Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story:

the Architectural Uncanny

The METAPOLIS dictionary for advanced architecture (ACTAR, Spain)

Does anyone want to continue the valiant effort of making the architecture reading list of the century?

The book section is a good place to start but doesnt seem to have the same effect as a good old list. I'll start by saying Pamphlet Architecture 21 should be on there.

Its a mini-monograph to Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis work. And its dang cool.

hmmm, LTL is cool-enough, but let's not exault them too far just yet. some good stuff there, but not the end-all-be-all.

my additions would be:
Pallasmaa, Eyes of the Skin
Zumthor, Thinking Architecture

2 REALLY hard to find books, but well worth the search.

has Thinking Architecture been reprinted? it's available at Amazon for $25, new.

in no order in particular:

-a good contemporary theory anthology: i'd say michael hays's architecture theory since 1968 although you can also try nesbitt's, leach's or add to it with ockman's architecture culture 1943 - 1968. another good source for early 20th century is ulrich conrad's programs and manifestoes

-i second the architectural uncanny.

-kenneth frampton's modern architecture a critical history is so tight that it's a basic. add studies in tectonic culture at will.

-edward ford's details of modern architecture are fantastic but pricey

-aldo rossi's the architecture of the city - a classic -.

- colin rowe's the mathematics of the ideal villa and other essays is a great collection of essays and includes his most important work, with literal and phenomenal transparency and also the chicago frame.

- i found an old spanish edition of tafuri's the sphere and the labyrinth here in south america for $ 20 and snatched it up. yay...

- i find at least one good 20th century history of art book is very useful.

- beatriz colomina's privacy and publicity.

- good old architectural graphic standards : )

- i love vittorio gregotti's inside architecture but that one depends more on your critical standpoint. i guess most of these do, but anyways...

- delirious new york

- learning from las vegas

...several schools have recommended booklists... you can look them up in their sites.

the amazon thing's a ruse. note both the "special order" status and the german language edition. go ahead and order it and you'll soon be contacted and told it's osi (out of stock indefinitely) or out of print altogether. I've been waiting for them to reprint it (and Juhani's book) but it's unlikeley they will as is often the case with texts such as these. too bad. even worse is that most copies have even been pilfered from libraries because the charge for doing so is still less than the $300+ it would take to buy them used. sad sad sad.

of course they're also slim enough that photocopying them from a friend would be possible ... though in this case don't let them out of your site while doing so -- Greg Cudihee YOU SUCK for stealing my copy of Juhani's book and I'm kicking your ASS at first sight when we cross paths again -- mf'er, my name's even inside it & signed by the man himself (with a nice sentiment even) !!!!

in the 'sideways into architecture' category:

-rosalind krauss's the originality of the avant garde and other modernist myths

- roland barthes mythologies

- walter benjamin's illuminations

- leo marx's the machine and the garden

aml- thanks for the recommendations

do you know which school have reading lists?

ill look into all those recommendations

sciarc has a graduate reading list buried somewhere in there. ucla as well. i'd be curious to see what other school have posted lists too.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs

On Weathering - David Leatherbarrow

hmmm
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=architecture+bibliography+%7C+%22recommended+reading%22+%7C%22+reading+list%22+-%22Software+Architecture%22

henri lefebvre. the production of space.

a good reader to get a taste of different writings:

neil leach. rethinking architecture.

hannah arendt. the human condition.

another good reader:

the opositions reader.

amaymind-

sci arc was one of the ones i found... don't know if it's still there in webspace though. i think i saw something at mit once also but a while ago. and the other one i was thinking of was the one the gsd gave me when i was a career disco instructor. i'm pasting it below:

Architecture:
General Background
Curtis, William J. R.. Modern Architecture Since 1900, 3rd ed. Phaidon Press, 1996.
Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 3rd ed. Thames and Hudson, 1992.
Jodidio, Philip. Building a New Millennium. Taschen, 1999.
Trachtenberg, Marvin and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture, from Prehistory to Post-Modernism: The Western Tradition. Prentice Hall and Harry N. Abrams, 1986.
Recent Views
Colquhoun, Alan. Essays in Architectural Criticism: Modern Architecture and Historical Change. MIT Press, 1981.
Modernity and the Classical Tradition: Architectural Essays 1980-1987.MIT Press, 1989.
Evans, Robin. Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays. MIT Press, 1997.
Hays, K. Michael, ed. Architecture Theory Since 1968. MIT Press, 1998.
Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. 2nd edition. The Monacelli Press, 1994.
Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rem Koolhaas, and Bruce Mau. S, M, L, XL. The Monacelli Press, 1995.
Rossi, Aldo. A Scientific Autobiography. Trans. Lawrence Venuti. MIT Press, 1981.
Rowe, Colin. Collage City. MIT Press, 1987.
The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays. MIT Press, 1976.
Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. 2nd ed. Museum of Modern Art, 1977.
Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas : the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form. MIT Press, 1996
Vidler, Anthony. The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely. MIT Press, 1992.

Landscape Architecture:
General Reading
Lynch, Kevin. Site Planning. Cambridge, The MIT Press, 1984.
McHarg, Ian L. Design with Nature. J. Wiley, 1992.
Newton, Norman. Design on the Land. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1981.
Simonds, John O. Landscape Architecture: A Manual of Site Planning and Design. McGraw Hill, 1998.

Contemporary Practice/Theory
Berrizbeitia, Anita and Linda Pollack. Inside/Outside: Between Architecture and Landscape. Rockport, 1999.
Marx, Leo. The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America. Oxford University Press, 1981.
Wrede, Stuart and Howard Adams, ed. Denatured Visions, Landscape and Culture in the Twentieth Century. The Museum of Modern Art, 1991.
Wines, James. Green Architecture. Taschen, 2000.


Monographs
Kiley, Dan and Jane Amidon. Dan Kiley: The Complete Works of America’s Master Landscape Architect. Bulfinch Press, 1999.
Levy, Leah and Peter Walker. Peter Walker: Minimalist Gardens. Spacemaker Press, 1996.
Meyer, Elizabeth K. Martha Schwartz: Transfiguration of the Commonplace. Spacemaker Press, 1996.
Vaccarino, Rossana. Roberto Burle Marx: Landscapes Reflected. Princeton Architectural Press, 2000.

Current Periodicals
Browse through recent issues of these periodicals on display at the Loeb Library.

Architecture
Architecture Boston
Landscape Architecture Magazine
Landscape Journal
Land Forum International
Metropolis
Topos
All international design journals


Urban Planning and Design:

The City Reader, by Richard LeGates, and Frederic Stout, (second edition, London and New York, Routledge, 1996). Select essays that interest you.
Cities of Tomorrow by Peter Hall (Basil Blackwell 1981) A great history of planning in the 20th century.
The City Shaped by Spiro Kostoff (Little, Brown and Company, 1991) Good for urban designers.
Delirious New York, A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, by Rem Koolhaas, (New York, The Monacelli Press, 1978, reprinted 1994.) highly recommended, entertaining.
Great Streets by Alan Jacobs (MIT Press, 1993).
Planning the City upon a Hill: Boston Since 1630 by Lawrence Kennedy (U.Mass Press, 1992). For a good introduction to Boston

Drawing:

Students are asked to purchase Architectural Graphics, 3rd Edition by Frank Ching. I have ordered 250 copies and they are at the Coop on the third floor, textbook section.

before a wave of anti gsd sentiment: remember this was career disco, a program for students with no arch background, intended as a general intro to arch and the studio culture, not as the start of arch studies.

Read some philosophy, it's very beneficial... but remember the point of philosophy is ultimately to do, not to think. Or, otherwise, to think, then to do, a call to action, not a call to academic study.

As Aristotle says in The Nichomachean Ethics, the point of the enquiry is to perform right actions and find the happy life, not just to know what it is.

anyone have a feeling on which of these books are better or worse? do they cover similar ground or is it worth getting more than one of them?

-- Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995 by Kate Nesbitt

-- Architecture Theory since 1968 by K. Michael Hays

Architecture Culture 1943-1968 : A Documentary Anthology (Columbia Books of Architecture) by Joan Ockman

obviously i'm aware the ockman covers a different span of years... is that a good book?

also: does frampton's "modern arch: a critical history" differ all that much from william curtis' "modern arch since 1900"?

maybe it was quoted in the massive post, but in case it wasn't:

venturi-scott brown, complexity and contraddiction in architecture
it changed my attitude toward everything in architecture.

Manuel de landa: 1000 years of non linear history
if you are in any shape or form interested in data driven architecture (superdutch kinda stuff) then you should read it.

Italo Calvino: invisible cities
possibly the best book on phenomenology.

and i also suggest people should stop reading "toward an architecture". its ideas are are already built into us by default, enough is enough!

aml-

thanks for the post, it will be very helpful.

Ockman's book is really a companion to Ulrich Conrads 20th Century Manifestos volume. It is short essays by some of the best mid-century architects.

The Hays and Nesbitt volumes do have some overlap, but both are still worth having -- though it is true that some of it is all starting to seem dated.

I tend to prefer Frampton over Curtis, and their approaches are slightly different: Frampton being more socio-cultural-political, while Curtis tends to focus much more directly on the built environment. One real advantage of Curtis' Mod.Arch since 1900 are the illustrations, which way exceed all the small b/w ones in the Frampton book. The only answer again is to have both.

Calvino's Invisible Cities is NOT the best book ON phenomenology -- is IS a phenomenological work in itself, but as a "novel" does little to explain its ideas or theories. Bachelard's Poetics of Space is still a good read in this regard, though much better is still anything by Merleau-Ponty, of which I recommend the M-P Aesthetics Reader or else Visible and the Invisible.

i do think the difference between hays and nesbitt is that hays has more of an agenda or lineage, and nesbitt is much more neutral. this is both good and bad. kate is objective and the map she lays out is very clear. a good introduction to the field. michael complicates things. he starts with tafuri and takes it from there. he has an agenda and you can see it more in the things he leaves out. he always argued that this was not deliberate, but i think it's not a bad thing: he included what he considered was more relevant, and it shows his personal views. kate is so impartial that you are left wondering... but her introduction to the book is a good basic layout that is great for getting started on the subject.

search kate's book on barnes and noble to read customer reviews left by students... i also saw a mock up of a "contemporary theory for dummies" posted in the studio she was teaching.

I'd suggest 'the exquisite corpse' by michael sorkin - a collection of his essays while critic of the village voice; that cat can flat-out write.

also, for the perverse - read a biography of philip johnson. seriously. the guy's life and the history of modern architecture are so intertwined it's scary.

if you're interested in architectural education, read 'the texas rangers' - amazing lineage (including rowe, hedjuk, etc) of profs that harwell hamilton harris assembled while dean at UT in the 50's.

hey A maymind
how's going so far
heard you and M working on competition.

I found Rem Koolhaas' S,M,L,XL is worth reading and
I am trying to find more Urbanism related stuffs and architecture thory books.
I read "reading MVRDV". It was ok but not so interesting.

anyway, this is good way to be resourceful
cool

Joseph Rykwert - On Adam's House in Paradise

also Rykwert - Idea of a Town