Book List of the Week

Christian Wassmann’s Book List: Cross-Referencing

By Steve Kroeter September 30, 2013

Christian Wassmann, architect (New York)

“As a student I spent a lot of time in the library doing research for my projects, but I never liked to borrow books,” notes architect Christian Wassmann in the introduction to his book list. “I preferred to own them, mark them with notes, and collect articles, press releases, and other information inside the front cover. I always tried to find the most important books on a specific artist, architect, or subject, study them, and then cross-reference them.”

Cross-referencing is a hallmark of Wassmann’s work, which extends from site-specific installations and art exhibitions to furniture, interiors, and buildings including the East Village Radio station in New York, the Curved Wall House in Miami, and the “Fibonacci Spiral” construction for the threeASFOUR fashion show. His mentors include both artist Robert Wilson and architect Steven Holl.

Works on artists known for exploring space and spatial constructs, such as Constantin Brancusi, Pablo Picasso, and Gordon Matta-Clark, are highlights of Wassmann’s book list. About Object to Be Destroyed: The Work of Gordon Matta-Clark by Pamela Lee, Wassmann comments, “Like many great artists, Gordon Matta-Clark was educated as an architect and became a game-changing artist by questioning his environment and making liberating suggestions. With his surgical cuts through buildings he de-functionalized architecture and turned it into art. Matta-Clark was a poet of space.”

Christian Wassmann in his library. He says about the books that have inspired him: “This ever-expanding archive represents everything I was ever interested in. The collection now serves as an extended memory that I can revisit at any time or dive deeper into a subject if desired.”

Among Wassmann’s architecture selections are books devoted to Buckminster Fuller and the Eameses as well Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp, which contains Le Corbusier’s plans and sketches for the Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, one of the legendary modern architect’s most revolutionary creations and “my favorite building,” Wassmann remarks. “Almost every book by Le Corbusier could be on my list but this one is off the shelf and on our desks at the Studio all the time.”

Books from many other fields also turn up on Wassmann’s list. All of these books, he writes in the introduction to his book list, helped him “to see and realize previously hidden connections.” Super Constellation (in German) by Christoph Asendorf, on the influence of air and space travel, “explains how something that was invented in an aeronautical context, often for military purposes, later influenced other fields, culture, and society at large.” You Are Not a Gadget, by Silicon Valley’s Jaron Lanier—a pioneer in the field of virtual reality, who in recent years has spoken about the perils of an Internet that values the opinion of the crowd and computer algorithms over human judgment—is another book choice. Wassmann’s judgment: “Today a lot of information can be found on the Internet, but for me books have more authority due to the good authors, editors, and publishers who make them.”

Senses, Memory, and the Realm of Place: Craig Dykers’s Book List

Anticipating the Future: Florian Idenburg’s Book List

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.