Please see below for a selection of reading to help you start thinking about architecture. Prices shown may have changed. Many can be bought second hand from sites like wob. Some of these books may be obtainable in local libraries. If you live near an Architecture School with a library or the RIBA Library in London you should be able to go in and look at the books there for free. Prices may vary from the list here.
We recommend you read at least one of the following before coming to interview:
- Moore, R. (2013), Why we build, Picador, £12.99
- Pallasmaa, J. (2005), The Eyes of the Skin, Wiley, £24.99. First published 1996
- Samuel, F. (2019), Why Architects Matter, Routledge, £36.21
- Sharr, A. (2018), Modern Architecture: A Very Short Introduction, Thames and Hudson £8.99
- Till, J. (2009), Architecture Depends, MIT, £12.85
You also might also find some of the following books relevant to your interests.
Introductions to modern architecture
- Colquhoun, A. (2002), Modern Architecture, Oxford, £14.99
- Hernandez, F. (2010), Beyond Modernist Masters: Contemporary architecture in Latin America, Birkhäuser, £70
Sustainability
- Berners-Lee, M. (2021), There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years, CUP, £9.95
- Brand, S.(1994), How buildings learn: What happens after they’re built, Viking, £24
- Monbiot, G. (2023), Regenesis, Penguin, £7.99
- Hagan, S. (2015), Ecological Urbanism: The Nature Of The City,Routledge £51.99
- Stephenson, F. (2019), Housing Fit for Purpose, £32.99
Social Justice and community
- Akala (2019), Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of the Empire, Two Roads, £6.49
- Blokland, T. (2017), Community as urban practice, Polity Press, £14.66
- Boys, J. (2014), Doing Disability Differently, Routledge, £37.59
- Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Duke University Press. £21.99
- Fields, D. W. (2015). Architecture in Black: Theory, Space and Appearance. Bloomsbury Publishing,.
- Schneider, T., Nishat, A. and Till, J. (2011), Spatial agency: other ways of doing architecture, Routledge £43.99 Alternatively see https://www.spatialagency.net/
Spatial Justice & nature
- Cowen, R. (2016), Common Ground, Windmill £10.11
- Minton, A. (2009), Ground Control: Fear and happiness in the twenty-first-century city, Penguin, £3.32
- Shrubsole, G. (2020), Who Owns Britain? William Collins, £9.99
- Hayes, N. (2022), The Trespasser’s Companion, £12.46
- Cramer, D., The Narrow Edge, Yale £15.32
- Tree, I., Wilding: The return of nature to a British farm, Picador, £8.19
Cities
- Steel, C.(2013), Hungry City, Vintage, £12.99
- Gehl, J. & B. Svarre (2103), How to Study Public Life, Island Press£25.18.
- Tonkiss, F. (2013), Cities by Design: the Social Life of Urban Form, Polity Press,£15.65
- Mc Guirk J. (2015), Radical Cities: Across Latin America in search of a New Architecture, Verso, £15.28
- Engel, J. et al (2022), Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities, Routledge. Free online at https://www.routledge.com/Sacred-Civics-Building-Seven-Generation-Cities/Engle-Agyeman-Chung-Tiam-Fook/p/book/9781032059112
- Simone A. and Pieterse E. (2017), New Urban Worlds: Inhabiting Dissonant Times, Polity, £18.99
Economics
- Mazzucato, M (2021), Mission Economy, Allen Lane, £7.99
- Raworth, K. (2018), Doughnut Economics, Penguin, £10.99
Practice
- Jollife, E. & Crosby, P. (2023), Architect: The Evolving Story of a Profession £32.00
- Ratti, C. (2015), Open Source Architecture, Thames and Hudson £9.29
- Samuel, F. (2023), Housing for Hope and Wellbeing, Routledge, £15
Drawing and making architecture
- Coates, N (2012)., Narrative Architecture, Wiley, £32.99
- Dernie, D.(2016), Material Imagination in Architecture, Routledge, £37.99
- Farrelly, L. (2012), The Fundamentals of Architecture, AVA, £13.51
- Francis Kéré (2021), Momentum of Light, Lars Muller, £51
- Unwin, S. (2014), Analysing Architecture, Routledge, £22.94
- Wigglesworth, S. (2011), Around and About Stock Orchard Street, £34.99
Fiction classics for inspiration
- Calvino, I. (1997), Invisible Cities, Vintage. Originally published in 1972. £6.99
- Perec, G. (2008), Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Penguin, £10.99. Originally published in 1974.
Some of these websites may be of interest:
https://www.aisforarchitecture.org/
https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Home
https://www.thenatureofcities.com
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
https://www.bl.uk/projects/national-life-stories-architects-lives
https://blackarchitectsarchive.org/