The Best Illustrated Architecture Books

Fine Books & Collections has an interview I did with Rebecca Rego Barry, in which I talk about Buildings in Print: 100 Influential & Inspiring Illustrated Architecture Books (Prestel, 2021), collecting architecture books, and a few important titles in my personal library. One of the latter is Bernard Tschumi's The Manhattan Transcripts, which is featured at the beginning of the chapter (above) where the book is found. (Tschumi, I should point out, was generous enough to provide a quote for the back cover; it can be read on my Building in Print book page.) A short excerpt from the interview:

RB: Can you tell us about a favorite (or two) from your collection?

JH: Two books that impacted my development as an architect and someone who writes about architecture come to mind. The one that’s in Buildings in Print is The Manhattan Transcripts by Bernard Tschumi, first published in 1981 and then expanded a decade later. Originally a series of gallery shows, the book uses illustrations that are more cinematic than architectural to argue for the divorcing of function from form, upending Louis Sullivan's famous dictum that "form ever follows function." The book's arguments and innovative methods of notation have influenced many architects since, myself included.

Visit Fine Books & Collections to see what the second book is and to read the full interview.