As a multidisciplinary field, architecture includes so many facets that it’s almost impossible to form a perfectly thorough architectural education. This is why, if you’re an architect or a student of architecture, it’s always a good idea to add to your knowledge by reading a wide variety of books.
To help you broaden your understanding, cutting across interior design, landscape design, urban planning, and other elements of architecture, we have compiled this list of books.
Best Books for Architects
Take a look at the varying perspectives, different writing styles, and wide array of knowledge offered by these insightful books for architects.
1. 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick
This comprehensive book includes lessons in drawing, design, the creative process, color theory, and presentation. With its simple and clear language, this makes it a favorite go-to resource for every architect’s studio or student’s backpack.
2. Architecture: Form, Space, and Order by Francis D. K. Ching
This reference book is the classic introduction to the foundations of architectural design, now updated with contemporary examples that you can really relate to, plus an Interactive Resource Center with 3D models you can access online, .
3. Design Like You Give a Damn 2 by Kate Stohr
This sequel to Architecture for Humanity’s first book is an architectural handbook with sustainability in mind. This volume includes over 100 projects from all over the world, with practical and resourceful design solutions to inspire your designs.
4. A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester
This book is perfect for the curious tourist, the house aficionado, the weekend stroller, the house buyer, or even the neighborhood preservation advocate. Thanks to this book, you can learn how to identify the different styles and design periods of domestic architecture in America.
5. A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
Whether you’re designing your own house or working with neighbors to improve your neighborhood, this book is a great help. Christopher Alexander is part of the Center for Environmental Structure, and this book is part of his goal, along with his colleagues, to give us a new perspective of architecture, planning, and building.
6. The Interior Design Productivity Toolbox by Phyllis Harbinger
The author recognizes that an interior designer doesn’t just design, but also schedules meetings with clients and oversees installation. This book can help you organize and streamline your tasks using the A-Z accountability system.
7. Architecture Workbook: Design through Motive by Peter Cook
This workbook, which is divided into 9 parts, highlighting a wide array of architectural motives, will help inspire you through key themes or motives for designing a project. These examples include modernist and historical themes, as well as designs observed on the street, creating a vibrant, scrapbook-like feast.
8. Materials, Specification and Detailing: Foundations of Building Design by Norman Wienand
This book takes a holistic look at architecture, examining the different layers of mechanisms, knowledge, and skills that architects need. It includes excellent illustrations of case studies, and the author uses his wide experience in architectural education to describe the development process in good detail.
9. Perspective Made Easy by Ernest R. Norling
This classic manual can help you learn general drawing techniques, as well as perspective drawing, a must-have skill for any aspiring architect. The book shares the information in easy-to-understand points, giving you 250 simple line drawings and illustrations, helping you to easily understand each drawing’s concept.
10. Basics Landscape Architecture 02: Ecological Design by Nancy Rottle and Ken Yocom
This book gives you an overview of ecological design and planning, especially for landscape designs. It goes into the themes and concepts that contemporary ecological planning and design require, and also shows the basic functions and structures of nature and human systems.
11. Home: The Foundation of Enduring Spaces by Ellen Fisher and Jen Renzi
This book is brought to you by the top college for interior design in the US, the New York School of Interior Design, making it a favorite reference book for any architect or interior designer. The excellent illustrations and comprehensive details in this book help form a wide base of education in home decor and design.
12. Buiding Construction Illustrated by Francis D. K. Ching
This e-textbook is considered the top visual guide to principles of building construction over the last four decades, and now comes with an addition of the latest materials, systems, and methods. This can give you the information you need for understanding the needed concepts in commercial and residential architecture, structural engineering, and construction.
Reading Books on Architecture
Whether you are an architect or an architectural student, you will do well to expand your knowledge by reading extensively on the various aspects of architecture. We hope this list can help you add important resources to your collection.
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
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Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
