-Asquith, Lindsay and Vellinga, Marcel. Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First Century: Theory, Education and Practice. Taylor and Francis Publishing, 2006.
A compilation of essays by urbanists, architects, economists, policy-makers and geographers, discussing the ways in which “vernacular” architecture can play a part in the future of built environments. Essays additionally analyze the value of vernacular traditions as it pertains to such fields as housing, transportation, infrastructure and governance.
-Bawa, Geoffrey. Bawa: The Complete Works. Thames, Hudson Publishing 2002.
A broad survey of the regional works of Sri Lankan architect, lawyer and scholar Geoffrey Bawa, who combined local construction methods with modern technology to create sensible, appropriate architectural solutions.
-Bhatia, Gautam. Laurie Baker: Life, Works and Writings. Penguin Publishing, 2003.
A deferential biographical and retrospective documentation of the British architect, planner, inventor and activist Lawrence Baker. Chronicles Baker’s work and growth from his days as an architecture student in England to his controversial role as a human rights activist to his Pritker Prize nominated architecture.
-Correa, Charles. Charles Correa: Architecture and Planning. Thames, Hudson Publishing, 1997.
A survey of Charles Correa’s architectural and urban planning solutions in India, supplemented with a collection of essays by Correa, Frampton and other notable critics and designers.
-Davis, Mike. Planet of Slums. Verso Publishing, 2006.
An in depth, statistical discussion of the rise of informal urban development and how it relates to the formal global economy. Davis’s concluding thesis inspires the question of whether the great slums of the Global South are in fact the most efficient solution to housing the world’s “surplus humanity.”
-Dobereiner, David. The End of the Street: Sustainable Growth within Natural Limits. Black Rose Publishing, 2006.
Examines how developmental and sustainability idealism can be translated into practical techniques that encourage more responsible and efficient forms of urban development and that employs “appropriate technologies” in more mainstream ways.
-Eglash, Ron. Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power. Minnesota University Press, 2004.
An in depth survey of “user” developed technologies that examines the importance and effectiveness of re-invention and self-sufficiency. Discusses a variety of tools within a broad collection of cultural case studies, from Hispanic car design to Sub-Saharan herbal remedies.
Jefferies, Richard. After London, or Wild England. Ay Co Publishers, 1975
A gritty, post-apocalyptic socio-political projection of the “devolution” that Jefferies predicts will occur as the planet approaches the end of time, and the primal social, economic and survival instincts that will dominate human behavior in the absence of formal urban centers like London.
-Friedman, Thomas. Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a New Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2008.
A journalistic perspective on how global warming, rapid population growth, and globalization have necessitated the need for more immediate and pro-active economic and policy solutions in a variety of fields including, agriculture, trade, urban planning, housing and finance. An important reminder that the policy and development concerns discussed so fashionably in the media and by the academy is not a localized affliction of the Global South, but a very real concern for the First World as well.
-Kingwell, Mark. Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City. Viking Publishing, 2008.
A philosophical and inter-disciplinary discussion of the evolution of the city and how urban development informs and directs our social lives, economies and health.
DH Lawrence. Twilight in Italy: Sketches from Etruscan Places, Sea and Sardinia. Penguin Classics, 2007.
A compilation of Lawrence’s essays, poetry and drawings during his travels throughout Italy. His vibrant account of the decaying lemon gardens at Lake Garda in his poem “The Lemon Gardens,” bears witness to a way of life centuries ago and calls attention to a productive, healthy way of life in a region that has yet been touched by the “deadening effects” of industrialization.
London, Jack. “The Scarlet Plague.” London Magazine, June 12 1912.
An hysterical and somewhat polemical short story about cultural and biological eugenics, set in a post apocalyptic San Francisco. The story illustrates the law of survival of the fittest in a “post-urban climacteric.” The story concludes with a sobering scene describing the collapse of the Golden Gate Bridge into the Bay and an anarchical description of how saltwater corrosion has begun to dissolve the pillars of “the old civilization.”
Morris, William. The Earthly Paradise. Adamant Media Corporation, 2001.
An epic poem by the British architect, painter and philosopher William Morris, that chronicles a seasonal evolution of human development in the romantic “garden cities” of the future.
-Polak, Paul. Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008.
A broad and at times overly simplistic survey of how appropriate technologies can improve the individual utility of the rural poor in the Global South.
-Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture Without Architects. Connecticut Printers, 1964.
A broad survey of “communal” architecture, or architecture produced by non-specialists and a discussion of how often times “non-pedigreed” architecture is an ideal embodiment of appropriate and efficient development.
-Silverstein, Paul. Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race and Nation. New Anthropologies of Europe. Indiana University Press, 2004.
A survey of the nineteenth century Algerian migration to France, examining a variety of cultural and social issues, including colonial governance, urban planning, immigration policy and housing shortages.
-Tenner, Edward. Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences. Alfred Knof Publishing, 1995.
An in depth survey of how and why technologies are created, their effectiveness and their potential dangers. Comparatively discusses the rapid and nearly uncontrollable evolution of techno-science and our continued reliance on empirical forms of mechanization. Concludes with a social study of how technological development has informed nearly every discipline and how it has come to dominate our culture and our thinking.
-Turner, John, F.C. Housing by the People: Towards Autonomy in Building Environments. Pantheon Publications, 1977.
An anarchical, neoliberal dissertation favoring sites and services projects and in situ slum “upgrading.” The dissertation was the product of years of travel and study in third world slums and intimate collaboration with former World Bank president Robert McNamara.
-Stafford, Barbara, and Terpak, Frances. Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen. Getty Research Institute, 2002.
A social study of how modern media machines facilitate globalization and how it affects people’s perception of how to use and reuse technologies.
-Weisman, Allan. Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008.
A narrative account of Paolo Lugari’s heroic vision for a completely self sustaining community in the inhospitable Llanos of Columbia. The book is an inspiring case study of how appropriate technologies, productive policy debate and collective will can yield indisputably effective results -- (the discussion of the Gaviotan hospital is particularly pointed and ought to be considered one of the most significant buildings in the world by professionals and non-professionals alike).
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