MAPP’s 2021 Summer Reading List

By Maggie Haslam / Jun 22, 2021

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Summer 2021 reading list book covers

The dog days of summer bring opportunities to reset, relax and crack the spine on a new book. MAPP’s faculty have been busy writing, with subjects covering everything from architectural history to the changing American suburb. Looking to populate your summer reading list? Check out a few suggestions below:

If you want to brush up on your sketching skills: grab a charcoal pencil, moleskin and a copy of Michael Abrams’ The Art of City Sketching: A Field Manual (second edition). Abrams’ guide is a how-to for students, professionals and recreational sketchers alike, with tips and tricks for capturing your environment on paper.

If you are fascinated by how cities are born: Grab a copy of Assistant Professor Juan Burke’s Architecture and Urbanism in Viceregal Mexico: Puebla de los Ángeles, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, where Spanish colonialism and indigenous civilization collide, with beautiful results.

If your trip to Italy was postponed: Transport yourself through Assistant Professor Joe Williams’ book Architecture of Disjuncture: Mediterranean Trade and Cathedral Building in a New Diocese (11th - 13th Centuries), which accounts the fitful, often improvised construction of the Molfetta cathedral in southern Italy during the middle ages.

If you’re interested in the morphing American suburb: Witness the decades-long transformation of Santa Clara County, California, through the experiences of long-time residents, stakeholders and immigrants as they strive for a piece of the American Dream in Associate Professor Willow Lung-Amam’s book, Trespasser? Asian Americans and the Battle for Suburbia.

If you’re looking for insight into housing insecurity in America: Casey Dawkins’ new book, Just Housing: The Moral Foundations of American Housing Policy, out this August, explores housing justice and the moral foundations of the American home.

If you’re thinking about hanging your own shingle: Pick up Andrew Pressman’s cornerstone edition of Professional Practice 101, which offers a fresh look at the art and science of contemporary architecture practice, from project delivery and negotiating with stakeholders to legal issues and ethics. 

If you only have 15 minutes: Read up on the science of tree rings, America’s infrastructure crisis, the endangered small business or one of the dozens of stories, podcasts and more curated by MAPP faculty that address anti-racism in the built environment.