Unpacking my library
Subtitle: architects and their books
By: edited by Jo Steffens ; featuring an essay by Walter Benjamin.
Contributors: Steffens, Jo.; Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New Haven, CT
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780300158939
Subjects: Architects -- Books and reading; Best books
Description: "What does a library say about the mind of its owner? How do books map the intellectual interests, curiosities, tastes, and personalities of their readers? What does the collecting of books have in common with the practice of architecture? Unpacking My Library provides an intimate look at the personal libraries of twelve of the world's leading architects, alongside conversations about the significance of books to their careers and lives. Photographs of bookshelves -- displaying well-loved and rare volumes, eclectic organizational schemes, and the individual touches that make a bookshelf one's own -- provide an evocative glimpse of their owner's personal life. Each architect also presents a reading list of top ten influential titles, from architectural history to theory to fiction and nonfiction, that serves as a personal philosophy of literature and history, and advice on what every young architect, scholar, and lover of architecture should read."--Publisher description.
Table of contents: title: Unpacking my library: a talk about book collecting / Walter Benjamin; title: Architects and their books: Stan Allen; title: Henry N. Cobb; title: Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio; title: Peter Eisenman; title: Michael Graves; title: Steven Holl; title: Toshiko Mori; title: Michael Sorkin; title: Bernard Tschumi; title: Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.