Currently reading "Why Architecture Matters" by Paul Goldberger. Would like some references for other good architectural related readings that others have come across.
Not architecture related but damn is it good how it explains the author's creative exploits in chasing/studying rare animals all over the world. Non-fiction too.
Historical fiction: The Devil In The White City, about the Chicago World's Fair. Talks a lot about the political, technological, and social forces that brought the White City into being, paralleled with a murder mystery. Lots of architecture.
Oh, when you say "novel" I think most people hear "fiction".
Lots of people love The Architecture of Happiness. I found it boring, but it seems to be a good accessible book for some. For An Architecture of reality is my personal favorite text on architecture. Thermal Delight in Architecture is similar but much narrower in its focus.
Both those last two are very short but excellent reads.
Thermal Delight in Architecture is one of my favorite books. A similar book I also enjoy is The Ecology of a Summer House by Vincent G. Dethier. Below is a brief description from Goodreads:
"The author’s summer bungalow in East Bluehill, Maine, is the scene of this charming book. A summer house has an ecology all its own – its own cycles of temperature and humidity, its nuances of light and shadow, its varied nooks, crannies, and textures. It is occupied by more living things than its human tenants realize."
A book I read more recently that I also greatly enjoyed was Michael Benedikt's Shelter.
Donna, what was your favorite part of Where'd You Go, Bernadette? I thought the scene where the fundraising party was ruined by the mudslide was hilarious.
I laughed throughout the book, but especially the line that moving her daughter to a different school "would require driving past a Buca de Beppo twice a day, and I hated my life enough already without having to drive past a Buca de Beppo twice a day."
But the descriptions of her buildings and how she approached design was spot on, and her ranting about five-way intersections is exactly like me.
Favorite Architectural book(novel)
Currently reading "Why Architecture Matters" by Paul Goldberger. Would like some references for other good architectural related readings that others have come across.
"Last Chance to See" by Douglas Adams, 1990.
Not architecture related but damn is it good how it explains the author's creative exploits in chasing/studying rare animals all over the world. Non-fiction too.
Vonnegut "Bluebeard" - under-appreciated, with a few great spaces that help drive the narrative, it's also a mediation on the creative process...
Jimmy Corrigan can't really be beat for its incredible Chicago World Fair sequences.
Les Cités obscures should be required reading for all architecture students... (though not exactly a novel...)
are you talking fiction here?
Totally fun laugh-out-loud beach-reading fiction that captures the architect personality perfectly: Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
Historical fiction: The Devil In The White City, about the Chicago World's Fair. Talks a lot about the political, technological, and social forces that brought the White City into being, paralleled with a murder mystery. Lots of architecture.
Well initially I was talking about non-fiction, but if its fiction, has some architecture, and is a good book. IM ALL FOR IT lol.
With "Why architecture matters" I like how Paul Goldberger talks about the different ways to look at architecture, as he cites different examples.
Oh, when you say "novel" I think most people hear "fiction".
Lots of people love The Architecture of Happiness. I found it boring, but it seems to be a good accessible book for some. For An Architecture of reality is my personal favorite text on architecture. Thermal Delight in Architecture is similar but much narrower in its focus.
Both those last two are very short but excellent reads.
Thermal Delight in Architecture is one of my favorite books. A similar book I also enjoy is The Ecology of a Summer House by Vincent G. Dethier. Below is a brief description from Goodreads:
"The author’s summer bungalow in East Bluehill, Maine, is the scene of this charming book. A summer house has an ecology all its own – its own cycles of temperature and humidity, its nuances of light and shadow, its varied nooks, crannies, and textures. It is occupied by more living things than its human tenants realize."
A book I read more recently that I also greatly enjoyed was Michael Benedikt's Shelter.
Donna, what was your favorite part of Where'd You Go, Bernadette? I thought the scene where the fundraising party was ruined by the mudslide was hilarious.
From Bauhaus to Our House, by Tom Wolf.
I laughed throughout the book, but especially the line that moving her daughter to a different school "would require driving past a Buca de Beppo twice a day, and I hated my life enough already without having to drive past a Buca de Beppo twice a day."
But the descriptions of her buildings and how she approached design was spot on, and her ranting about five-way intersections is exactly like me.
House by Kidder
Thanks for all the replies,keep em coming. Rally looking to stretch my library
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