Instructors/ Designers:
Jennifer Minasian
Scott Parker
Scott Callihan
Michael Collins
Laura Cooper
Eric Wegerbauer

Volume5

Click to go Back to first Book Bag Page

FAVORITE BOOKS: Scott Parker

The Idea of a Town

by Joseph Rykwert

Destroyed all the ideas of urban planning I was taught in school. Opened up many doors of possible working methods for design, whether they made logical sense or not.

Between Zero and Infinity

by Daniel Libeskind

I remember discovering this book at Cal Poly's library and being completely blown away. It was architecture, but know discussion of construction. Architecture as pure thought. Introduced the notion of poetry in architecture.

The Sacred and the Profane

by Mercia Eliad

Once you stumble on to Daniel Libeskind, Eliade is something you will eventually find. I actually found this book through the official Cranbook reading list compiled by Daniel and his students. Bill Taylor, one of said students, suggested I read it. The notion that their is sacred space and profane space allowed me an understanding of Wings of Desire and spaces like a Gothic Cathedral that I would not have otherwise had. Sacred time also gave me an intellectual reason to hate New Years Eve. Thank you very much.

Chaos

by James Gleick

Victoria Casasco bought this book at the airport and then brought it to class. Formed an intelectual bridge between poetry and architecture.I was taught architecture is a science, and this was supposed to sober onesdesigns (like Ando) but this book showed that scientists were more wacked and poetic then anything I could dream up in architecture.

The Improbable Machine

by Jeremy Campbell

I found this book by chance at the Claremont colleges student book store. It deals with how the mind functions, using the theories about how to create artificial intelligence have changed over the years. I wrote a paper on this for an English class. I was required to give an in-class presentation and in it I proved to everyone that reason is assumed, but not present in thought. Arbitrary became a less dirty word.

FAVORITE BOOKS: Scott Callihan

Einstein's Dreams

by Alan Lightman

Fictional book of very short (a few pages each) stories. Each passage is an account of a dream (or nightmare) of Einstein. Each is a very creative twist on a practical (cultural) application of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. No math or formulas, just worlds of time distortions, multiple realities, endless variation, doomed fate and more. Just read it. My favorite is the one about a civilization who continuously constructs and lives higher and higher up (from sea level). They are seeking to live longer, and time slows down as you move further from the center of earth. Cleverly, Lightman describes their development of an entire culture and wealth system based on those who live in the flatlands and those who don't--all in just 4 or 5 pages.

Any RFP (Request for Proposal)

Call Bill Holland

Any RFP (Request for Proposal) for architectural services for a City Agency. Do not use an RFQ (Request for Qualifications). This is as non-fiction as it gets. An RFP can be obtained by calling Bill Holland, Office of the City Architect of the City of Los Angeles or by calling other cities. Read this cover to cover as boring as it may be. Consider what it would take to create a team of members of all the required disciplines (structural, mechanical, etc.). Consider how much time a 50 or 80 page proposal would take to write and assemble. Remember that they want five or more copies. Then realize you only have three weeks to do it. Then realize should change your major.

Shipwrecks

by Akira Yosimura

Fictional book about a small, poor fishing village in Japan in feudal times that does whatever it needs to do to survive, including indentured servantry, murder, and looting. But they're not the bad guys. Heavy on fate and rich with early Japanese culture of the poor folk, not James Clavell's Shogun. It is easy to feel an all-out primitive need for food and shelter. Remember that enjoyment is a luxury.

Short Stories

by H.G. Wells

If you feel better about yourself knowing what is the 'newest' or 'hottest' trend: if you think you know what computers mean to our civilization today (and tommorrow). Have you heard about the what's in store for the 64-bit processor that's due out in a year or two? Forget it, that's all small time. If you read WIRED magazine and think you're cool because you made your own webpage. Learn what a hardcore visionary predicted for the future; remember that he wrote it all before the year 1900. Time Machine is included in this book. It doesn't stand out to me, because it doesn't yet exist. Check out the one's that did come true. I haven't read them all, but so far ones not to miss are 'The Stolen Bacillus' and 'The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes'.

Motel Chronicles and Hawk Moon (one book)

by Sam Shepard

Droning, infectious beat of Shepard's prose. Gritty accounts of growing up in parts of San Bernardino County and other rural areas of the U.S. Sex, pointlessness, cowboy hats on sleazy mojave-chics, dusty roads, and lots of renegade escapism. This is better if you can do a good drawl and read it aloud. If you like this, read Crusing Paradise, one of Shepard's more recent works.

The Details of Modern Architecture (Book 1)

by Edward R. Ford

While many think this book is mostly about detailing buildings, I believe it's really much better as a history/theory book. Through the process of giving light to the construction of a particular modern masterwork, the Ford goes to the extent to explain why an architect used a detail or system to achieve the stylistic or conceptual goal. The section on Adolf Loos is a particularly effective (brief and to the point) description and analysis.

The Control of Nature

by John McPhee

A major portion of the book is an account of the local Los Angeles mountain ranges and man's attempts to control their natural processes. Accounts of mudslides, debris flows, and human intervention to stop or contain nature. This book is fantastic if you are interested in understanding the local natural landscape and how to (both conceptually and realistically) design for the L.A. area.