Best Novels Every Architect Should Read

Fountainhead

Fountainhead examines the life of an idealistic young architect named Howard Roark. Rather than succumbing to the prevailing tastes in building design just for his own benefit and coming to terms with his artistic and personal opinion, he was willing to struggle in complexity and fight for his truth. Howard Roark, a brilliant young architect, is expelled from architecture school in his senior year. His reason is that he rejects the drawings by the traditional order of the school. It is one of the books that every architect should read, which will make them question the system and the place of architects in the world order.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The lead character, Roy, pays intense attention to the little things in life. However, more importantly, he pays attention to how they connect to the bigger things. His deep relationship understanding between details and context is affected by his education at The School of Planning and Architecture. He also contributes to his decisions about structure and space in the novel. This circular thinking results in a plot that aims to embody ideas through words, to create its own language to manipulate the world. Reading this novel may inspire architects to build the language the character seeks.

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

The layers that come together over an object or place over time working to shape something new are central to Ondaatje’s novel, where layers of time, place, architectural history, and culture slide over and around each other. According to the narravite of a man whose identity is not clear, the relationship between space, memory, and time is undeniable. These memories comprise within architecture are not only beautiful but also thought-provoking from an architectural perspective.

Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

A motorcycle journey of a father and son through the American Northwest, the novel is woven into a philosophical discovery of the true concept of Quality, something architects are constantly battling with.

The author begins to draw his conclusions about Quality for personal identification and relationship between creator and creation. In other words, Quality is inimitable, just as a real investment is. “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” is not only an exciting story, it will cause you to think about what Quality means to you, and in turn, to your architecture.

Piranesi’s Dream by Gerhard Kopf

Piranesi’s Dream is a fictional autobiography about the famously failed architect and famously successful engraver. Piranesi visits wildly disparate ages, the novel is not only an autobiography but a compelling psychological novel. Forced to work as an engraver. However, he used to dream of himself as an architect constantly. Piranesi’s Dream is the story of an artist and a visionary of ages past and present.

The Cloud Sketcher by Richard Rayner

Pilvenpiirtaja is the Finnish word for the skyscraper, meaning literally “cloud sketcher.” Reyner’s book follows a young Finnish architect living during the invention of the elevator. In Rayner’s novel, you will read this young man’s extraordinary story on the themes of art, love, and adventure.