There's lots to read about this month, as our selection of new architecture books for Spring 2024 offers something for everyone - from explorations of materials and unbuilt architecture to architecture monographs and current trends. Modernist classics rub shoulders with contemporary marvels in this compilation that will keep you busy and interested.
The finest new architecture books for Spring 2024
Carlo Scarpa: The Complete Buildings (Prestel)
One of the most celebrated European Modernists, Italian Carlo Scarpa (1906 - 1978) has left a rich legacy, which is celebrated in this new tome by Prestel. The book looks into the architect's well- and lesser-known works, which effortlessly blend the historical and the futuristic, the classic and the modern, as well as natural and human-made materials in timeless classics, such as the Veritti Tomb in Udine, the Olivetti Showroom in Venice, and the Banca Popolare di Verona. Words by Emiliano Bugatti and Jale N. Erzen are accompanied by new photography by Cemal Emden.
Carlo Scarpa: The Complete Buildings, £40.99, Amazon
Matteo Thun: Stories (Callwey)
A captivating autobiographical book, 'Stories' by Matteo Thun, offers a deep dive into the life and work of the influential architect. With a career spanning four decades - and counting - Thun has been prolific, designing some of the world's most renowned resorts, and public, residential and office buildings. Taking the reader on a journey across the globe to look at them, this book also provides insights into the architect's personal life and friendships, as well as his past and present, revealing the personality and force behind those architectural projects that we know and love.
Stories by Matteo Thun, £25, Waterstones
Brutalist Plants (Hoxton Mini Press)
‘Brutalist Plants’ offers an immersive selection of visuals that captures the very best of the new-ish trend of 'eco-brutalism'. Coming from humble beginnings - an Instagram account which gained rapid traction from followers who were attracted to its bold juxtaposition of concrete greys and leafy greens - the book, authored by Olivia Broome, explores the texture-rich movement that focuses on brutalist architecture that has been - to varying degrees - embraced by flora.
Brutalist Plants by Olivia Broome, £20, Waterstones
California Houses: Creativity in Context (Thames & Hudson)
The author of 'California Houses: Creativity in Context', Wallpaper* occasional contributor Michael Webb, explores the homes that epitomise the pioneering thinking and expressive nature of domestic architecture in the State's context. The tome delves into the typology through the presentation of 36 houses, from Hollywood Modernism to contemporary sustainable architecture examples.
California Houses: Creativity in Context, £45, Waterstones
Concrete Architecture
Concrete Architecture surveys more than a century’s worth of the world’s most influential buildings using the much-used construction material - from brutalist memorials to sculptural apartment blocks. The meaty tome includes examples from across the globe, spanning the material’s earliest usage right up to the present day. Some of the best-known architects of the modern era shaped their reputations in concrete; it remains the preeminent component of infrastructure projects around the world.
Concrete Architecture, £59.95, Waterstones
The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action
'The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action' may first catch your attention for its jaw-dropping array of the Brazilian practice's inspiring private homes; but it will retain it, for its founder Marcio Kogan's captivating journey and way of thinking that bridges architecture and film, highlighting the buildings' experiential side. The book is the first monograph on the studio's work and presents a strong selection of recent projects, along with an overview of the five key elements that go into Studio MK27’s approach. These are each helmed by a different writer, including architects Gabriel Kogan and Filippo Bricolo, Wallpaper’s own Ellie Stathaki, regular contributor Scott Mitchem and dezeen’s Amy Frearson.
The Architecture of Sudio MK27, £50, Waterstones
London Estates: Modernist Council Housing 1946-1981
With 'London Estates: Modernist Council Housing 1946-1981,' author and photographer Thaddeus Zupančič isn’t claiming to make a comprehensive study of every example of the capital’s extensive post-war, modernist architecture housing. Instead, he is seeking out the best, the blighted and the occasionally overlooked housing schemes in a deeply political book about residential architecture. In doing so, he has assembled an important record.
London Estates: Modernist Council Housing 1946-1981, £26.95, Waterstones
Atlas of Never Built Architecture (Phaidon)
Phaidon's 'Atlas of Never Built Architecture', authored by Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin, is a valuable survey of a fascinating alternative history of the buildings that never were, grand plans that failed to get off the drawing board, due to politics, money, or a straightforward lack of any realistic chance for construction.
Atlas of Never Built Architecture, £100, Waterstones
Louis I. Kahn: The Last Notebook (Lars Müller)
The latest Louis Kahn-themed book, 'The Last Notebook', launched at Milan Design Week this year, is a fascinating insight into the great modernist architecture master's thoughts and processes. It is the exact reproduction of the architect’s final notebook, showing his early sketches of Four Freedoms Park, interiors and drawings of furniture, notes to himself, and a draft for an acceptance speech. ‘My dream for this book is that it not be a very precious thing, but something where you can see him as a person and not some kind of architectural idol that's on a pedestal,’ says Sue Ann Kahn. ‘And then I hope you are inspired to use the blank pages to make your own drawings, write your own thoughts.’
Louis I. Kahn: The Last Notebook, £38, Waterstones
Christophe Gevers Monograph (Jean-Pierre Gabriel)
Christophe Gevers may feel less familiar to wider audiences than other figures in 20th-century and modernist architecture; but now, this new monograph dedicated to his portfolio, curated and photographed by Jean-Pierre Gabriel, puts a spotlight to his oeuvre. The Belgian designer (1928-2007) has been celebrated among his peers for his intricate craftsmanship, architecture and interiors, and this book explains just why.
Christophe Gevers Monograph, $95, Copyrightbookshop
