Skip to Main Content

Architecture & Design: Critical Topics

Subject Guide and Course Reading Lists

Critical Topics

This page highlights emerging and rapidly developing contemporary issues in the design fields . If you want to know more on a critical topic or want to request further research in a new area, chat with a librarian or request a research appointment. 

Recognizing Under-Represented Design

Bibliographies, Directories and Recommended Reads about Under-represented Designers

Art & Architecture Library Student Assistants evaluate, select and display publications including books, articles, exhibits, and websites which recognize the celebratory moments across the diverse world of artists and designers. This effort connects students with the NAAB and CIDA standards for diversity.  We curate these reading lists to expand and share global efforts of diversifying library collections:

Recognizing Under-Represented Design 2023 - 2024

Books and Ebooks

Guidance for this section comes from committees and task forces including:

- ARLIS/NA Diversity and Inclusion Committee
- NYIT DEI Task Force

Architectural Technology

Materials, product directories, ...

Product directories.

Evidenced Based Design

What is Design Research?

'Research that is undertaken by architects (and designers) and their collaborators in the course of a project; and

'Research that is done by architects and others, in practice and academia, outside the scope of architectural projects. "
- Royal Institute of British Architects, (2014). Architects and research-based knowledge: A literature review. (pdf)  

Essential Reading

 

 

Construction Engineering

Building Construction - Handbooks and Standards

OER for Architecture, Interior Design and the Arts

Precedent Study

Break out information by select keywords - Answer the following:
What is the architect(s) name? What is the name of the building? Note this may change over time. 
What are the building's purpose and type? Expand and repeat this search across multiple sources. 

Site Analysis

Material Resources & Research

Barrier Free Design

Bibliography

....

Faculty Publications

back to Architecture & Design Library Research Guide

Search Library Collections
 Schedule a Research Appointment with a Librarian
Request Scans from books or print journals
Library Info Chat
Recommend a Purchase

Click to view the SoAD Faculty Publications 

Continually updated resource maintained by Art & Architecture Library Student Assistants. Highlighting faculty publications inspires students who go on to contribute critical ideas and further human understanding. 

 

Related Information Competencies students of architecture, art & design acquire:

 "Recognize the field’s authorities and be able to critique and interpret these authorities with an awareness of disciplinary, historical, and cultural constructions of expertise"

 "differentiate between scholarly/academic, promotional, and trade/consumer art writing"

 An awareness of "contributions to the discipline through their scholarly output and practices"



Image Credit: Lawrence OP. Handing on the Torch of Knowledge. Accessed Jan. 12, 2022.
Art Libraries Society of North America. Art, Architecture, and Design Information Competencies (June 2018). Accessed Jan 12, 2022.

SoAD - Lectures and Events Further Reading

back to Architecture & Design Library Research Guide
Search Library Collections
 Schedule a Research Appointment with a Librarian
Request Scans from books or print journals
Library Info Chat
Recommend a Purchase

View the SoAD Lectures and Events Bibliographies

Related Information Competencies for Architecture, Art & Design Students:

- recognize the field’s authorities and be able to critique and interpret these authorities with an awareness of disciplinary, historical, and cultural constructions of expertise"

- locate and organize opportunities and resources related to professional practices such as residencies and exhibitions

- develop an awareness of "contributions to the discipline through their scholarly output and practices

- Art Libraries Society of North America. Art, Architecture, and Design Information Competencies (June 2018). Accessed Jan 12, 2022.

Indigenous Vernacular Architecture

  • The Native Land Digital’s territory and treaty map inspires us with the vast impact of peoples and places occupied across the world. Understand the  relationships between various tribes and communities, how they shared lands, and how they may have shared architectural practices.


  • Where Are My People? Native American, First Nations & Indigenous in Architecture. Report 

Olindo Grossi StoryMap - Virtual Exhibition

Architectural Massing

Architectural Massing or Architecture ConceptsPhoto by Macchi (https://www.flickr.com/photos/macchi/)

as design processes become a means of visual communication with unique subjectivity contrasted by specific parameters. Often designers develop distinct diagrammatic styles and convention when defining the composition and manipulation of three dimensional forms. 
Suggested subjects for this topic:
Space (Architecture)
Negative Space (Architecture)
Space and Architectural Mass
Space in Architecture
Architecture--Composition, proportion, etc.
Additional suggested keywords for this topic:
space and architectural mass
massing
forms and buildings
shape of buildings

Recommended Books and eBooks about massing from general to notable designers, 

Industry News

© 2024 New York Institute of Technology