A Pattern Language : Towns, Buildings, Construction

By Christopher Alexander

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How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built

By Stewart Brand

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How Buildings Learn is one of my all-time favorite books. Stewart Brand, author of the Whole Earth Catalog, suggests that while buildings are most often seen as whole in space, they should also be considered as whole in time. As he writes, "Whereas 'architecture' may strive to be permanent, a 'building' is always building and rebuilding." Some buildings are designed to adapt well to the forces of change, while seem designed to prevent it. While Brand's focus is on physical buildings, his insights can also be extended to virtual spaces as well. (Bart Marable)

Patterns of Home : The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design

By Max Jacobson, Murray Silverstein, Barbara Winslow

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Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience

By Yi-Fu Tuan, Steven Hoelscher

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The Image of the City

By Kevin Lynch

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This classic of urban design examines the ways that people construct mental images of built environments. While traditional maps show streets, bodies of water, and rail lines, Lynch argues that people build their mential maps cities using different tools: nodes, landmarks, paths, edges and districts. (Bart Marable)

The Timeless Way of Building

By Christopher Alexander

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Urban Images of the Hispanic World, 1493-1793

By Richard Kagan, Richard L. Kagan Fernando Marias

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