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Dwell Magazine's Design and Architecture Books for Novices

In the Feb/Mar issue of Dwell, Mathilda from Mission Hills, KS asks:

Dear Dwell,

I am new to modernism and eager to learn all I can about architecture and design. What books would you recommend a novice?

The editors went out to 13 experts and asked them what Mathilda should be reading.

There isn't much overlap in the lists, but the two books that showed up most often were By Design: Why There Are No Locks On The Bathroom Doors In The Hotel Louis XIV And Other Object Lessons by Ralph Caplan and Modern Architecture Since 1900 by William Curtis.

Here are my two favorite lists from the set.

Michael Bierut (Partner, Pentagram Design)

• Bauhaus by Hans M. Wingler
• Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi
• Envisioning Information by Edward Tutfe
• By Design by Ralph Caplan
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Jessica Helfand (Partner, Winterhouse)

• Theory and Design in the First Machine Age by Reyner Banham (Jargon-free and penetratingly written, Banham's classic volume traces the evolution of 20th-century architecture and design.)
• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
• Grid System in Graphic Design by Josef Miller-Brockman
• The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

(You will find the rest of the lists in the extended entry...)

Andrew Blauvelt (Design Director and curator, Walker Art Center)

• Contemporary by Lesley Jackson
• Architecture Today by James Steele
• Modern Architecture Since 1900 by William Curtis
• Industrial Design A-Z by Charlotte and Peter Fiell
• The Design Encyclopedia by Mel Byers
• Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life by John Heskett
• By Design by Ralph Caplan

Ellen Lupton (Curator of contemporary design, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; Director of MFA in graphic design at Maryland Institute College of Art)

• The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention by Donald Albrecht
• A History of Interior Design by John Pile
• Objects of Desire by Adrian Forty
• How to See and Nelson on Design by George Nelson
• By Design by Ralph Caplan

Thomas Hines (Professor of history & architecture, UCLA)

• Modern Architecture Since 1900 by William Curtis
• A Concise History of American Architecture by Leland Roth
• MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects by Adolf Placzeck
• Space, Time, and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition by Siegfried Giedion
• The City In History by Lewis Mumford
• The Culture of Time and Space by Stephen Kern
• All That Is Solid Melts into Ai: The Experience of Modernity by Marshall Berman

Frances Anderton (Host, DnA: Design and Architecture on KCRW and Dwell's Los Angeles Editor)

• PhaidonAtlas of Contemporary World Architecture by the editors of Phaidon Press
• Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets, & Philosophers by Leonard Koren
• Towards New Architecture by Le Corbusier
• Julius Shulman: Architecture and Its Photography by Peter Gossel and Julius Shulman
• Eco Design: The Sourcebook by Alistair Fuad Luke

Rob Forbes (Founder, Design Within Reach)

• By Design by Ralph Caplan
• Survival by Design by Dion Neutra
• I Seem To Be A Verb by R. BuckminsterFuller
• Problems of Design and How to See by George Nelson
• 1,000 Chairs by Charlotte and Peter Fiell
• A Designer's Art by Paul Rand
• Art and Ilusion by E.H. Gombrich
• Modern Landscapes for Living by Treib Eckbo
• The Essential House Book by Terence Conran

Paola Antonelli (Curator of architecture and design, the Museum of Modern Art, New York)

• My recommendation for a truly beginner course in history and theory would be Ralph Caplan's By Designand Kenneth Frampton's Modern Architecture: A Critical History.

Susan Yelavich (Visiting assistant professor, Department of Art and Design Studies, Parson New School University)

• No Logo by Naomi Klein
• Design for Life by Susan Yelavich
• The Cooper-Hewitt Triennial catalogues: Inside Design Now and Design Culture Now by Donald Albrecht
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
• Mutations by Rem Koolhaas

David Meckel (Director of research and planning, California College of Art)

• Glenn Murcutt: Buildings + Projects 1962-2003by Francoise Fromonot
• Compact Design Portfolio Series (includes titles on Eva Zeisel, Arne Jacobsen, Gaetano Pesce, Eileen Gray, Jean Prouve, and others) by Raul Cabra and Marisa Bartolucci
• Modernism Rediscovered by Pierluigi Serraino and Julius Shalman
• Material for Inspirational Design (series) by Chris Lefteri
• The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken

William Stout (owner/proprietor, William Stout Architectural Books)

These seem to be our must-have book:

• The Donnell and Eckbo Gardens: Modern California Masterpieces by Marc Trieb
• Maybeck's Landscapes: Drawing in Nature by Dianne Harris
• Il Rumore Del Tempo by Gaetano Pesce
• Louis Kahn Dhaka by Raymond Meier and Nathaniel Kahn
• Buckminster Fuller: Designing for Mobility by Michael John Gorman
• Book One: Work 1986-2006by Hip Kidd

[editor's note - I left out two entries from the original piece. These were submission from two book publishers, in which they highlighted their own books. A few contributors highlighted their own projects and I also left those notes out. I didn't feel you could put much weight in those recommendations.]