Nathalie de Vries

Architect; Urban Designer / The Netherlands / MVRDV

www.mvrdv.nl

Nathalie de Vries’s Book List

Many of the books on this list are in some way about daily life and how it can inspire us. I acquired quite a few of these during my last years as a student and the first years of my practice, roughly between 1988 and 1996—when I started to earn enough money to buy them.

I must admit, though, that as much as books, architecture magazines shaped my ideas. The library of TU Delft University subscribed to all of them. The German magazine Arch+ stands between the books on my shelves to be re-read. Always aware of the zeitgeist, there is no subject to which it has not dedicated an issue.

My generation was looking for the “now” in architecture, because a majority of buildings that were produced in the 1970s and ’80s somehow seemed far away from our daily experiences. Nowadays most of us are working in countries all over the world and we have to keep our eyes open to the everyday lives of people that might not be so familiar to us.

This book list was initiated on the occasion of Nathalie de Vries’s November 2, 2012, lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The lecture is available on videotape. The Frances Loeb Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Design will feature Nathalie de Vries’s Designers & Books book list as well as books from its collections that are by and about MVRDV, on display through mid-November.

Nonfiction, Architecture

title a–z

3 books

Learning from Las Vegas

Add to My Reading List

Robert Venturi

Denise Scott Brown

Steven Izenour

The mother of all research projects on architecture and urbanism connected to everyday life.

Lina Bo Bardi

Add to My Reading List

Lina Bo Bardi

The role model for many female architects today. This book contains all of Lina Bo Bardi’s work and many sketches. Her SESC-Fábrica do Pompéia sports and cultural center in São Paulo is one of the most impressive building complexes I know.

Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies

Add to My Reading List

Reyner Banham

On my first ever trip to the U.S., I went to L.A. instead of New York because of this book.

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.