BUILD Book Report
As Architects and builders we buy a lot of books and we get rid of a lot of books, but there’s always a few design books that stay on our shelves and on our desks because they’re so good. Today’s post reviews a few favorites and a few that we suspect will quickly become favorites. Let us know what’s important in your design library.
Mapping New York, Black Dog Publishing, $49.95
We were honored to find a brand-spanking-new copy of Mapping New York on our desks from the sharp shooters at Black Dog Publishing. If you’re like us, and you enjoy long aimless walks through the streets of Manhattan, have spent a significant amount of your life marveling at the scale of New York City or simply find the history of New York’s geometry fascinating, you will fall madly in love with this book. Starting appropriately with the Dutch map makers the book covers everything from the first orchards through the expansion north, to maps tracking social statistics, the Harlem renaissance, demographics of noise complaints, Nasa photographs from space, map projections into the future, and everything in between. The complexity of New York tracked over time is simply mesmerizing and Mapping New York tells the story page after gorgeous page. This is more than just a book of maps; it’s the graphic history of how a place became the most important city in the world.
Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far by Stefan Sagmeister, Abrams Books, $40.00
Sagmeister’s thesis of his life so far breaks down into 15 handsome little magazines that are so fun they don’t stay on the bookshelf for long. They wind up on the coffee table, the bedside table, on the kitchen table at breakfast, in our bookbags… The volumes are exciting in that way where you never quite know what’s around the next corner. It makes you feel like a kid again and ignites the curious sense of imagination and wonder that got most of us addicted to design in the first place.
Making and Breaking the Grid by Timothy Samara, Rockport, $25.00
With over 200 pages of beautiful visual compositions and lessons this book is a feast for the eyes. It’s also a serious book for the well trained eye. It might be best utilized by those who have been around the block a few times; those warriors of graphic design deep in the trenches of saving the world from ugly. This book is tactical and strategic, think of it as a textbook for real life design.
Single Building Series | Process of an Architectural Work, Rockport, $5
Rockport is doing a nice job covering some important projects that simply require an abundance of photos, writing and drawings to properly understand. The Single Building Series issue that is usually out and about in the office, and never quite makes it back on the shelf, is the Type Variant House by Vincent James. It’s been flipped through so many times the spine has long since broken and the pages are starting to spill out all over the place. The diagrams are clean, crisp and refined, the photos (starting with construction process photos) are vibrant and inspiring. The designers who composed this book series know when not to do something – photos only extend on the pages as far as they need to and refreshing white space abounds throughout the book. Process sketches are carefully located alongside finish photos giving the viewer a glimpse at the mastery behind architecture of this caliber.
The New Typography by Jan Tschichold, University of California Press, $35.00
This book is as old as dirt and more important than ever. First published in Germany in 1928, the book was a manifesto of modern design and codified many of the modernist design rules still very much in use today. It was translated into English in the 1950’s and remains available today. We like the book because it’s one of the purest versions of graphic design in our modern, digital world. While Tschichold’s lessons apply extremely well to digital design, the book attacks the written word based on the printed composition – still the end product of much of our digital efforts.
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By mike, November 30, 2009 @ 9:02 pm
good to see you guys picked up the type/variant gem and have ruined the spine as much as mine.
it’s hard to say what’s most important. i don’t think i could ever pick just 10 and walk away from the rest…
but here are my most revered:
birkhauser masonry manual (from former boss)
sverre fehn monograph
a+u: zumthor
juerg conzett: structure as space
tezuka architecture catalogue
contemporary architects: alberto campo baeza
By andrew, December 1, 2009 @ 11:12 am
“1000 Chairs” Charlotte and Peter Fiell
“Poetry Language Thought” Martin Heidegger
“Thinking Architecture” Peter Zumthor
“The Eyes of the Skin” Juhani Pallasmaa
Right now I’m reading “Alvar Aalto in His Own Words” edited by Goran Schildt, and I can’t imagine it won’t become a go-to.
Some that aren’t design-oriented in the strict sense (less so than Poetry Language Thought) but definitely important:
“Hope, Human and Wild” Bill McKibben (the bit about Curitiba, Brazil mayor, architect Jaime Lerner is affirming of the training and profession of architecture.)
“A Sand County Almanac” Aldo Leopold (The essay ‘Good Oak’ is a classic portrayal of the sort of mindfulness architects need)
and
“The Sound of Mountain Water” Wallace Stegner (especially the letter ‘Coda’)
These are written by naturalists who are also fantastic writers (or vice versa). I suggest them because I think architects can and should help to recover our cultural sense of parts-whole whole relationships, as is person-ecosystem, person-society, society-ecosystems.
Ooh, and “Earth in Mind” by David Orr (the guy who made Oberlin College the flagship of sustainable design) has good stuff about the intersection of design and ecology. Not particularly good reading, but important ideas.
What a great post. I hope it gets lots of comments, cause I’ve got two new books from it already (I’ll have to save my pennies for the other ones, wowzers).
By Bernard, December 1, 2009 @ 3:52 pm
The Mapping New York book looks fantastic – that one’s going on my Christmas list.
By AH, December 1, 2009 @ 3:59 pm
Stefan Sagmeister gave a lecture at TED based on the book you mentioned, check it out here
By dru, December 8, 2009 @ 4:19 pm
some great titles listed up there. i’ll try to add a few more [maybe obscure ones]:
Fire & Memory: On Architecture & Energy by Luiz Fernando-Galiano, translated by Gina Carino–kind of like a spanish Juhani Pallasma,; this book first opened me up to the sensualness of buildings. buildings radiate energy, and should be not only touched but caressed.
GHOST: Building an Architectural Vision by Brian Mackay-Lyons–documents [9] two week long design build crash course seasons on material culture in nova scotia
Louis I. Kahn Houses by Yutaka Saito–a very comprehensive look at some of Kahn’s lesser known residential works; published by toilet maker TOTO
Slow Space by Michael bell & Sze Tsung Leong–”a book that attempts to make time material”
Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award 2006: peter zumthor–excellent showcase of zumthor’s cabins; amazing sketches and photos to boot.
Strange Details by Michael Cadwell–case studies of 4 projects by Kahn, Scarpa, Mies, and Wright focusing intently on peculiar details that make each project unique.
The Art of Japanese Joinery by Kiyosi Seike–sensuous b&w photos of traditional japanese architectural joinery along with technical descriptions of each joint’s application.