Architecture has deep wells of research, thought, and theory that are unseen on the surface of a structure. For practitioners, citizens interested, and students alike, books on architecture offer invaluable context to the profession, be it practical, inspirational, academic, or otherwise. So, for those of you looking to expand your bookshelf (or confirm your own tastes), ArchDaily has gathered a broad list of architectural books that we consider of interest to those in the field.

In compiling this list, we sought out titles from different backgrounds with the aim of revealing divergent cultural contexts. From essays to monographs, urban theory to graphic novels, each of the following either engage directly with or flirt on the edges of architecture.

The books on this list were chosen by our editors, and are categorized loosely by type. Read on to see the books we consider valuable to anyone interested in architecture | Last updated in December 2019.

The Essential Reads

Every design challenge represents a problem to be solved. In this book, Christopher Alexander proposes a cataloging of the types of problems (or design challenges) and analyzes what lies behind each situation, describing it in its essence and proposing a standard solution | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

The obligatory world-acclaimed book that proposes a critical reflection on the value of the collective memory in the architecture —of the city | Recommended by Fabian Dejtiar

Peter Zumthor shortly highlights the importance of the sensations in the construction of 'Athmospheres', to create a good place for the development of people | Recommended by Fabian Dejtiar



A "gentle manifesto for a non-straightforward architecture," Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern rebellion against the purism of modernism | Recommended by Diego Hernández

Inspiring text based on conversations led by Louis Kahn in different workshops | Recommended by Martita Vial

A classic book with a very sensitive atmosphere about promising architecture and design | Recommended by Martita Vial

This book a quick, delightful, and inspiring read - and entirely essential as we continue on the asymptote towards entirely digital practice in architecture. Pallasmaa encourages architects to see the world around them not just with sight but with touch, sound, even smell! | Recommended by Katherine Allen

In this 1960s classic, Kevin Lynch presents studies of how cities are perceived and imagined, and shows how his findings can impact the building and rebuilding of cities | Recommended by Becky Quintal

Explains the beauty of oriental architecture through their perception of light and shadows in their art and architectural traditions | Recommended by Martita Vial

Seminal work for the history of architecture, the authors analyze the Las Vegas' strip to better comprehend the common and ordinary architecture, rather than the iconic buildings proclaimed by modernism | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

Mutations' reflects on the transformations that urban accelerating processes inflict on our environment, and on the spaces in which architecture can still operate | Recommended by Victor Delaqua

It presents appropriate standard measures and design tips. A very useful book for all architects | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

Really beautifully written book on the poetics of space within the home. It explores the philosophy of space and how it relates to memories and dreams | Recommended by Yiling Shen

"Know what you have to do and do it," said John Ruskin - words that neatly sum the contents of this book. Ruskin's writing describes lamps as characteristics that any piece of architecture must have in order to be considered this real architecture - in turn, the principles he deems necessary for architecture to be considered art | Recommended by Martita Vial

This book exposes the work of one of the most famous architecture groups for the radicalization and criticism of utopias | Recommended by Monica Arellano

Based on interesting diagrams and drawings, Peter Eisenman provides evidence of how some renowned architects of the 20th century changed our way of thinking | Recommended by Fabian Dejtiar

A collection of the most important and seminal essays in the field of architecture published between 1965 and 1995 | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

Banham's response to the second industrial revolution | Recommended by Diego Hernández

This book explains the disciplines of designing anything —from a house to a coffee cup | Recommended by Dima Stouhi

After years in architecture school, you may understand how a building is put together - but how much do you actually understand the processes that make that building function in the first place? Kate Ascher reviews the systems that manage traffic, water, heat, electricity, and much more, tying architecture not just to an image of the urban environment, but to the actual workings of the city | Recommended by Collin Abdallah

Yona Friedman takes up the work of groups such as Archigram to propose cities that propose new ways of inhabiting cities | Recommended by Monica Arellano

Guides

This book systematically and exhaustively analyzes the foundations of architectural form, space, and arrangement based on prototypes and historical examples from all periods, cultures and geographical areas | Recommended by Martita Vial

For many architects, designing for the senses often means simply designing for sight and touch. This book gives a comprehensive overview of designing for sound, from detailed drawings to texts on the subject. The hope? That better acoustic environments will also mean better buildings | Recommended by Collin Abdallah

As compelling as concepts are to discuss, they're rarely what makes the experience of a building special - that falls instead to a building's details. We notice how a wall touches the ground, how a railing curves underneath our hand - but how do you design these things? This book provides a vast variety of examples to help architects consider and design the details | Recommended by Collin Abdallah

The field experiences developed by Elemental and Alejandro Aravena, winner of the 2016 Pritzker Prize and Director of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, are compiled in this book that not only tells the history of the team but also presents its financing strategies and the participatory methods used | Recommended by José Tomás Franco

In an increasingly air-conditioned environment, it can be easy to discount thermal comfort in the design of a building. But architecture (particularly vernacular design) has long been built on traditions surrounding thermal comfort, ranging from Roman baths to Islamic gardens to the porches of Southern US homes. As energy-efficiency increasingly becomes a part of the conversation, it's wise to learn from the past to design for the future | Recommended by Collin Abdallah

Architects, Firms, and Movements

More than a few revolutions took place in the 60s, but perhaps the most memorable one for architects is that of Archigram. The legendary British group created visions for cities that still feel fresh and fantastical today, and are carried on by designers such as Neil Denari, Lebbeus Woods, and Morphosis. This book is an excellent dive into their thinking in their own words, and includes a massive (though unfortunately black and white) selection of their famous collages. Those enamoured by the post-digital drawing craze will enjoy seeing where the current movement partly stems from | Recommended by Katherine Allen

New York-based architects Reiser+Umemoto use short, informative chapters to explain their design process through a series topics that have driven their work | Recommended by Becky Quintal

This reading offers insight not only to one of the world's most creative practices, but into how to design for a changing climate - a message we'd all be wise to pay attention to | Recommended by Yiling Shen

Jan Gehl presents his latest work creating (or recreating) cityscapes on a human scale. He clearly explains the methods and tools he uses to reconfigure unworkable cityscapes into the landscapes he believes they should be: cities for people | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

Many of us enter the field with a core belief that we can leverage the profession to do good for others. But often, the places most in need of optimism are the ones least likely to get it. Design Like You Give a Damn is the resource for socially-conscious design, gathering together projects, history, and information about the movement - and what's possible with a little optimism | Recommended by Katherine Allen

This book deals with the work of the Uruguayan engineer-architect Eladio Dieste, whose greatest production was developed in the capital of his native country and adjunctive cities in the second half of the twentieth century | Recommended by Matheus Pereira

Forensic Architecture, a research group led by Eyal Weizman at Goldsmiths, leverages architecture as a framework to investigate a world in conflict, from armed violence to environmental destruction. This book details some of their work with activist groups, NGOs, and the UN | Recommended by Katherine Allen

Junya Ishigami is known for a singular portfolio, one in which structures blur into near invisibility, taking on the appearance of forests, strands of ribbon, and even the sky | Recommended by Shuang Han

This work by Frank Lloyd Wright brings together a large part of the writings and conferences that, over an intense decade of its prolonged existence, offered to the eagerness of qualified audiences, collaborators and students. Until its author reunited them under the generic title of "The Future of Architecture", the lessons of the great master exhausted the original editions. It was essential that these enlightening texts be brought to light for the new generations of architectural scholars | Recommended by Martita Vial della Maggiora

This book presents and discusses part of the works of Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld, from homes to hotels in Brazil and other regions of the world. The book also features previously unpublished photographs that visually describe their work | Recommended by Matheus Pereira

Ada Louise Huxtable reinvented the field of not just architectural criticism, but criticism itself, winning the first ever Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In her canny eyes, the city was not something abstract or academic, but something that was living, tangible - kickable. Her legacy is one that lives on today in the (perhaps improbably) thriving field of architectural criticism | Recommended by Katherine Allen

A comprehensive study of Bo Bardi’s career using an extensive archival work in Italy and Brazil | Recommended by Pedro Vada

MOS is an office known as much for their wit as they are for their architecture. Architecture, under their idiosyncratic gaze, is lively, ironic, and even a bit awkward. In short, it's as human as we are ourselves | Recommended by Kaley Overstreet

This book discusses the work of Brazilian modern architect Oscar Niemeyer with a focus on the works produced in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960 | Recommended by Matheus Pereira

Twenty-one carefully selected projects are presented in detail, from the initial idea and through construction to the completed work and illustrated by Michael Moran | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

Lebbeus Woods, until his death in 2012, kept a blog that was part-journal, part-forum. This book compiles some of the 300+ posts in what is likely the most encompassing insight into his particular genius. Perhaps the only thing missing from the book is Wood's complex and unique illustrations. But never fear! They are all available on his still (thankfully) open blog. Read the two together for the fullest possible experience | Recommended by Katherine Allen

Poll any architect on the most essential books of the field, and this tome from Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau will undoutedly come up. The book weaves together OMA projects by scale, using drawings, collages, images, and texts to challenge conventional understand of architecture, scale, and the city | Recommended by Becky Quintal

This book presents some of the architect's projects, discussing the language adopted from the technical, structural, philosophical and social point of view | Recommended by Matheus Pereira

Admirers of the Swiss architect's sensitive approach to building and form should consider this text required reading for practice. Zumthor presents his philosophy through the lens of his own work and experience. Who better to learn from than the master? | Recommended by Katherine Allen

This book documents the work of the architecture studio Flores & Prats, approaching its way of doing architecture through an artisan design process with different types of handmade drawings and details | Recommended by Fabian Dejtiar

An intriguing look inside the design and construction of Steven Holl's Reid Building next to the famed Glasgow School of Art. The process is one of balance and reconciliation, illuminated through drawings, photographs, and interviews | Recommended by Niall Patrick Walsh

Set up as a conversation between WORKac co-founders Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, We'll Get there When We Cross that Bridge switches seamlessly between portfolio review and an impassioned discussion of issues relevant to the practice. It's an invaluable insight into how one of the most exciting contemporary firms works, thinks, and plans for the future | Recommended by Kaley Overstreet

If non-architects know any practicing architect today, it's probably Bjarke Ingels. This book is a big part of the reason why! Yes is More introduced the world to a new way of looking at and speaking about architecture - one that was lively, energetic, and open to all. Since its publication in 2009, we've all joined BIG's hedonistic revolution, and it's shaped architecture for the better | Recommended by Katherine Allen

Novels

A scathing literary satire by Australia's most influential architect on how ugly Australian suburbs are still relevant today | Recommended by Yiling Shen

In this book, architect Jimenez Lai creates a collection of short stories on architecture and urbanism, represented through manga-style storyboards | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

In this book, somewhere between a novel and a set of essays, Marco Polo describes the cities he's visited to emperor Kublai Khan. Each city is lushly, if fragmentarily described. This is surely the way we should talk about our cities: as shimmering reflections and formless memories. Easily readable in parts, this book is the perfect detox for those needing an escape from all the unbearable talk about smart cities and circular economies - and a reminder why we fall in love with cities in the first place | Recommended by Katherine Allen

This novel describes the evolution of Gothic architecture as a response to its Romanesque precursor against the backdrop of (lightly fictionalized) medieval European life | Recommended by Martita Vial.

History

A complete historic round-up of architecture styles | Recommended by Dima Stouhi

This book explains the history, evolution, and ornaments of Islamic architecture | Recommended by Dima Stouhi

Alessandro Scarnato explains how Barcelona, an infested city, became a global city after Spain recovered its democracy in the '70s | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

An explosion of little architectural magazines in the 1960s and 1970s instigated a radical transformation in architectural culture, as the magazines acted as a site of innovation and debate | Recommended by Victor Delaqua

Alejandro Aravena joins Fernando Perez Oyarzún and José Quintanilla to discuss and analyze several architecture projects along with history, all accompanied with drawings, essays, and external references to make understand architecture from all its different angles and points of view | Recommended by Fernanda Castro

An extensive overview of the history, motivations, successes, and failures of the Modernist movement in architecture, offering invaluable and unparalleled context on an already widely published topic | Recommended by Shuang Han

One of the most complete and relevant books on modern architecture, in the fourth edition Frampton added a major new section to his masterpiece that explores the effects of globalization on architecture all over the world | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

This book documents and analyzes ten of Palladio's surviving villas in terms of their relationship with their natural surroundings | Recommended by Niall Patrick Walsh

The most influential architectural manifestos from 1903 to 1963, collected here in chronological order | Recommended by Becky Quintal

An editorial design accomplishment by itself, this book interweaves historical research with interviews with some of the most prominent architects from Japanese Metabolism movement | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

Todd Gannon sheds light on one of architecture's most influential critics, giving readers context to the man and opinions behind the writings. From his tentative enthusiasm for Archigram to his views on the high-tech architecture of the 80s and 90s, his opinions need not be a mystery | Recommended by Kaley Overstreet

García Vásquez reveals how the contemporary city has evolved, according to psychologists, historians, and architects | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

A compilation of Piranesi's etchings of prisons, Le Carceri represents not only a huge artistic accomplishment but also a milestone on architectural perception with its numerous vaults, staircases and other ambiguous structures | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

Theory

This classic examines how architecture defines our understanding of space - and how buildings are sometimes indifferent participants in the urban environment. In Zevi's capable hands the components of architecture come alive, offering an illuminating and provocative perspective on the field of architecture | Recommended by Martita Vial.

The popular image of the architect is one of ego and power - but as any practicing architect will tell you, this is rarely (at best) the truth. Architecture depends on just about everything: the client, contractors, code, materials, zoning, budget…how much of a building is actually designed by the designer? This book investigates the gap between architecture's dependent nature and the aggressive perfectionism with which we pursue our work | Recommended by Katherine Allen

By analyzing the relation between cinema, art, and architecture through the lens of existential spaces, Pallasmaa dives into the work of Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Andrei Tarkovsky and how they used architectural imagery to create emotional states | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

This book explores the bases of design from the very antique tools to the new digital era to propose new theories that allow us to rethink the way we design | Recommended by Monica Arellano

The authors carry out a historical journey that narrates the social role of architects and planners until the current era of globalization | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

The book is an inescapable reference for thinking about contemporary art and architecture | Recommended by Victor Delaqua

From nomadic architecture to underground sewerage landscapes, this book examines the possibilities of architecture outside of how it is normally viewed and discussed | Recommended by Yiling Shen

This is an iconic book analyzing the post-modern work of Edmond & Corrigan and how they reflect ideas about Australian suburbia and theatrics in their architecture | Recommended by Yiling Shen

David Harvey identify different contexts to create a great panorama of The condition of Postmodernity | Recommended by Pedro Vada

Critical architectural theory from the mid-1990s to now | Recommended by Pedro Vada

In OMA/AMO's words, Content is a product of the moment. Inspired by ceaseless fluctuations of the early 21st Century, it bears the marks of globalism and the market, ideological siblings that, over the past twenty years, have undercut the stability of contemporary life | Recommended by Diego Hernández

Basically, the work that made Rem Koolhaas famous. This book exposes the consistency and coherence of the seemingly unrelated episodes of Manhattan's urbanism focusing on its "culture of congestion." | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

You're unlikely to find this book on any typical architecture reading lists, but that doesn't make it any less essential. Robert Bevan guides the reader through the architectural landscape in times of and after a conflict, giving words to what we know but don't often say: that the built environment has cultural and personal significance that stretches far beyond shelter. The leveling of buildings in war is less often the byproduct of hostilities than it is the hostilities themselves. The active and systematic erasure of an urban landscape is the strategic and leveling of identity, culture, and people | Recommended by Katherine Allen

Beatriz Colomina studies the phenomenon of postwar architecture as well as the factors that helped to build the idea of modern architecture based on the work of Charles and Ray Eames | Recommended by Monica Arellano

Seventeen conversations with practitioners from the fields of architecture, policy, activism, design, education, and research speculating on the future direction of the architectural profession | Recommended by Niall Patrick Walsh

It is a critical tour about concepts for living in seven iconic twentieth-century homes | Recommended by Pedro Vada

This book provides students and professional architects with the basic elements of architectural design, divided into twenty-six easy-to-comprehend chapters | Recommended by Winnie Wu

A selection of articles that address the notion of the ordinary in architecture over the last 40 years | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

The section is the greatest and most legible tool of architecture - who among us did not grow up entranced by the cut sections of buildings such as the Pantheon or Kowloon Walled City? This book is the grown-up answer to our childhood fascinations, offering detailed drawings of contemporary works. Essays offer invaluable insight into not just the buildings selected but to the idea of the section itself | Recommended by Kaley Overstreet

Oppositions Reader collects the most important essays from 26 issues of Oppositions, the journal of the New York-based Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS). An excellent selection of authors and prevailing subjects | Recommended by Antonia Piñeiro

This book studies how architectural production is popularized and inclined to design erotic spaces based on a specific context, demonstrating how different factors of the modern culture shaped the places we inhabit | Recommended by Monica Arellano

According to Habraken, architects consider the context to be the 'ordinary' into which they are challenged to produce the 'extraordinary.' But as vernacular architecture disappears, ordinary environments are more difficult to define. Without a clear counterpoint, how can architects situate concepts of innovation in architecture? | Recommended by José Tomás Franco

Compilation of eight lectures from Rafael Moneo on eight of the most renowned architects from the last half-century, including James Stirling, Robert Venturi, Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman, Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

The great Brazilian geographer presents an alternative theory of globalization | Recommended by Pedro Vada

This volume presents, in a sequence of ten “conversations,” Bernard Tschumi's autobiography in architecture | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

The most famous architectural critic offers an architectural dictionary to understand how we live spaces | Recommended by Monica Arellano

Cities & Urbanism

This book brings Gautherot's photos about the construction of the building of Brasilia with essays by Kenneth Frampton | Recommended by Pedro Vada

Richard Rogers presents a program of action for the future of cities. It demonstrates the influence of architecture and urban planning on everyday lives, and warns of the impact modern cities can have on the environment | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

MIT's Senseable City Lab remains at the cutting edge of urban design, placing designers in future scenarios to steer human progress | Recommended by Niall Patrick Walsh

An amazing illustrated vision in a crowded urban center and how its exploit its most limited resources —soil— at its best expression | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

Grand urban visions may make for compelling theory and research, but how often do they succeed in practice? Collage city offers a more nuanced view on urbanism - one that is as patchworked and diverse as urban societies themselves | Recommended by Kaley Overstreet

This book pioneered the concept of townscape. 'Townscape' is the art of giving visual coherence and organization to the jumble of buildings, streets, and space that make up the urban environment | Recommended by Winnie Wu

The New York Times describes this book as “perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning." An essential read for architects young and old | Recommended by Niall Patrick Walsh

The city is an extension of nature and the urban projects must be in tune with this same nature. The book is the result of extensive interdisciplinary research, as well as the author's extensive experience as a landscape architect | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

Leonardo Benevolo describes the basic history of the man-made environment in Europe | Recommended by Pedro Vada

If you are interested in urban form issues, this analysis of different cities explains the characteristics of the open system and closed spaces | Recommended by Fabian Dejtiar

The book describes essential elements that contribute to people’s enjoyment of spaces in the public realm | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

The geographer Michael Batty presents the new vision about cities as systems of network and flows | Recommended by Pedro Vada

Economist Edward Glaeser explains how and why cities shape the economy, including how the ways we develop and build we affect the future of cities' inhabitants | Recommended by Becky Quintal

In The Urban Apparatus, Reinhold Martin analyzes urbanization and the contemporary city in aesthetic, socio-economic and political-political terms | Recommended by Antonia Piñeiro

A guide to study the city based on the theories of the situationists and the drift of Guy Débord that studies the simultaneous episodes that make up the urban | Recommended by Monica Arellano

Latest Additions

The architect proposes explanations about climatic contexts, forms, and materials that enable energy, water and sanitation solutions that help in the work, through the use of alternative eco-technologies | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

A book that features numerous solutions from Materials, Processes, Structures | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

Augé uses the concept of “supermodernity” to describe a situation of excessive information and excessive space. In this fascinating essay, he seeks to establish an intellectual armature for an anthropology of supermodernity | Recommended by Martita Vial

Gehl and Svarre draw from their combined experience of over 50 years to provide a history of public-life study as well as methods and tools necessary to recapture city life as an important planning dimension | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

In a time where the future looks darker than ever, Alex Krieger reminds us of how utopian dreams once galvanized American (city planning) history and shows that our current worries―rather than dreams―require new utopias to be imagined | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

A must-read comprehensive catalog to understand the legacy of the most relevant architecture movement from the XX century in Peru | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

Soft City is about ease and comfort, where density has a human dimension, adapting to our ever-changing needs, nurturing relationships, and accommodating the pleasures of everyday life | Recommended by Paula Pintos

Beginning with the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889, Cohen compiles developments that have shaped the world in which we live today. Through illustrations, drawings, and photographs, the book presents the evolution of the early twenty-first century's globalized architectural culture | Recommended by Romullo Baratto

An authoritative study of the interrelationship between modern architecture, landscape, and site strategy as viewed through the work of the five prominent architects | Recommended by Paula Pintos

A monograph compilation of forerunner women architects that should be recognized for their contribution to the modernism movement in the XX century | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

The cities of Mumbai, Sao Paulo and Istanbul were added to the six cities of the first volume with the same mix of compelling photographs, in-depth and beautifully presented data, and smart writing by global thinkers. Each city is explored in a series of essays that address vital themes, from security to climate change, looking closely at the problems that face contemporary cities and examining a variety of solutions | Recommended by Christele Harrouk

An iconic compilation of explorative chronicles and photo essays about over the hill, middle-scale cities in Chile. How are they? What are their favorite foods? What are their people's expectations and frustrations? | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

People like to keep certain distances between themselves and other people or things. And this invisible bubble of space that constitutes each person's "territory" is one of the key dimensions of modern society. Hall introduced the science of proxemics to demonstrate how human's use of space can affect personal and business relations, cross-cultural interactions, architecture, city planning, and urban renewal | Recommended by Christele Harrouk

Edited by dpr-Barcelona's Ethel Baraona, Het Nieuwe Instituut's Marina Otero and FAST's Malkit Shoshan, Drone brings together researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds whose work seeks to understand and represent the nature and extent of drone operations | Recommended by Nicolas Valencia

The city’s development from ancient times to the modern age. Winner of the National Book Award | Recommended by Christele Harrouk

An invaluable sourcebook of design knowledge, City Sense and City Design completes the record of one of the foremost environmental design theorists of our time and leads to a deeper understanding of his distinctively humanistic philosophy | Recommended by Christele Harrouk

This book shows how streets of every size can be reimagined and reoriented to prioritize safe driving and transit, biking, walking, and public activity. Unlike older, more conservative engineering manuals, this design guide emphasizes the core principle that urban streets have a larger role to play in communities | Recommended by Eduardo Souza

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