PoWAlumni Bibliography

This bibliography is the evolving creation of Alumni and ex-staff of various HRH The Prince of Wales's education programmes, including Summer Schools, Urban Task Forces, The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture, The Prince's Foundation and VITA. The group is strictly unofficial but strongly supportive of the views of HRH The Prince of Wales on architecture and planning. Visit our homepage.


~Click the hyperlinked titles to see Amazon.com listings.~


ALBERTI, Leon Battista, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, Florence, 1486; trans. RYKWERT, Joseph, LEACH, Neil and TAVERNOR, Robert, MIT Press, Cambridge MA and London, 1988
    Excellent translation of this essential treatise, the first of the Renaissance. Glossed, re-glossed and glossed again. Fantastic work guys. (Matthew Hardy)

Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (1977) Oxford University Press: New York, Oxford.
    Alexander was awarded a Gold Medal by the AIA for this book. It is oriented toward the layperson but is not lost on architects and builders. A classic, called "the most important book on architectural design published this century" by Architectural Design. (Demetrius Gonzalez)

    When all around us was the absolutely horrible disaster of the 1970s architectural scene, this little book arrived with its inoccuous appearance and dynamite message for the world. Lovely ideas, even if I've yet to see why communual sleeping is an essential part of building - it just keeps me awake. After reading this I will always include Alcoves off the living areas in my designs (#179). But there's so many other lovely things in there too... how to choose? Add my recommendation for this one! (Matthew Hardy)

Alexander, Christopher The Nature of Order (Forthcoming) Oxford University Press: New York, Oxford.
Alexander, Christopher The Timeless Way of Building (1979) Oxford University Press: New York, Oxford.
    Alexander writes, "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are." (Demetrius Gonzalez)

The Bhagavad Gita c. 500 B.C. Translated from Sanskrit, author(s) unknown.
Brand, Stewart How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built (1994) Viking: New York, New York.
    A look at evolution of a number of buildings, mostly in the U.S., with before and after examples showing how they changed over time and discussing the cultural and natural forces which shaped them. I found it helpful in widening my perspective on what a building is as a 'thing'. (Demetrius Gonzalez)

Building Classical - A Vision of Europe and America
    The book features the compiled work from two exhibitions (" A Vision of Europe" and "Building America - Conference on the work of Emerging Classical Architects"), together with the symposium transcripts. I particularly like the sheer amount of beautiful pictures of lately built or designed projects which allow to proove to every non-believer or those with a lack of imagination that classical/traditional architecture can be very "modern", suitable ... and beautiful and that it is by no means a business of dull plagiarizing. (Katharina Densch)

Burckhardt, Titus Sacred Art of the East and West: Its Principles and Methods (Vom Wesen Heiliger Kunst in den Weltreligionen)
    Having studied history of art and oriental studies, Burckhardt worked as art director of a Swiss publisher. There he also was responsible for publishing a series of artfolios titeled "Places of Spirit" (Siena, Chartre, Fez). His studies formed his way of thinking as a "traditionalist" in the sense of a philosophia perennis or religio perennis. Sacred Art examines the creation of the Indian temple, the fundamental principles of Christian Art, the fundamental principles of Islamic Art, the picture of Buddha and "Mountain and Water" in Tao-Buddhist painting.(Katharina Densch)

Ching, Francis D.K. ARCHITECURE - FORM SPACE & ORDER Van Nostrand Reinhold, NYC
    This is a beautifully illustrated volume explaining the various tenets of architecture from its very basic to to extremely complex - all done is a lucid manner with both contemporary and classical architectural examples illustrating the idea. (deependra prashad)

COBBETT, William; Rural Rides in the Counties of Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Somersetshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Hertforshire: with Economical and Political Observations relative to matters applicable to, and illustrated by, the State of those Counties respectively, William Cobbett, London, 1830; WOODCOCK, George (ed.), Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1967
    A fantastic, idiosyncratic report on rural Britain before the Reform Bill. Cobbett is an excellent observer of the small details evidencing the rapid change and destruction of the country economy by what we now know as the Industrial Revolution. The merest hint of a new classical villa will set him off into a pages long rant about Stock-Jobbers and Parasites. Don't mention the Wen! Thoroughly, hearfeltly (? - ed.) recommended. (Matthew Hardy)

Correa, Charles, Housing and Urbanization: Building Solutions for People and Cities (ISBN: 0500282102)
    Architect, planner, activist, and theoretician, Charles Correa has captured the world's attention with his buildings and humanitarian approach to architecture. Ever since his apprenticeship with Louis Kahn, Correa has adapted the language of modern architecture to create pleasing, habitable buildings for people in cities and countries around the developing world.(Tami Chuang)

HRH The Prince of Wales A Vision of Britain (1989) Doubleday: London.
Hartoonian, Gevork Ontology of Construction: On Nihilism of Technology in Theories of Modern Architecture Cambridge University Press: 1994.
    ISBN 0-521-454808. An informative distillation on TECTONICS - discussing semiotic narratives in a structural-symbolic rather than structural-technical sense. The thesis claims commodified structural utility alone undermines architectural narrative and cannot avoid nihilistic determinism, or cultural demythification. (Duncan McRoberts)


Jacobs, Allen Great Streets MIT Press; ISBN: 0262600234, 1995
    Which are the world's best streets, and what are the physical, designable characteristics that make them great? To answer these questions, Allan Jacobs has surveyed street users and design professionals and has studied a wide array of street types and urban spaces around the world. With more than 200 illustrations, all prepared by the author, along with analysis and statistics, Great Streets offers a wealth of information on street dimensions, plans, sections, and patterns of use, all systematically compared.


Jacobs, Jane The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) Random House: New York, New York.
JONES, Inigo, Inigo Jones on Palladio: being the notes by Inigo Jones in the copy of I quattro libri dell’architettura di Andrea Palladio, 1601, in the library of Worcester College, Oxford; MURRAY and ALLSOP, Bruce, Eds., Five Early guides series, Oriel Press, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1970 Read Jones's notes in the margins of Palladio's book. Marvel at how he managed to visit so many villas in only 2 weeks, without a car. He met Scamozzi on this trip, thus there is a direct link from the Italian masters to the Brits. And they've never forgotten it since. Get going, Italy! Grab back the reins of Beauty! (Matthew Hardy)
Kant, Emmanuel Critique of Judgement (1951) Hafner Press, New York.
    ISBN 0-02-847500-3 An important theoretical view on the dialectic of "judgement of beautiful objects" concerning the critical notion of "subsumption" regarding conceptual aesthetics. This should be read together with Geoffry Scott's, Architecture of Humanism, and can be used for critical debate regarding politics and architectural meaning. (Duncan McRoberts)

Krier, Leon Architecture: Choice or Fate Andreas Papadakis publisher. ISBN 1-901092-03-8.
    A seminal polemic on Modernist and Traditional ideologies relative to architecture and urbanism. Krier maintains that a civilized society can do very well without modernist simulcra, but cannot survive without the archetypal patterns embodied by traditional architecture and urbanism.(Duncan McRoberts)

Krier, Leon Houses, Palaces, Cities AD Editions, London. ISBN 0-312-47990-5.
    An essential didactic, diagrammatic critique of Modernism and its "convoluted" ideas of zoning, building types, and industrialization. Krier offers critical debate by proposing alternatives. His profound diagrams make these ideas clear and simple for all people. This book marks Krier as essentially one of the very first persons, this century, to take on the profession with such valuable critical thinking. The essay on "Names and Nicknames is a personal favorite. (Duncan McRoberts)

LEWCOCK, Ronald Bentley, Early Nineteenth Century Architecture in South Africa, a study of the interaction of two cultures 1795-1837, A. A. Balkema, Cape Town, 1963 BL X.421/2004
    An oldie but a goodie. Still the only work on SA colonial architecture. The two cultures to which the title refers are Dutch and British - the indigenous people don't get a look in here. (Matthew Hardy)

Lynch, Kevin The Image of the City MIT Press; ISBN: 0262620014; (June 15, 1960)
    What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion--imageability--and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evalutaion of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.


Lynch, Kevin Site Planning MIT Press; ISBN: 0262121069; 3rd edition (March 13, 1984)
    An introduction summarizes the site planning process. This is followed by a case study of a typical professional project and ten chapters that provide new material on such subjects as user analysis, programming, site planning for built places, housing tenures and their planning implications, cost estimating, mapping, the reading of air photographs, site design for housing in developing countries, design strategies, and environmental impact analyses--all illustrated with photographs and line drawings and with Lynch's characteristic marginal sketches.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian Baroque Architecture Gallimard Electa 1992
    for the simplicity of the geometric explanations.

PALLADIO, Andrea; TAVERNOR, Robert & SCHOFIELD, Richard (trans.), The Four Books on Architecture, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1997
    The best translation (and the most recent) of this essential work. Restores Palladio's chatty plain talking insights, lost in the 1738 translation available in Dover facsimile (which is much cheaper, I admit). (Matthew Hardy)

Porphyrios, Demetri Classical Architecture Academy Editions, London. ISBN 0-85670-969-7.
    Porphyrios offers six short essays on the principles of classical architecture: Imitation, Tectonics, Order, Character & Style, Common Sense, and Tradition and the New. This is a distillation of history which is neither positivist, revivalist nor simply historicist; rather, it is one which accepts that traditional continuities exist due to elect cultural choices and the transvalue of enduring meaning. (Duncan McRoberts)

RACKHAM, Oliver, The History of the Countryside, J. M. Dent, London, 1986
    Wonderful book on the English countryside. Is that mound/ditch/bank/smudge significant? Why is there an oak tree at the corner of this hedge? Learn how the read the countryside before they destroy the last bits. There's also a "B-label" short version of this book with much bigger better colour photographs but less text. (Matthew Hardy)

Rasmussen, Steen Eiler Experiencing Architecture The MIT Press Cambridge
    From the Contents: Basic Observations - Solids and Cavities in Architecture - Constrasting Effects of Solids and Cavities - Architecture Experienced as Color Planes - Scale and Proportion - Rythm in Architecture - Textural Effects - Daylight in Architecture - Hearing Architecture.
    Rasmussen: "...the anonymous houses were built [in the olden days] with a natural feeling for place, materials, and use and the result was a remarkably suitable comeliness. Today, in our highly civilized society the houses which ordinary people are doomed to live in and gaze upon are on the whole without quality." "My object is in all modesty to endeavor to explain the instrument the architect plays on, to show what a great range it has and thereby awaken the senses to its music." (Katharina Densch)

Ruskin, John The Seven Lamps of Architecture various publications.
Ruskin, John The Stones of Venice various publications.
SCAMOZZI, Vincenzo, L’idea dell’architettura universale di Vincenzo Scamozzi, architetto veneto, divisa in X. libri, Giorgio Valentino, Venice, 1615
    Teach yourself to read 17th century Italian (not hard!) and read this fantastic, exhaustive account written by Palladio's pupil and successor. If I ever have a son he's going to be called Vincenzo in honour of Scamozzi. (Matthew Hardy)

Scarry, Elaine On Beauty and Being Just (1999) Princeton University Press.
    ISBN 0-691-04875-4. A distillation on theory of Beauty and cultural ethics. (Duncan McRoberts)

SERLIO, S., Tutte l’opere d’architettura di S. Serlio..., 7 books, Venice, 1619 edition; Photographic reprint of copy once in the possession of Inigo Jones and John Webb, Gregg Press, Ridgewood, New Jersey, 1964
    Serlio taught Palladio everything he knew, and his book came to England earlier and was more influential. Yet we persist in calling it "Palladianism". Some historical injustices deserve to be corrected. Read Serlio NOW! At least you'll understand from whence nearly everything in French Renaissance architecture is derived. (Matthew Hardy)

SERLIO, Sebastiano, Book VI, (ms); ROSENFELD, Myra Nan (ed.), Sebastiano Serlio on Domestic Architecture, Different Dwellings from the Meanest Hovel to the Most Ornate Palace, The AH Foundation and MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1978
    Unpublished drawings prepared for the sixth book. Relativism at its earlist emergence - there are different houses for Italy, France and England. So Ruskin was right about porticoes in the North guys! (Matthew Hardy)

SERLIO, Sebastiano; HART, Vaughan, & HICKS, Peter (trans.), Sebastiano Serlio on Architecture, Volume 1, Books I-V of ‘Tutte L’Opere d’Architettura et Prospetiva’, Yale, New Haven, 1996
    An excellent glossed modern translation of the first five books. (Matthew Hardy)

SERLIO, Sebastiano, The Five Books of Architecture, Venice, Paris, 1537-47; PEAKE, R. (trans.), London, 1611; Facsimile edition, Dover Books, New York, 1982 PF 72.01SER
    A facsimile of the edition which was so influential in England. Maybe I will call that son Serlio instead. Lovely gnarly woodcut illustrations (Matthew Hardy)

Sitte, Camillo The Art of Making Cities (Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen)
    First published in 1889 the manifesto examines the reasons for beautiful effects of old townconcepts, "because the reasons, properly recognized, represent a set of rules, whose implementation would entail an equally beautiful effect". Modern Classic.(Katharina Densch)

Summerson, John The Classical Language of Architecture
    Good concise introduction to the classical language and its development throughout the different periods. (Katharina Densch)

Susanka, Sarah The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (1998) Taunton Press: Newtoen, CT.
    A practical antidote to the "monster box" house so prevalent in the U.S. Contains many ideas and examples of less consumptive houses, great for enlightening clients to the foresight of quality over quantity. (Demetrius Gonzalez)

Tarnas, Richard The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View (1991) Ballantine Books: New York.
    For those of us to busy studying and practicing architecture to properly widen our perspectives through philosophy. An engaging overview of Western thought, from the pre-Socratics to the post-Modern, I found myself turning the pages like a suspense novel - 'What's going to happen next?!'. Including an epilogue on where we might be heading which has fascinating parallels to holistic and traditional arguments. (Demetrius Gonzalez)

Van Pelt and Westfall Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism (1991) Yale University Press.
    ISBN 0-300-04999-4. Read even chapters first, by the author Carroll William Westfall. This book takes a very interesting view defining the mutual relationship of Democracy and Classicism. It raises many questions regarding what a city ought to be, and further, reminds us of the powerful mythopoeic value of type and form in architecture and politics. (Duncan McRoberts)

WATKIN, David, A History of Western Architecture, Second edition, Laurence King, London, 1996
    The best recent all-round view of the subject. Sorry, Summerson, time to move over. (Matthew Hardy)

WILSON, W. Hardy, Old Colonial Architecture of New South Wales and Tasmania, The Author, Union House, Sydney, 1924
    Find an original of this fantastic book of lithographs, avoid the small facsimile copy which does not do the illustrations justice at all. Wilson was one of the finest draughtsmen of the century. Incredible drawings of superbly beautiful Regency colonial houses, some now lost. Inspiring stuff. (Matthew Hardy)

WORSLEY, Giles, Classical Architecture in Britain, the heroic age, London, 1995
    Nice newly research look at the period. Worseley used to be editor of Perspectives. Says he was related to the builder of one of the houses. Puts Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor back in the middle of the story. (Matthew Hardy)

Younes, Samir The True, The Fictive, and The Real: The Historical Dictionary of Architecture of Quatremere de Quincy (1999) Andreas Papadakis Publisher.
    ISBN 1-901092-17-8. A very informative book on theory of Mimesis, or imitation. Again, another seminal piece all architects should be familiar with as a theoretical basic. (Duncan McRoberts)

Vitruvius The Ten Books on Architecture various publications.
    I like the cheap Dover facsimile of the Hickey Morgan translation of Vitruvius. With its early 20th century illustrations it's a classical artifact itself. (Matthew Hardy)