Non Fiction

From her humble days as a teen country artist to her record-obliterating Eras Tour, Taylor Swift is a supernova that shows no sign of burning out.  The Taylor Book explores the life of an icon, including:- Expert analysis of every original album and Taylor’s...

Junkspace first appeared in the Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2001), a vast compendium of text, images, and data concerning the consumerist transformation of city and suburb from the first department store to the latest mega mall. The architect Rem Koolhaas itemized in...

Inessential Colors: Architecture on Paper in Early Modern Europe The first comprehensive account of how and why architects learned to communicate through color. Architectural drawings of the Italian Renaissance were largely devoid of color, but from the seventeenth century through the nineteenth, polychromy in...

Modernism is an important architectural style in which technological innovations are used for social purposes. The Curaçao chapter of the nonprofit organization DoCoMoMo (Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Movement), dedicated to documenting and conserving modernist buildings, sites, and neighborhoods, was founded in September...

The Art of Japanese Architecture: History | Culture | Design The Art of Japanese Architecture presents a complete overview of Japanese architecture in its historical and cultural context. The book begins with a discussion of early prehistoric dwellings and concludes with a description of...

Japanese Architecture: An Exploration of Elements & Forms In Japanese Architecture, author Mira Locher explores how each of these stories encompasses the particular development, construction, function and symbolism inherent in historic architectural elements. Japanese architecture developed with influences from abroad and particular socio-political situations...

One of the most renowned and controversial architects of the time was commissioned to design the new building in Ronchamp, an ancient place of Marian veneration: Le Corbusier. The client worked in the spirit of the journal L'Art Sacré, which discussed the connection between...

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Louis Kahn's death, in March 1974, this facsimile edition presents the notebook in which the famous American architect sketched and wrote during his travels in the last year of his life. The centerpiece of the notebook is...

“The importance of a drawing is immense, because it’s the architect’s language,” famed architect Louis Kahn, one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, told his masterclass in 1967. While much of his built work has been heavily studied, this publication chooses...

This is an exuberant portrait of R. Buckminster Fuller, the visionary who exhorted us to "think global, act local" and devised the geodesic dome and the concept of Spaceship Earth. The visual reader Your Private Sky examines and documents Fuller’s theories, ideas and projects,...

Peter Zumthor, winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture 2009, is considered to be one of the most extraordinary and controversial architects working today. Thinking Architecture allows readers a direct glimpse into his mind through a series of essays, titles such as “The Light...

Renowned for such prominent buildings as London’s Tate Modern, Beijing’s Bird’s Nest National Stadium and 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Herzog & de Meuron sits at the cutting edge of contemporary design. Founded in Basel more than 40 years ago, the Swiss architectural...

Presents a selection of the remarkable visionary design work produced by the Dutch firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) and its acclaimed founder, Rem Koolhaas, in its first twenty years, along with a variety of insightful, often poetic writings. The inventive collaboration between Koolhaas...

Through the process of redrawing the plans of a wide range of completed projects by Le Corbusier, this book offers a new interpretation of his architectural works. Redrawing all the technical drawings provides an insight into the thoughts of the architect when dealing with...

A visual and global chronicle of the triumphs, challenges, and impact of over 100 women in architecture, from early practitioners to contemporary leaders. Marion Mahony Griffin passed the architectural licensure exam in 1898 and created exquisite drawings that buoyed the reputation of Frank Lloyd...

The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses First published in 1996, The Eyes of the Skin is a classic of architectural theory. It asks the far-reaching question why, when there are five senses, is one single sense―sight―so predominant in architectural culture and...

Published in 1923, Toward an Architecture had an immediate impact on architects throughout Europe and remains a foundational text for students and professionals. Le Corbusier urges readers to cease thinking of architecture as a matter of historical styles and instead open their eyes to...

A world-renowned composer of symphonies, operas, and film scores, Philip Glass has, almost single-handedly, crafted the dominant sound of late-twentieth-century classical music. Yet here in Words Without Music, he creates an entirely new and unexpected voice, that of a born storyteller and an acutely...

First published in 1966, and since translated into 16 languages, this remarkable book has become an essential document of architectural literature. A "gentle manifesto for a nonstraightforward architecture," Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern...

Modern American Homes: Prairie & Craftsman Architecture In 1913, a Chicago architect compiled this wonderful portfolio of American homes and buildings that he said embodied "the back to nature" movement of the times. Today, this faithful reprint is a treasure of Craftsman bungalow and...

Ugliness and Judgment: On Architecture in the Public Eye When buildings are deemed ugly, what are the consequences? In Ugliness and Judgment, Timothy Hyde considers the role of aesthetic judgment―and its concern for ugliness―in architectural debates and their resulting social effects across three centuries...

In the decades preceding World War II, professional architecture schools enrolled increasing numbers of women, but career success did not come easily. Women Architects at Work tells the stories of the resilient and resourceful women who surmounted barriers of sexism, racism, and classism to...

Le Corbusier is one of the most famous architects of the twentieth century. The richness and variety of his work combined with his passionately expressed philosophy of architecture have had an immense impact on the urban fabric and the way we live. Weaving through...

The dream of scientific management was a rationalized machine world where life would approach the perfection of an assembly line. But since its early twentieth-century peak this dream has come to seem a dehumanizing nightmare. Henry Ford's assembly lines turned out a quarter of...

Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form Learning from Las Vegas created a healthy controversy on its appearance in 1972, calling for architects to be more receptive to the tastes and values of "common" people and less immodest in their erections...

Aldo Rossi was a practicing architect and leader of the Italian architectural movement La Tendenza and one of the most influential theorists of the twentieth century. The Architecture of the City is his major work of architectural and urban theory. In part a protest...

How did the great architects of this century reconcile their vision of architecture with the realities of building? This is a crucial question that every student of architecture must confront. The Details of Modern Architecture, the first comprehensive analysis of both the technical and...

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely...

German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is, without doubt, one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture. Equally significant, if smaller in scale, is Mies' daring design of furniture, pieces that exhibit an unerring sense of proportion, as well as minimalist forms and...

Featuring exquisite photographs of every structure the architect designed from scratch or incorporated into a historical building, this elegant volume is as sumptuous and inviting as a Scarpa interior. Although he was not widely known during his lifetime, Carlo Scarpa has in the past-half...

Light is a physical phenomenon and social connector whose meaning extends beyond what is visible. To capture that meaning, the research compiled in "Windows of Light" explores symbols, myths, innovations, and how light fundamentally shapes our biological, astronomical, and architectural environments. Anchoring the many...

The first book to explore the entire Salk Institute complex, which is often considered to be Kahn’s most important commission. An in-depth examination, focusing on the design development, including the built Laboratory building, the unbuilt Meeting House and Visiting Fellows residences and the overall...

At the end of the nineteenth century, population, information, and technology explosions made Manhattan a laboratory for the invention and testing of a metropolitan lifestyle "the culture of congestion" and its architecture. "Manhattan," he writes, "is the 20th century's Rosetta Stone... occupied by architectural...

The work of Carlo Scarpa challenged, and continues to challenge, accepted notions of modern architecture. While several books have been published on his work, none has approached the breadth and depth of this classic monograph by Robert McCarter, who is celebrated for his meticulously...

Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life In Soft City David Sim, partner and creative director at Gehl, shows how this is possible, presenting ideas and graphic examples from around the globe. He draws from his vast design experience to make a case for...

Carlo Scarpa was a virtuoso of light, a master of detail, and a connoisseur of materials. Today he is known as a 20th-century master of architecture. To mark the first centenary of Scarpa's birth, all his works are presented here for the first time....

In August of 1848, John Ruskin and his new bride visited northern France, for the gifted young critic wished to write a work that would examine the essence of Gothic architecture. By the following April, the book was finished. Titled The Seven Lamps of...

A brave and imaginative memoir by the Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen, detailing her healing journey and groundbreaking activism in the aftermath of her rape at Harvard. Determined to not let her assault derail her goal of joining NASA after graduation, Nguyen opted...

The Oracle of Night: The History and Science of Dreams What is a dream? Why do we dream? How do our bodies and minds use them? These questions are the starting point for this unprecedented study of the role and significance of this phenomenon....

Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik...

In an inspiring follow-up to her acclaimed memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world. In The Light We Carry, she opens a frank and honest dialogue with readers, considering...

Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant...

Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life First published in 1995, Simple Abundancetopped the New York Times Bestseller list for over two years and is responsible for introducing two hugely popular concepts, the "Gratitude Journal" and the term "Authentic Self." With...

Dorothy Pilley was a pioneer of women's climbing a hundred years ago. She founded a club celebrating women's climbing and - starting in Wales, the Lake District and Skye - she went on to climb the major mountain ranges of Europe throughout the 1920s....

A Study in Comparative Religion. Published in 1890, this extraordinary study of primitive myth and magic, collected from sources around the world, led Frazer to identify parallel patterns of ritual, symbols and belief across many centuries and many different cultures. Frazer's learning inspired a...

True North: Travels in Arctic Europe The stark, vast beauty of the remote Arctic Europe landscape has been the focus of human exploration for thousands of years. In this striking blend of travel writing, history and mythology, Gavin Francis offers a unique portrait of...

Gavin Francis combines stories of his own travels with psychology, philosophy and myth, shedding new light on the importance of islands and isolation in our collective consciousness. Francis draws on thirty years of island adventures from the Faroe Islands to the Aegean, from the...

In a world increasingly preoccupied by borders, bridges celebrate the possibility of connection, allowing the flow of goods, people and ideas. Bridges are among our grandest physical structures with the power of transforming lives and economies, but we also stand (or fall) upon the...

A witty and heartfelt journey across Canada through the eyes of acclaimed writer Will Ferguson. From soaring over Newfoundland in a seaplane to paddling through the quiet northern wilderness, Ferguson explores the breathtaking landscapes and hidden stories of his homeland—sometimes accompanied by his curious...

Want to be a rocket-riding tech titan? You've come to the right school. Elon Musk's Billionaire School makes it simple to follow in Elon's footsteps and accumulate the wealth and power of a medium-sized nation in just 30 days. Discover lessons drawn from the lives,...