Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind’s Book List
The Prey of Unknown Zones —
The Pillage of the Sea
The Tabernacles of the Minds
That told the Truth to me —
— Emily Dickinson
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The wonders of red-white-black and fantastic composition with two squares! And meaning! You can become as smart a designer as a child of the revolution.
“The best books have pictures,” says Alice, and this is the best—and most scary!
An amazing book of master drawings of architecture—truly an eternal inspiration!
My favorite book about the “inner” reality of places, by perhaps the best theoretician of the last century.
The clearest and most rational of all philosophy books. Very useful in the era of fuzzy cloud logic.
Poetry, wilderness, and madness become one’s own in a psychotropic trip of dancing letters and hallucinating colors.
My favorite book about time, clients, cash, persistence, and competition in architecture. A practical manual for work!
Einstein wrote the introduction to this mind-distorting fantasy on the fourth dimension. Should suffice as cosmology for mere mortals.
Mystical, intellectual, and ecstatic—for anyone interested in truly understanding architecture and thought that is not “philosophical”!
Dreams and beauty of mystery with Early Renaissance woodcut illustrations. Eroticism and Constructivism combine in an Early Renaissance myth.
Written by my former teacher, this is one of my absolute favorite books on the city. No nonsense or pseudo-facts. A true classic.
This was my first, and still favorite, art book—I bought it with all my savings. My favorite Cubist by far.
A book that is so fantastic that it even inspired Borges to see that the world is only a myth.
To design is to struggle. This collection of van Gogh’s letters are a lesson in loneliness in art. Truly relevant in this economy-obsessed era!
The only manifestos that are still relevant for design—because the future is always just ahead. The most forward-thinking and relevant design manifestos. Includes Marinetti’s “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” (1909).
Written by my mentor, a deep investigation into what it means to build through drawings and texts. Amazing how a book of drawings and ideas is much more inspiring than a book of techniques and buildings!
A must for anyone seeking a reflection on both the seen and unseen.
The Renaissance comes to life even in the rhetorical tropes of the Leoni translation—with incredible art by a man who was also a family lawyer!
The sheer beauty of geometry brought to light. A treatise that shows more geometic wonders than any computer can.
A fantastic description of what a city means to a citizen, a revolutionary, and a terrorist. In my opinion, even better on the city than Joyce’s Ulysses.
A view into Corbusier’s mind and how utterly crazy modernism actually is! You will find out the danger of the right angle.
A new language developed as a consequence of the Holocaust. Intellectually penetrable because of its opacity.
This book opened my imagination and freed me from oppressive spaces.
The best insight into the soul of an artist. My favorite book by a poet who writes prose. A book that is imaginatively, aesthetically, and fetishistically Number One.
A book that can never be exhausted—showing that someone from Mauritius can be more cosmopolitan than someone from New York or Paris.
Unsurpassed analysis of contemporary dilemmas. More relevant now than in the late 19th century when it was written. Flaubert knew who the idiots were. Really important for our new era.
You can’t do urban planning without this book because it is a labyrinth that you can never leave.
A must for all designers! When I first read it I thought it was boring. Now it is eternal again . . .
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.”
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.
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