Architecture Books – Week 51/2023
Let's wrap up 2023!
This week on A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books:
As I’ve done fourteen previous times on my blog, I'm highlighting my favorite books of the year, selected from the many books I reviewed or featured as "Book Briefs" on my blog, and the few titles that I reviewed at World-Architects. From the 86 books I featured in 2023, 15 (or 16) books made my list of favorites, organized into three categories: history, monographs, and exhibitions (the books are alphabetical by title within each category). As in previous years, not all of these books were published this year, given how slow I can be at digesting books and my departure from the annual spring/fall cycle of publishers. The list is below, though visit my blog to read short blurbs on each book, or click on the links to read what I first had to say about them.
This is the last newsletter of the year. I’ll be returning in January, announcing some changes that hopefully will make this newsletter more appealing and useful. Until then, warm holiday wishes!
6 HISTORY BOOKS:
Chicago Skyscrapers, 1934-1986: How Technology, Politics, Finance, and Race Reshaped the City (2023) by Thomas Leslie, published by University of Illinois Press
The Japanese House Since 1945 (2023) by Naomi Pollock, published by Thames & Hudson
Lost in America: Photographing the Last Days of our Architectural Treasures (2023) by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams, published by CityFiles Press
Mies van der Rohe: The Collective Housing Collection (2022) by Fernando Casqueiro, published by a+t architecture publishers
Resisting Postmodern Architecture: Critical Regionalism before Globalisation (2022) by Stylianos Giamarelos, published by UCL Press
Urban Design in the 20th Century: A History (2021) by Tom Avermaete and Janina Gosseye, published by gta Verlag
5 (OR 6) MONOGRAPHS:
A Book on Making a Petite École (2023) edited by Michael Meredith, Hilary Sample and MOS, published by Actar Publishers
Caruso St John Collected Works: Volume 1 1990–2005 (2022) and Caruso St John Collected Works: Volume 2 2000–2012 (2023), published by MACK
Living in Monnikenheide: Care, Inclusion and Architecture (2023) edited by Gideon Boie, published by Flanders Architecture Institute
M³: modeled works [archive] 1972-2022 (2023) by Thom Mayne and Morphosis, published by Rizzoli
Speculative Coolness: Architecture, Media, the Real, and the Virtual (2023) by Bryan Cantley, edited by Peter J. Baldwin, published by Routledge
4 BOOKS FROM EXHIBITIONS:
Another Breach in the Wall: The City as a Common Good (2022) by Davide Tommaso Ferrando and Daniel Tudor Munteanu, published by Solitude Project
An Atlas of Es Devlin (2023) by Es Devlin, edited by Andrea Lipps, published by Thames & Hudson
Bernd & Hilla Becher (2022) by Jeff L. Rosenheim, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Yasmeen Lari: Architecture for the Future (2023) edited by Angelika Fitz, Elke Krasny, Marvi Mazhar and Architekturzentrum Wien, published by MIT Press
Architecture Book News:
Dezeen has its list of the top 10 architecture and design books of 2023, with books on such topics as brutalism, US embassies, pools, and, um, Barbie.
World Architecture Community its list of the top 10 architecture books of 2023, with books on such topics as brutalism, US embassies, pools, and AI.
The Dirt, the blog of the ASLA, has its list of the Best Books of 2023 — a varied list on everything from land art and urban nature, to climate change and wilding.
Looking ahead to 2024, 99% Invisible is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker by reading the 1200-page classic, with listeners, over the course of the year, at the rate of about 100 pages per month. An episode about the book club is available now: “Breaking Down The Power Broker with Conan O’Brien.”
My Xmas Wish List:
Speaking of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, that book (in hardcover, mind you) is at the top of a short wish list I made on Amazon and am sharing with you, my dear readers. If you’re feeling generous and want to get a gift for the guy who writes a blog and newsletter about architecture books — and does it free of charge! — take a look at the choice titles I’ve put together: new, old, inexpensive, expensive, famous, obscure. The Clausometer will fly off the gauge if any of these show up at my door!
My Holiday Giveaway:
Mind you, I can’t post a wish list and not offer some potential reciprocation. So I’m giving away two copies of my latest book, Buildings in Print: 100 Influential & Inspiring Illustrated Architecture Books (Prestel, 2021). Want one? If you live in the US (shipping costs prohibit me from sending them farther), just reply to this email or leave a comment on this post on the Substack website indicating your interest. On Boxing Day I’ll randomly pick two people and notify them by email/comment. The cover price is $60, so this is a pretty good deal!
#archidosereads
If you were me, what would you do?
Open this unwrapped book from 2003 on @diller_scofidio_renfro’s Eyebeam Museum of Art and Technology? Or keep it pristine à la Comic Book Guy? (Book made by @m1dtw, BTW)
–If unwrapped, break the “This is not a book” seal?
–If broken, unfurl the spiral binding to turn it into a poster? Or tear off the signatures to keep it as a "book"?
🤷
Thank you for subscribing to A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books Newsletter. If you have any comments or questions, or want to see your book in this newsletter, please respond to this email, or comment below if you’re reading this online. (Note: Purchases made via links here or on my blog may earn me affiliate commissions.)
— John Hill