how space and form are ordered in the environment by using examples from both contemporary and ancient buildings.
The book is organized into a series of chapters where each one breaks down buildings into simple geometric lines and shapes. Then, it goes in-depth with 3D views of buildings and detailed plans and analyzes structures throughout history. The ratio of illustrations and sketches versus text in this book allows anyone to benefit from it and makes it fun to read. Though it is suitable for beginners, it offers timeless classic ideas that just never go out of date.
3. Graphic Thinking for Designers and Architects by Paul Laseau
Courtesy of Scribd
Do you ever feel like you have a chaotic mess in your head after brainstorming? Most people have amazing ideas but do not know how to organize them or represent them. This book can help you declutter your mind using illustrations. Sketching leads to flexible, creative, and free-spirited approaches to design challenges. And so, this book focuses on the design process itself. It helps you organize your ideas and create mind maps.
To encourage freedom of expression in design and promote graphic thinking, Laseau introduces different graphics techniques that can be useful in different situations. You can use this book to learn some basic freehand drawing, representational drawing construction, graphic note-taking, and diagramming. Furthermore, it is suitable for people who are not huge fans of reading too much text. That’s because Lasaeau presents his ideas mainly in the form of visuals; diagrams, illustrations, and sketches. “Graphic Thinking” does not only relate to architects but to all designers in general. You definitely do not need to be a bookworm to find this book beneficial, it is simple and easy to comprehend.
4. The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch
Courtesy of Rethinking the future
This is a MUST for urban designers and urban planners. Why is it that we get lost in certain places, yet find our way back in others? In this book, the author talks about how people orient themselves in an urban space using mental maps.
The book focuses on how people construct a mental map that gives them emotional security and saves them from feeling disoriented in a public space. Lynch discusses the five main elements of the mental map, which are paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks.
Needless to say, this book is an academic resource for students of urban design all over the world. “The Image of the City” formulated a relatively new criterion—imageability. The legendary Kevin Lynch explains the street experience from the perspective of the city dweller, creating a vital method for the evaluation of city form. This book is a classic indispensable read for architects, planners, and even city dwellers.
5. The Concise Townscape by Gordon Cullen
Courtesy by Routledge, 1961
This “concise” version of the book is actually the summarized version of the original book, perfect for lazy readers. Townscape is the art of giving visual meaning and organization to the untidy compilation of buildings, streets, and space that make up the urban environment. And here, Gordon Cullen provides a simple yet genius approach to how we, as humans, visually perceive our environment, known as “Serial Vision”. He presents three main principles in the urban context which govern human moods: optics, place, and content.
“A city is more than the sum of its inhabitants. It has the power to generate a surplus of amenity, which is one reason why people like to live in communities rather than in isolation. “—Gordon Cullen
6. Becoming an Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design
Courtesy of ARCH Careers Guide
Who says books are only for academics? Nonsense. This guide is your optimum choice if you’re looking for something that will help you as a practitioner. As architects, when we work in offices we often find ourselves stuck in situations we don’t know how to handle. Consider this book as your fairy godmother who will tell you the secrets that others won’t. This up-to-date guide to careers in architecture provides a clear and concise survey of the field and offers advice for a successful career.
It includes interviews and testimonials from leading architects. The book covers everything from educational requirements to registration requirements and the many directions in which a career in architecture can go.
7. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas (1978)
Courtesy of Oxford University Press, 1978
This one is an essential classic. If you’re not that much into reading, this book might seem challenging, but it is worth your time. Rem Koolhaas‘s analysis of New York depicts the city as a metaphor for the incredible variety of human behavior. At the end of the nineteenth century, population and technology explosions made Manhattan a hub for the metropolitan lifestyle.
Koolhaas reinterprets the relation between architecture and culture through the storytelling of New York’s history. He discusses the imposition of the Manhattan grid, the creation of Coney Island, and the development of the skyscraper.
Since its original publication in 1978, the book has gained a lot of popularity. It is undeniably relevant to what we find out about our cities today. Koolhaas uses drawings, photographs, postcards, and maps to illustrate his ideas. Old is gold, right?
8. Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier
Courtesy of Dover Publications, 1985
Le Corbusier, you may love him or hate him, but you can’t ignore him. Towards a New Architecture is an essential book not only for architects but also for urban designers and historians.
The leading figure of the “modern” movement and “International style” in architecture explains, in this book, his evolutionary aesthetic theories as well as his views on economics, industry, the relation between form and function, as well as the “mass-production spirit”.
He also characterizes some of his most memorable 20th-century buildings, like Chapel at Ronchamp and Unité d’Habitation in Marseilles.
9. The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton
Courtesy of Vintage, 2008
The Architecture of Happiness starts with the argument that it is architecture’s role to stand as an expressive reminder of our full potential. Although aesthetics has always been a controversial topic, “The Architecture of Happiness” discusses it from a unique approach. The book presents a childish and naïve question we have all asked before: ‘What is a beautiful building?’
Alain De Botton takes us on a tour through the philosophy and psychology of architecture. The book aims to change the way we perceive our homes, streets, and even ourselves. It suggests that maybe buildings have their own psychology and speak to their surroundings, and that is in the way windows, doors, and other elements co-exist. Moreover, this book is one of the few architecture books that can actually be interesting and captivating for both architects and non-architects alike.
10. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt by Hassan Fathy
Courtesy of University of Chicago Press, 1976
With sustainability becoming more and more popular, everyone, now, claims to be practicing sustainability. Accordingly, one can easily get the impression that sustainability has become common practice in architectural design. But has it?
Hassan Fathy, one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, aimed to lift the pressures of unemployment and livelihood off the less fortunate. “Architecture for the Poor” describes Hassan Fathy’s plan for building the village of New Gourna, near Luxor in Egypt. The award-winning architect built the village without using modern and expensive materials such as steel and concrete. Using local mud bricks, he revived the native technique of sustainable vernacular architecture.
In his book, Fathy shares with us the process of sustainable building and how to include clients in the actual process for a participatory approach. He describes how he taught the construction workers to work with the bricks. He includes how he supervised the construction of the buildings by himself. Even though the project did not succeed, the book was very successful and brought Hassan Fathy to global celebrity status. In our materialistic modern era, this book will make you re-think how sustainability is defined.
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