"Book Review Quest" (1960 -1990) is the thirteenth initiative of the Architectural Journalism & Criticism Organization founded by architect and Design Researcher Pappal Suneja to spread awareness about this subject and sow the seeds of inspiration to explore and write about Architecture and allied fields from a critical perspective.

A 'Review’ is putting forward a personal perspective on any book, article, film, event, or product. Reviews allow you to initiate a conversation on the related topics with the writer and with other readers. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You can clearly state your opinion on the work which can be a very short description or a “BLURB” in about 500 -1000 words.

The Books chosen for this quest are time framed in the era of 1960 – 1990. Let’s start new conversations, dialogues, and discussions on some of the famous books and give our readers' minds food for thought within.

Book Library for the Quest (The year mentioned here, is the first edition publication, you may read and explore the quest via any updated edition as well)

- The Image Of The City, Kevin A. Lynch, 1960

- Theory And Design In The First Machine Age - Reyner Banham, 1960

- The Death And Life Of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs, 1961

- The Architecture Of The City -Aldo Rossi, 1966

- Robert Venturi: Complexity And Contradiction In Architecture, 1966

- Design Of Cities, Edmund Bacon, 1967

- Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step By Step, Edward De Bono, 1970

- Life Between Buildings, Jan Gehl, 1971

- A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander, 1977

- Modern Architecture, Kenneth Frampton, 1980

- The Social Life Of Small Urban Spaces, William H. Whyte, 1980

- From Bauhaus To Our House, Tom Wolfe, 1981

- India Discovered, John Keay, 1981

- The Barefoot Architect: A Handbook For Green Building, Johan Van Lengen, 1981

- The Design Of Everyday Things, Don Norman, 1988

Submission Guidelines

- The Blurb (word limit 1000 words) should be sent to [email protected] with the subject line Book Review Quest, Category (Student/Professional) in a word document with 12 pt., Arial font, single-line spacing.

- All entrants must mention their social media handles with the submission. (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) and name of their Institution or the affiliated organization/place of work.

- The submission should be an original work of the entrant and will go through a plagiarism test.

Deadlines & Timeline: 

The submission window for Series opens on 29th December 2020 – 28th February 2021 (11:59 pm IST/8:29 pm CEST)

There is no prior registration needed for the same. Entries to be directly emailed to [email protected] as per guidelines mentioned above.

Curators: 

Pappal Suneja, Design Researcher & Architect, Germany

Pallavi Anil Thorve, Architect & Editorial Associate, AJC

For Queries, write to [email protected] 

Winning Prizes for the Quest shall be an anthology and a personally curated set of architecture and design books. Three winning entries, that is one citation and two special mention awards shall be announced for the quest. 

Besides this, all the entrants shall be sent E-Certificates of participation.

Head Image Design © Pallavi Anil Thorve

> Via Architectural Journalism & Criticism Organisation