Favorite Books of 2021

This year I featured nearly 200 architecture books on this blog, placing them into one of six day-of-the-week categories: Monograph Monday, Technical Tuesday, World Wednesday, History/Theory Thursday, Free-for-all Friday, and Wayback Weekend. Setting aside the last so I can focus on recently published books, here are my 21 favorite reads from this year, categorized as they were when I reviewed them and listed in order of the books' publication dates, indicated in parentheses.

MONOGRAPHS:

• The Architecture of Point William: A Laboratory for Living by Kenneth Frampton and Michael Webb, published by ORO Editions (02/2021)
• Carlo Scarpa ("Classic format") by Robert McCarter, published by Phaidon (04/2021)
• Sigurd Lewerentz: Architect of Death and Life edited by Kieran Long and Johan Örn, published by ArkDes/Park Books (08/2021)
• OMA NY: Search Term by Shohei Shigematsu and Jason Long, published by Rizzoli (10/2021)

TECHNICAL:

• Pisé – Rammed Earth. Tradition and Potential edited by Roger Boltshauser with Cyril Veillon and Nadja Maillard, published by Triest (2019)
• Atlas of Digital Architecture: Terminology, Concepts, Methods, Tools, Examples, Phenomena written by Sebastian Michael, edited by Ludger Hovestadt, Urs Hirschberg and Oliver Fritz, published by Birkhäuser (10/2020)
• The Structure of Skyscrapers in America, 1871–1900: Their History and Preservation by Donald Friedman, published by Association for Preservation Technology (10/2020)
• The Ecologies of the Building Envelope: A Material History and Theory of Architectural Surfaces by Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Jeffrey S. Anderson, published by Actar Publishers (07/2021)

WORLD:

• Private Views: A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan by Andi Schmied, edited by Irena Lehkoživová and Barbora Špičáková, published by VI PER Gallery (2010/21)
• Apartment Blossom by Li Han and Jin Qiuye, published by Donghua University Press (01/2021)
• Antarctic Resolution edited by Giulia Foscari / UNLESS, published by Lars Müller Publishers (08/2021)
• All the Queens Houses: An Architectural Portrait of New York’s Largest and Most Diverse Borough by Rafael Herrin-Ferri, published by Jovis (10/2021)

HISTORY:

• Media Burn: Ant Farm and the Making of an Image by Steve Seid, published by Inventory Press/RITE Editions (11/2020)
• Growing Up Modern: Childhoods in Iconic Homes by Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster, published by Birkhäuser (05/2021)
• Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing edited by Michael Merrill, published by Lars Müller Publishers (10/2021)
• Architecture Unbound: A Century of the Disruptive Avant-Garde by Joseph Giovannini, published by Rizzoli (11/2021)

MISC:

• Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, Venice: Voices from the Archives by Mari Lending and Erik Langdalen, published by Pax Forlag/Lars Müller Publishers (03/2021)
• Relational Theories of Urban Form: An Anthology edited by Daniel Kiss and Simon Kretz, published by Birkhäuser (03/2021)
• Sandfuture by Justin Beal, published by The MIT Press (09/2021)
• Sigurd Lewerentz—Pure Aesthetics: St Mark’s Church, Stockholm by Karin Björkquist and Sébastien Corbari, published by Park Books (10/2021)
• The Architecture of Health: Hospital Design and the Construction of Dignity by Michael P. Murphy with Jeffrey Mansfield and MASS Design Group, published by Cooper Hewitt (11/2021)