Top Architecture books curated by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we have connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favouriteArchitecture books – and here are the answers.

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Top Architecture books recommended by experts
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Fundamentals of Architecture

Understanding the concepts of Architecture starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

The eyes of the skin

The eyes of the skin

The Eyes of the Skin has become a classic of architectural theory and consists of two extended essays. The first surveys the historical development of the ocular-centric paradigm in western culture since the Greeks, and its impact on the experience of the world and the nature of architecture.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Architecture, Form, Space, & Order

Architecture, Form, Space, & Order

Architecture: Form, Space, and Order distills complex concepts of design into a clear focus and brings difficult abstractions to life. The book explains form and space in relation to light, view, openings, and enclosures and explores the organization of space, and the elements and relationships …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The Architecture of Happiness

The Architecture of Happiness

The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton explores how architecture influences our emotions and well-being. It advocates for the importance of beautiful design in our built environment to enhance our quality of life.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

A Pattern Language

A Pattern Language

A pattern language is an organized and coherent set of patterns, each of which describes a problem and the core of a solution that can be used in many ways within a specific field of expertise. The term was coined by architect Christopher Alexander and popularized by his 1977 book A Pattern Lang…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The works

The works

the parts of a machine, especially those that move: If you take the back off this clock, you can see its/the works.

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Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment

Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment

Engineering in Plain Sight extends the field guide genre from natural phenomena to human-made structures, making them approachable and understandable to non-engineers. It transforms readers' perspectives of the built environment, converting the act of looking at infrastructure from a mundane ine…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Additional Architecture Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Architecture, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

A "gentle manifesto for a nonstraightforward architecture," Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern rebellion against the purism of modernism.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The Art of Home: A Designer Guide to Creating an Elevated Yet Approachable Home

The Art of Home: A Designer Guide to Creating an Elevated Yet Approachable Home

Whether it's through her thriving design business, Studio McGee, her popular Netflix series, Dream Home Makeover, or her online community of over five million followers, Shea McGee has shown the world how the principles of high-end design can be applied to any home. As the title of her new book …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

In Praise of Shadows

In Praise of Shadows

“In Praise of Shadows” (In-ei Raison) is a long essay published in 1934, in which Tanizaki sums up what he feels Japan has lost in becoming modern. In brief, it is his view that the traditional Japanese arts thrived in the shade, and that the glaring light of the Twentieth Century is destroying …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The Women Who Changed Architecture

The Women Who Changed Architecture

Marion Mahony Griffin passed the architectural licensure exam in 1898 and created exquisite drawings that buoyed the reputation of Frank Lloyd Wright. Her story is one of the many told in The Women Who Changed Architecture, which sets the record straight on the transformative impact women have m…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Why Architecture Matters

Why Architecture Matters

The purpose of Why Architecture Matters is to “come to grips with how things feel to us when we stand before them, with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually”—with its impact on our lives.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Toward an Architecture

Toward an Architecture

Toward an Architecture tries to open up the field to its outside in order to open up the walls of traditional buildings. Indeed, opening the eyes of the architect and opening the eyes of the building constitute a single gesture that liberates an architecture, polemically dissolving the line betw…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Specializations and Deeper Architecture Knowledge

You've got your basics in order – time to move on to some advanced and specialized concepts. Architecture is evolving every day, these books can help you master it.

World Architecture: The Masterworks

World Architecture: The Masterworks

More than 350 color photographs celebrate the finest buildings from over two thousand years of civilization: Hagia Sophia, the Gothic cathedrals of Europe, Islamic masterworks at Isfahan, the Taj Mahal, the Palace of Westminster, Gehry's iconic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and much more.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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