Art & Photography, Best Books, Education, History, Nonfiction

The 31 Best Books About Architecture

February 4, 2016April 1, 2017 by

We consulted 25 “Best Architecture” book sources, and found 301 unique titles, with 31 appearing on multiple lists. A surprisingly high number of the top books have covers with simple or minimal designs. Not having flashy covers is one way to appear timeless and not of any particular era, but we definitely expected to find more books showcasing designs or architecture than we did. Of course, you should never judge a book by its cover, and if these rankings are anything to go by, a flashy cover doesn’t guarantee a good book, just as a simple looking cover doesn’t guarantee a bad book.

The Top 31 Architecture Books

31) AIA City Guides from the American Institute of Architects

Appears On: 2 Lists
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30) Architects Pocket Book

Appears On: 2 Lists
Learn More / Buy

The 270 Additional Architecture Books Appearing on a Single List

10 x 10 (Architecture) by Editors of Phaidon Press
100 More of the World’s Best Houses
20 Houses by Twenty Architects (Electaarchitecture)
20 Japanese Architects by Roland Hagenberg
20th-Century World Architecture
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman
A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic
Architecture by Virginia Savage McAlester
A Guide to Archigram 1961–74 by Dennis Crompton
A History of the Future by Donna Goodman
A History of Western Architecture by David Watkin
A New Kind of Bleak: Journeys Through Urban Britain
A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder by Michael Pollan
A Sense of Place, A Sense of Time
Aesthetics of Architecture
AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.) NORVAL WHITE
Amamonzeki’
American Architecture and Urbanism VINCENT SCULLY
American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915′
An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles
An Introduction to Passive House
Analysing Architecture
Anonymous 20th Century
Anxiety of Influence
Architect’s Illustrated Pocket Dictionary
Architects’ Data by Ernst Neufert
Architects’ Guide to Fee Bidding
Architectural Drawing by David Dernie
Architectural Drawing Course by Mo Zell
Architectural Graphics by Francis DK Ching
Architectural Research Methods
Architecture and Disjunction By Bernard Tschumi
Architecture and Participation
Architecture Explained by Neil Stevenson
Architecture for Dummies by Deborah K. Dietsch
Architecture in the 20th Century
Architecture in the United States by Dell Upton
Architecture Now
Architecture Theory Since 1968 by K. Michael Hays
Architecture through the Ages
Architecture: Choice or Fate
Architecture: Form, Space, and Order
Architecture: The Natural and the Manmade
Art Invention House by Michael Webb
Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam Era’
Artist’s Artist’
Arts & Architecture 1945-54
Assembling a Collaborative Project Team: Practical tools including Multidisciplinary Schedules of Services
Atlas Shrugged
Austerlitz W. G. SEBALD
Authentic Décor: The Domestic Interior 1620–1920
Basics Architecture – Representation Techniques
Bauhaus Women’
Between Silence and Light | Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I Kahn
BIM for Construction Health and Safety
BIM in Small Practices: Illustrated Case Studies
BLDGBLOG Book by Geoff Manaugh
Bookwork: Medium to Object to Concept to Art by Garrett Stewart
Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
Burtynsky: Oil’
Carbon-Neutral Architectural Design
Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction written and illustrated by David Macaulay
CDM 2015: A Practical Guide for Architects and Designers
Cezanne and Beyond’
Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture
Chicago’s Famous Buildings
Chicagoisms: The City as Catalyst for Architectural Speculation by Alexander Eisenschmidt and Jonathan Mekinda
Collage City, Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter
Compact Houses: Architecture for the Environment by Cristina Del Valle
Complete Reference Set of Approved Documents to the Building Regulations
Concrete
Concrete Architecture by Catherine Croft
Contemporary Design in Detail: Small Environments
Contemporary Design in Detail: Sustainable Environments
Crazy Buildings by Michael J. Rosen and Ben Kassoy
Darwin’s Camera: Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution’
Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses To Humanitarian Crises
Design Management: RIBA Plan of Work 2013 Guide
Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic Design by Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller
Designers on Design
DesignIntelligence Almanac of Architect & Design 2009
Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Contemporary Techniques and Tools for Digital Representation in Site
Design – Bradley Cantrell and Wes Michaels
Eames Design
Ed Ruscha and Some Los Angeles Apartments
Education of an Architect: A Point of View
El Croquis Monographs
Environmental Design Pocketbook (2nd Edition)
Essays in Architectural Criticism: Modern Architecture and Historical Change ALAN COLQUHOUN
Étant donnés’
Ethics and the Practice of Architecture
Experiencing Architecture
Eyewitness Companions: Architecture by Jonathan Glancey
Eyewitness Visual Dictionary: The Visual Dictionary of Buildings a Dorling Kindersley Book
Fifty Typefaces That Changed the World by John L. Walters
Frank Lloyd Wright ADA LOUISE HUXTABLE
Frank Lloyd Wright MERYLE SECREST
Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
From Bauhaus to Our House by Tom Wolfe
From the Ground Up
Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods by Edward Allen
Going Public: Public Architecture, Urbanism and Interventions
Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism ERWIN PANOFSKY
Great Houses of London
Guide to BREEAM
Guide to NEC3: (NEC Guide)
Guide to RIBA Domestic and Concise Building Contracts 2014
Guide to Using the RIBA Plan of Work 2013
Hav by Jan Morris
Health and Safety Pocketbook
Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield’
Heating, Cooling, Lighting: Sustainable Design Methods for Architects by Norbert Lechner
Heavenly Mansions and Other Essays on Architecture
House by Tracy Kidder
How a House Is Built written and illustrated by Gail Gibbons
How Buildings Learn
How Firms Succeed: A Field Guide to Design Management by James P. Cramer and Scott Simpson
If I Built A Car written and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen
If I Built A House by Chris Van Dusen
Iggy Peck, Architect written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts
In Iris Fields’
Incorporations (Zone 6) by Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter
Intertwining By Steven Holl
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
John Wesley’
Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District
Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards – Leonard J. Hopper
Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History – by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
Landscape Graphics – Grant Reid
Latin American Houses
Law in Practice: The RIBA Legal Handbook (2nd edition)
Le Corbusier Le Grand
Le Corbusier: A Life
Learning from Hangzhou’
Legacy: the Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks’
Lexicon of Garden and Landscape Architecture – by Meto J. Vroom
Little House on a Small Planet by Shay Salomon
Living in the Endless City
Lost Buildings’
Lost London In Colour
Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright
Mask of Medusa By John Hejduk
Matter: Material Processes in Architectural Production edited by Gail Peter Borden and Michael Meredith
Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings
Mechanics and Meaning in Architecture
Mechanization Takes Command SIGFRIED GIEDION
Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography
Mobile: The Art of Portable Architecture
Modern Architecture and Other Essays
Modern Architecture Since 1900 by William J.R. Curtis
Modern House 2 by Clare Melhuish
Modern House’ book by John Welsh
Modern Japanese House
Modernism Reborn: Mid-Century American Houses
Modernism Rediscovered by Julius Shulman
Moxie: The Dachshund of Fallingwater written and illustrated by Cara Armstrong
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Nairn’s London
Nairn’s Paris
NBS Guide to Tendering: for construction projects
New Sustainable Homes: Designs for Healthy Living
Observations for Young Architects by Cesar Pelli
On Architecture: Collected Reflections on a Century of Change by Ada Louise Huxtable
On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time MOHSEN MOSTAFAVI DAVID LEATHERBARROW
Outdoors: The Garden Design Book for the Twenty-First Century
Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting’
Painting Today’
Philip Johnson: Life and Work
PHPP Illustrated: A Designer’s Companion to the Passive House Planning Package
Planned Assaults: The Nofamily House, Love/House, Texas Zero
PreFab Now by James Grayson Trulove
Prefabulous + Sustainable by Sheri koones
Principles of Ecological Landscape Design – Travis Beck
Project Leadership: RIBA Plan of Work 2013 Guide
Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture by Justin McGuirk
Rebel Cities
RIBA Job Book (9th edition)
Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China by Paul Theroux
Robert Frank’s The Americans’
Roberto, The Insect Architect written and illustrated by Nina Laden
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beatty
Rough Guide to Sustainability: A Design Primer 4th Edition
Round Buildings, Square Buildings, and Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish
Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency’
Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design
Shedworking by Alex Johnson
Sir Banister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture
Sky High written by Germano Zullo and illustrated by Albertine
Small Houses: Contemporary Residential Architecture
Small Projects Handbook
Standard Letters in Architectural Practice
Starting a Practice: A Plan of Work 2nd ed
Surface/Subsurface
Sustainable Design by Williams
TASCHEN’s Architecture Now! series by Philip Jodidio
Ten Books on Architecture By Vitruvius
The Age of Comfort’
The Age of Innocence EDITH WHARTON
The Annotated Arch: A Crash Course in the History of Architecture by Carol Stickland, Ph.D.
The Architect in Practice: 10th edition
The Architect’s Guide to Writing for Design and Construction Professionals by Bill Schmalz
The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice by The American Institute of Architects
The Architecture of the City, Aldo Rossi
The Architecture Student’s Handbook of Professional Practice
The Beats: A Graphic History’
The City Observed: Los Angeles
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Discipline of Architecture
The Elements of Style (illustrated) WILLIAM STRUNK JR. E. B. WHITE
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
The Emergence of Modern Architecture: A Documentary History from 1000 to 1810
The Essential Frank Lloyd Wright: Critical Writings on Architecture
The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics
The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses by Juhani Pallasmaa
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Good Life, Inaki Abalos
The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History ROBERT DARNTON
The Hand of the Architect Moleskine
The House Book from Phaidon Press
The Idea of Building: Thought and Action in the Design and Production of Buildings
The Interpretation of Cultures
The Invention of Tradition E. J. HOBSBAWM Editor T. O. RANGER
The Invisible Man
The Letters
The Library: A World History by James W. P. Campbell; photographs by Will Pryce
The Meaning of Home
The Most Beautiful House in the World
The Nature of Dwellings: The Architecture of David Hovey
The New 100 Houses x 100 Architects
The New American House: Innovations in Residential Design and Construction
The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture
The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture (Hardcover)
The Planting Design Handbook- by Nick Robinson
The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, Pier Vittorio Aureli
The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro
The RSVP Cycles: Creative Processes in the Human Environment by Lawrence Halprin
The Seven Lamps of Architecture
The Shingle Style and the Stick Style by Vincent J. Scully, Jr.
The Simple Home: The Luxury of Enough
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces – William H. Whyte
The Space of Encounter By Daniel Libeskind
The Stones of Venice JOHN RUSKIN
The Story of Architecture by Jonathan Glancey
The Story of Buildings: From the Pyramids to the Sydney Opera House and Beyond written by Patrick Dillon and
illustrated by Stephen Biesty
The Ten Books of Architecture by Vitruvius
The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale written and illustrated by Steven Guarnaccia
Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies, Rafael Moneo
There Goes the Neighborhood: Ten Buildings People Loved to Hate by Susan Goldman Rubin
Think like an Architect
Thinking Architecture by Peter Zumthor
Time Saver Standards for Urban Design by Donald Watson, Alan Plattus, and Robert Shibley
Tom Kundig: Houses
Town Planning in Practice
Translation by Aaron Betsky
Trotzdem, 1900–1930
Twenty Minutes in Manhattan
Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing written by April Jones Prince and illustrated by Francois Roca
Underground written and illustrated by David Macaulay
Understanding Architecture: An Introduction to Architecture and Architectural History
Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning
Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell
Venice for Pleasure
Vitruvius: The Ten Books Of Architecture
Walter Pichler: Drawings, Sculpture, Buildings
Washington Square
What is Architecture, Paul Shepheard
Which Contract?: 5th Edition
Wood Architecture Now! Vol 2
World Architecture: An Illustrated History
You Have to Pay for the Public Life: Selected Essays of Charles W. Moore
Young Frank, Architect by Frank Vita
Younger Than Jesus: Artist Directory’

Book Scrolling

The 31 Best Books About Architecture

The Top 31 Architecture Books

31) AIA City Guides from the American Institute of Architects

30) Architects Pocket Book

29) Architectural Graphic Standards by Charles Ramsey, Harold Sleeper, and The American Institute of Archietcts

28) Architecture According to Pigeons by Stella Gurney

27) Becoming an Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design by Lee W. Waldrep

26) Building Construction Illustrated by Francis D.K. Ching

25) Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

24) Design with Nature by Ian L. McHarg

23) Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice by Eric Cesal

22) Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster by Mike Davis

21) Learning From Las Vegas by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown

20) Minimum by John Pawson

19) Prefab by Allison Arieff and Bryan Burkhart

18) S M L XL by Rem Koolhaas

17) Studies in Tectonic Culture by Kenneth Frampton

16) The Architecture of Humanism: A Study in the History of Taste by Geoffrey Scott

15) The Classical Language of Architecture by John Summerson

14) The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture

13) The Highway and the City by Lewis Mumford

12) The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

11) Tiny Houses by Mimi Zeiger

10) Why Architecture Matters by Paul Goldberger

9) A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals By Spiro Kostof

8) A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein

7) Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi

6) Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas

5) The Details of Modern Architecture by Edward R. Ford

4) Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier

3) 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick

2) The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

1) The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton

The 270 Additional Architecture Books Appearing on a Single List

The 27 “Best Architecture” Book Sources Arranged by Date Published

The 31 Best Books About Architecture

The Top 31 Architecture Books

31) AIA City Guides from the American Institute of Architects

30) Architects Pocket Book

29) Architectural Graphic Standards by Charles Ramsey, Harold Sleeper, and The American Institute of Archietcts

28) Architecture According to Pigeons by Stella Gurney

27) Becoming an Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design by Lee W. Waldrep

26) Building Construction Illustrated by Francis D.K. Ching

25) Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

24) Design with Nature by Ian L. McHarg

23) Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice by Eric Cesal

22) Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster by Mike Davis

21) Learning From Las Vegas by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown

20) Minimum by John Pawson

19) Prefab by Allison Arieff and Bryan Burkhart

18) S M L XL by Rem Koolhaas

17) Studies in Tectonic Culture by Kenneth Frampton

16) The Architecture of Humanism: A Study in the History of Taste by Geoffrey Scott

15) The Classical Language of Architecture by John Summerson

14) The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture

13) The Highway and the City by Lewis Mumford

12) The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

11) Tiny Houses by Mimi Zeiger

10) Why Architecture Matters by Paul Goldberger

9) A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals By Spiro Kostof

8) A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein

7) Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi

6) Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas

5) The Details of Modern Architecture by Edward R. Ford

4) Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier

3) 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick

2) The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

1) The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton

The 270 Additional Architecture Books Appearing on a Single List

The 27 “Best Architecture” Book Sources Arranged by Date Published

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