Always by Design - Inspiring Our Work

INSPIRING our work


INSPIRATION can strike at the strangest of times and places. Often times it’s completely serendipitous. Sometimes a more purposeful search proves most rewarding. The library of AxD’s founder Ed Barnhart gives a hint of some of our favorite sources of inspiration.


Modern Masters (Architects)

Alvar Aalto, a+u (Architecture and Urbanism), May 1983 Special Edition issue

Asplund, Claes Caldenby; Rizzoli Press, 1985

Barragan: Space and Shadow, Walls and Colour, Daniele Pauly; Birkhauser, 2002

Sverre Fehn: The Thought of Construction, Per Olaf Fjeld; Rizzoli Press, 1983

The Architecture of Frank Furness, Frank F. O’Gorman; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973

Louis I. Kahn: Light and Space, Urs Buttiker; Whitney Library of Design, 1994

Louis I. Kahn: Drawing to Find Out – The Dominican Motherhouse and the Patient Search for Architecture, Michael Merrill; Lars Muller Publishers, 2010

Louis I. Kahn: Complete Work 1935-1974, Heinz Ronner et. al; The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, 1987

What Will Be Has Always Been: The Words of Louis I. Kahn, Richard Saul Wurman; Rizzoli Press, 1986

LeCorbusier 1910-1965, W. Boesiger et. al.; Verlag fur Architektur, 1967

Le Corbusier: The Chapel of Notre-Dame Du Haut at Ronchamp, Maria Antonietta Crippa; Royal Academy Publications, 2014

Cosmos of Light: The Sacred Architecture of Le Corbusier, Henry Plummer; Indianna University Press 2013

Juha Leiviska and the Continuity of Finnish Modern Architecture, Malcom Quantrill; Wiley-Academy, 2001

The Place of Houses, Charles Moore et. al; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974

Neutra: Complete Works, Peter Gossel; Tashen GmbH, 2010

Carlo Scarpa, Robert McCarter; Phaidon Press, 2013

Carlo Scarpa: Layers, Anne-Catrin Schultz; Edition Axel Manges, 2014

Schindler, James Steele; Tashen GmbH, 2005

The Wright Space: Pattern and Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Houses, Grant Hildebrand; University of Washington, 1991

Venturi, Rauch & Scott Brown: Buildings and Projects, Stanislaus von Moos; Rizzoli Press, 1987

Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, Robert Venturi; The Museum of Modern Art, 1966

Contemporary Architects

Ando: Complete Works 1975-2014, Philip Jodidio; Tashen GmbH, 2014

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson: The Nature of Circumstance, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson; Rizzoli Press, 2010

Searching for True, Cutler Anderson Architects; Rizzoli Press, 2009

Peter Eisenman’s House VI: The Client’s Response, Suzanne Frank; Whitney Library of Design, 1994

Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry, Paul Goldberger; Alfred A. Knopf, 2015

Thomas Heatherwick: Making, Thomas Heatherwick; The Monacelli Pres, 2012

Anchoring, Steven Holl; Princeton Architectural Press, 1991

Steven Holl: Architecture Spoken, Steven Holl Architects; Rizzoli Press, 2007

Franklin D. Israel, Thomas Hines; Rizzoli Press, 1992 [deceased]

Desert Works, Rick Joy; Princeton Architectural Press, 2002

Tom Kundig: Works, Tom Kundig; Princeton Architectural Press, 2015

One Place Two Decades, Salvatore Larosa, et. al., The Avery Group, 2016

Plain Modern: The Architecture of Brian MacKay-Lyons, Malcom Quantrill; Princeton Architectural Press, 2005

Miller/Hull: Architects of the Pacific Northwest, Sheri Olson; Princeton Architectural Press, 2001

Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency, Andrea Oppenheimer Dean; Princeton Architectural Press, 2002

Super Potato Design: The Complete Works of Takashi Sugimoto, Mira Lochel, 2006

Suyama: A Complex Serenity, Grant Hildebrand; Marquand Books, 2011

WorkLife, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien; The Monacelli Press, 2000

Peter Zumthor: Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor; Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess AG, 2007

Japanese Architecure

Form and Space in Japanese Architecture, Norman F. Carver Jr.; Documan Press Ltd, 1993

The Classic Tradition in Japanese Architecture: Modern Versions of the Sukiya Style, Teiji Itoh; Weatherhill/Tankosha, 1972

Forms of Japan, Michael Kenna & Yvonne Meyer Lohr; Prestel, 2015

Katsura: A Princely Retreat, Takeshui Nishikawa; Kodansha International, 1977

 

Nature/Landscape

Visible/Invisible: Landscape Works of Reed Hilderbrand, Reed Hilderbrand; Metropolis Books, 2012

Walls of Aran, Sean Scully; Thames & Hudson, 2007

Listen to the Trees, John Sexton; Bulfinch Press, 1994

Restructuring Urban Landscapes, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates; Yale University Press, 2008

 

Materials

Understanding Wood, R. Bruce Hoadley; Tauton Press, 1990

The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker’s Reflections, George Nakashima; Kodansha USA, 1981

Artists

Giacometti, James Lord; Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1985

Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin, Lawrence Weschler; University of California Press, 1982

Gustav Klimt, Colin Bailey; Abrams, 2001

Emily Kngwarreye Paintings, Donald Holt; Craftsman House, 1998

Robert Motherwell: The Making of an American Giant, Bernard Jacobson; 21 Publishing Ltd, 2015

Motherwell, Marcelin Pleynet; L’Impriemerie Blanchard Fils, 1989

Mark Rothko, James Breslin; University of Chicago, 1993

Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out, Christopher Rothko; Yale University Press, 2015

Richard Serra: The Matter of Time, Guggenheim Bilbao; Steidl Publishers, 2005

Occluded Front, James Turrell; The Lapis Press, 1985

 

Food

Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen, Olafur Eliasson; Phaidon Press, 2016

The Art of the Restaurateur, Nicholas Lander; Phaidon Press, 2012

 

Other

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, 2011

Knots, R.D. Lang; Random House, 1970

The Craftsman, Richard Sennet; Yale University Press, 2008

In Praise of Shadows, Junichiro Tanizaki; Leete’s Island Books, 1977