I have read a ton of books on architecture, much of which is either very abstract (Latour, Foucault) or just unmitigated bullshit (Le Corbusier, any postmodern architecture writer). The most accessible recent book is “The Architecture of Happiness” by Alain de Bouton. The most cleverly inspiring was “A Pattern Language of Architecture” “Kindergarten Chats” by Louis Sullivan is also great

Any interest in photo-centric books? I really like Phillipe Seclier's book on Tadao Ando's architecture.

Maybe this isn't what you're looking for, but I really like Juhani Pallasmaa's The Eyes of the Skin for a sort of phenomenological account of architecture -- you'll probably find lots to disagree with, and let's face it, phenomenology is pretty intellectually squishy, but it's an excellent accounting of how we experience the built environment. Michael Sorkin's writings are excellent as well, although that verges more into urbanism writing, and Reyner Banham's writings are a good primer on the incorporation of modernist ideas into architecture.

77qqqqqqqqqq1 year ago

Thank you

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