Best Books of 2020
In 2020, the second year for A Daily Dose of Architecture Books, I featured more than 150 books in six day-of-the-week categories: Monograph Monday (30 books), Technical Tuesday (13), World Wednesday (28), History/Theory Thursday (28), Free-for-all Friday (32), and Wayback Weekend (27). Rather than picking one favorite in each category, as I did last year, I'm creating two Top-10 lists from those 158 books: Best books published in 2020 Favorite books reviewed this year but published before 2020 Below are the lists, with books in alphabetical order by title and links to my original reviews. With this post I'm taking a two-week break, resuming reviews on January 4, 2021. Happy holidays to all! Best of 2020: Eileen Gray, Designer and Architect edited by Cloé Pitiot and Nina Stritzler-Levine, published by Bard Graduate Center Eyes That Saw: Architecture After Las Vegas edited by Stanislaus von Moos and Martino Stierli, published by Scheidegger and Spiess Flores & Prats: Sala Beckett: International Drama Centre by Richard Flores and Eva Prats, published by Arquine Impact: The Effect of Climate Change on Coastlines by Alex MacLean, published by Birkhäuser Landscape for Architects: Landscape, Park, Building, Qualities, Use edited by Gabriele G. Kiefer and Anika Neubauer, published by Birkhäuser Lina Bo Bardi: Habitat edited by José Esparza Chong Cuy, Julieta González, Adriano Pedrosa and Tomás Toledo; published by MASP, MCA Chicago, Fundación Jumex, and DelMonico Books/Prestel Modern Architecture and Climate: Design Before Air Conditioning by Daniel A. Barber, published by Princeton University Press Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison, published by Yale University Press Souto de Moura: Memory, Projects, Works by Francesco Dal Co and Nuno Graça Moura, published by Casa da Arquitectura and Yale University Press Working in Mumbai: RMA Architects by Rahul Mehrotra, published by ArchiTangle Pre-2020 Favorites: Alternative Histories (2019) curated by Jantje Engels and Marius Grootveld, photographed by Thomas Adank and Guus Kaandorp, published by Drawing Matter Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art: The Arthur Drexler Years, 1951-1986 (2019) by Thomas S. Hines, published by Getty Publications The Architecture of Closed Worlds: Or, What Is the Power of Shit? (2018) by Lydia Kallipoliti, published by Lars Müller Publishers Carlo Scarpa and Castelvecchio Revisited (2017) by Richard Murphy, published by Breakfast Mission Publishing Digital Monuments: The Dreams and Abuses of Iconic Architecture (2019) by Simone Brott, published by Routledge Frei Otto, Carlfried Mutschler, Multihalle (2018) by Georg Vrachliotis, published by Spector Books Houses for Sale (2019) by Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample, published by Corraini Edizioni and the Canadian Centre for Architecture The Letters of Colin Rowe: Five Decades of Correspondence (2018) edited by Daniel Naegele, published by Artifice Press Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past (1976) by Reyner Banham, reprinted in 2020 by The Monacelli Press SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey (2017) edited by Oliver Elser, Philip Kurz and Peter Cachola Schmal, published by Park Books
In 2020, the second year for A Daily Dose of Architecture Books, I featured more than 150 books in six day-of-the-week categories: Monograph Monday (30 books), Technical Tuesday (13), World Wednesday (28), History/Theory Thursday (28), Free-for-all Friday (32), and Wayback Weekend (27).
Rather than picking one favorite in each category, as I did last year, I'm creating two Top-10 lists from those 158 books:
- Best books published in 2020
- Favorite books reviewed this year but published before 2020
Below are the lists, with books in alphabetical order by title and links to my original reviews. With this post I'm taking a two-week break, resuming reviews on January 4, 2021. Happy holidays to all!
Best of 2020:
- Eileen Gray, Designer and Architect edited by Cloé Pitiot and Nina Stritzler-Levine, published by Bard Graduate Center
- Eyes That Saw: Architecture After Las Vegas edited by Stanislaus von Moos and Martino Stierli, published by Scheidegger and Spiess
- Flores & Prats: Sala Beckett: International Drama Centre by Richard Flores and Eva Prats, published by Arquine
- Impact: The Effect of Climate Change on Coastlines by Alex MacLean, published by Birkhäuser
- Landscape for Architects: Landscape, Park, Building, Qualities, Use edited by Gabriele G. Kiefer and Anika Neubauer, published by Birkhäuser
- Lina Bo Bardi: Habitat edited by José Esparza Chong Cuy, Julieta González, Adriano Pedrosa and Tomás Toledo; published by MASP, MCA Chicago, Fundación Jumex, and DelMonico Books/Prestel
- Modern Architecture and Climate: Design Before Air Conditioning by Daniel A. Barber, published by Princeton University Press
- Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison, published by Yale University Press
- Souto de Moura: Memory, Projects, Works by Francesco Dal Co and Nuno Graça Moura, published by Casa da Arquitectura and Yale University Press
- Working in Mumbai: RMA Architects by Rahul Mehrotra, published by ArchiTangle
Pre-2020 Favorites:
- Alternative Histories (2019) curated by Jantje Engels and Marius Grootveld, photographed by Thomas Adank and Guus Kaandorp, published by Drawing Matter
- Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art: The Arthur Drexler Years, 1951-1986 (2019) by Thomas S. Hines, published by Getty Publications
- The Architecture of Closed Worlds: Or, What Is the Power of Shit? (2018) by Lydia Kallipoliti, published by Lars Müller Publishers
- Carlo Scarpa and Castelvecchio Revisited (2017) by Richard Murphy, published by Breakfast Mission Publishing
- Digital Monuments: The Dreams and Abuses of Iconic Architecture (2019) by Simone Brott, published by Routledge
- Frei Otto, Carlfried Mutschler, Multihalle (2018) by Georg Vrachliotis, published by Spector Books
- Houses for Sale (2019) by Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample, published by Corraini Edizioni and the Canadian Centre for Architecture
- The Letters of Colin Rowe: Five Decades of Correspondence (2018) edited by Daniel Naegele, published by Artifice Press
- Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past (1976) by Reyner Banham, reprinted in 2020 by The Monacelli Press
- SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey (2017) edited by Oliver Elser, Philip Kurz and Peter Cachola Schmal, published by Park Books
