The Architecture of Urbanity by Vishaan Chakrabarti (Princeton University Press)

In his first book, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America, the architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti made the case that better designed cities could help solve the country’s challenges from public health to climate change. His follow up book, The Architecture of Urbanity, coming ten years later, builds upon this thesis to show how we can think about designing our communities for nature, culture, and joy. Moving through history to the present day and packed with graphics, maps, and drawings, Chakrabarti’s book is a hopeful and inspiring mandate for today’s designers and architects.

Alexander Girard: Let The Sun In by Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee (Phaidon)

When we think of mid-century design, we often think of a simplified aesthetic of steel and glass and blond woods. This representation can often seem sterile, serious, cold. But the design of the mid-century, of course, was much more varied: warmer, more colorful, and more playful. There are many mid-century designers to admire, from the Eames to George Nelson to Florence Knoll, but no one, perhaps, embodies the playfulness of the era than Alexander Girard. Showcasing his work across interior design, furniture, textiles, graphic design, and architecture, this stunning monograph captures the spirit and playfulness of one of the most important figures of mid-century design.

Atlas of Never Built Architecture by Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin (Phaidon)

Sometimes I think my favorite architecture is the architecture that doesn’t exist. The buildings that never got built but remain alive through drawings, renderings, and plans become a type of speculative design, caught between reality and fiction. It seems architecture writers Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin feel similarly because their new book is packed with these never-built buildings. Packed with gorgeous renderings and organized geography, this book becomes an alternative history of some parallel architectural world.

The Complete Commercial Artist: Making Modern Design in Japan, 1928-1930 by Gennifer Weisenfeld (Letterform Archive)

Over the last decade, there’s been an effort across the design fields to uncover the often-overlooked areas of design history, expanding our understanding of the canon of what design is and can be. One of my favorite recent additions to this expanded design history is Gennifer Weisenfeld’s serious and inspiring look at The Complete Commercial Artist, a 24-volume publication released in Japan from 1928 to 1930. It was during these years, it turns out, that Japanese designers began to rethink the design profession, blending modernist methodologies with local vernacular creating an expressive, colorful, and wholly unique visual style. And it was all documented and discussed in The Complete Commercial Artist. Here, Weisenfeld looks at the history of the publication and the influence of this work on designers today, around the world.

Building Culture by Julian Rose (Princeton Architectural Press)

Over the last few years, there has been a series of books on the role of architecture in shaping museum experiences. The latest of the genre is art critic Julian Rose’s collection of sixteen interviews with leading architects about the museums they’ve designed, the ideas behind them, and the relationship between art and architecture. Rose is a knowledgeable and generative interlocutor that makes for rich and engaging conversations.

Superstorm by Noemi Biasetton (Onomatopee)

In an election year that sometimes felt like it was hard to make sense of, I found Italian design researcher Noemi Biasetton’s book to be an anchor. Born out of her PhD work at the University of Venice, Biasetton explores the relationship between communication design, media theory, and political discourse from the 1960s to 2020. Filled with case studies that range from the first televised debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon to Michael Bierut’s 2016 Hillary Clinton logo, the film work of Steve Bannon to the now-iconic Obama “O,” Biasetton makes the case that our politics has become media, and that design has fallen behind in the increasingly chaotic superstorm of the Information Age.