Architecture Books – Week 52/2024

A few of my favorite things

This newsletter for the week of December 23 highlights my ten favorite architecture books published in 2024, pulled from the 51 “Books of the Week” featured in this newsletter and the handful that I reviewed at World-Architects, plus a couple pre-2024 favorites that I also reviewed at some point this year. This newsletter is on break until Week 2/2025. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Favorite Books of 2024:

As I did on my blog with its year-end roundups of favorite books, the dozen books from 2024 are in groups, not ranked. These groups are discoveries, if you will, of some shared traits among the books: six pairs, it so happens. There are a pair of monographs, a pair of books on architectural theory, a pair of historical monographs (both of which happen to be published by Walther König), a pair of place-based books, a pair of books on Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and a pair of books that were published before 2024 but also happen to have unique formats.

2 monographs:

• Art Applied (Feb 2024) by Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse, published by MACK — Read my review

• Twentyfive x Herzog & de Meuron (Nov 2024) by Stanislaus von Moos and Arthur Rüegg, published by Steidl — Read my review

2 books of architectural theory:

• archithese reader: Critical Positions in Search of Postmodernity, 1971–1976 (Feb 2024) edited by Gabrielle Schaad and Torsten Lange, published by Triest — Read my review

• The Monster Leviathan: Anarchitecture (Jan 2024) by Aaron Betsky, published by MIT Press — Read my review

2 historical monographs:

• Giancarlo de Carlo: Experiments in Thickness (Jul 2024) edited by Kersten Geers and Jelena Pancevac, with photographs by Stefano Graziani, published by Walther König — Read my review

• Haus-Rucker-Co: Atemzonen (Jul 2024) edited by Hemma Schmutz, published by Walther König — Read my review

2 place-based books:

• American Modern: Architecture; Community; Columbus, Indiana (Jul 2024) by Matt Shaw, with photographs by Iwan Baan, published by Monacelli Press — Read my review

• The Nordic Window: Window Behaviorology in Nordic Architecture (Mar 2024) edited by Tsukamoto Yoshiharu Lab. Tokyo Institute of Technology, published by Strandberg Publishing — Read my review

2 books on Mies:

• The Edith Farnsworth House: Architecture, Preservation, Culture (Jun 2024) by Michelangelo Sabatino, published by Monacelli Press — Read my review

• Mies van der Rohe: An Architect in His Time (Sep 2024) by Dietrich Neumann, published by Yale University Press — Read my review

2 books published before 2024:

• forA on the Urban Issue #0 (2021) edited by Andrea Börner, Cristina Díaz Moreno, Efrén García Grinda and Baerbel Mueller, published by the Institute of Architecture (I oA) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna — Read my review

• Irma Boom: Book Manifest (3rd Edition, 2023) by Irma Boom, published by Walther König — Read my review

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Full disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, AbeBooks Affiliate, and Bookshop.org Affiliate, I earn commissions from qualifying purchases made via any relevant links above and below.

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13 Books I’m Looking Forward to Reading and Reviewing in 2025:

(In order of release date)

• Building Institution: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York 1967-1985 (Oct 2024) by Kim Förster, published by transcript

• Beyond Architecture: The NEW New York (Dec 2024) edited by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, published by New York Review Books

• In Depth: Urban Domesticities Today (Jan 2025) edited by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu, published by Lars Müller Publishers

• Zaha Hadid's Paintings: Imagining Architecture (Jan 2025) by Desley Luscombe, published by Lund Humphries

• Notes on Peter Eisenman: The Gradual Vanishing of Architecture (Jan 2025) edited by M. Surry Schlabs, published by Yale School of Architecture

• Greatness: Diverse Designers of Architecture (Jan 2025) by Pascale Sabian, published by ORO Editions

• Drifting Symmetries: Projects, Provocations, and other Enduring Models by Weiss/Manfredi (Jan 2025), published by Park Books

• Franklin D. Israel: A Life in Architecture (Feb 2025) by Tadd Gannon, published by Getty Research Institute

• Outrage (Mar 2025) by Ian Nairn, published by Notting Hill Editions

• A Moratorium on New Construction by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (Apr 2025), published by Sternberg Press

• Shelter Cookbook (May 2025) edited by Leopold Banchini and Lukas Feireiss, published by Spector Books

• The Global Turn: Six Journeys of Architecture and the City, 1945-1989 (Jun 2025) by Tom Avermaete and Michelangelo Sabatino, published by nai010 Publishers

• Drawing Proper/Drawing Improper (Oct 2025) by Kevin Hirth, published by Axiomatic Editions

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Do you have a favorite architecture book from 2024? I’d love to hear about it, so please comment or reply letting me know.

Wishing wonderful holidays and joyous New Year to everyone — see you in 2025!

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— John Hill