In our third annual review for 2025, we have curated a selection of the best architecture books published by WAC Books for our readers. As part of our annual tradition, we choose books that cover a wide range of topics, ranging from photography, art, theory to design.

This year's selections include the influence of Archigram with Archigram: The Magazine, a unique architectural series that employs a detective novel approach to explore buildings as fascinating mysteries. Another featured title is The House of Doctor Koolhaas: Gumshoe #1 (Volume 1), which delves into the complex role of soil as a vital element for agriculture, carbon storage, and biodiversity in Thinking Through Soil: Wastewater Agriculture in the Mezquital Valley. 

We also highlight Cooling Towers: A Celebration of Sculptural Beauty, Architectural Legacy, and Industrial History, which documents the unique presence and imminent demolition of Britain's monumental cooling towers through essays by notable writers and photographers.

Explore our extensive archive of WAC Books and choose your favorite title below to enhance your bookshelf (in no particular order):

Image courtesy of Designers & Books

1. Archigram: The Magazine by Peter Cook (Editor), Thomas Evans (Editor), Steve Kroeter (Editor), Reyner Banham (Contributor), Helen Castle (Contributor)

The very influential British collaboration Archigram was the pinnacle of avant-garde architecture in the 1960s, drawing inspiration from comic book culture, Pop art, psychedelia, the space race, sci-fi, Constructivism, and Buckminster Fuller. Beginning in 1961, their self-published, lo-fi yet materially clever magazine Archigram revealed their plans for such forward-thinking notions as "Walking City," "Plug-In City," and "Instant City." Additionally, it connected the 1960s global avant-garde. Archigram established connections with Buckminster Fuller in the United States, Frei Otto, Utopie, and Haus-Rucker-Co in Europe, and the Metabolists in Japan. Critics like Reyner Banham and Charles Jencks, who introduced Archigram's renowned fourth pop-up issue to the United States in 1966, also supported them. 

Exact facsimiles of all ten issues (number 1 in 1961 to the last issue 9½ in 1974) are included in this approved release. Flyers, pockets, a pop-up centerfold, posters, gatefolds, and an electrical resistor are all accurately recreated, along with all the original surprises and quirks. The book was published with Designers & Books.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of Park Books

2. The House Of Doctor Koolhaas: Gumshoe #1 (Volume 1) by Françoise Fromonot (Author), Thomas Weaver (Editor)

The book explores the Villa dall'Ava's past in the lighthearted manner of a detective story. Published by Park Books, a novel technique to writing architectural history is shown in the Gumshoe series of architectural publications. It shifts the emphasis of architectural discourse back to buildings in a way that is both novel and academic, yet also simple and entertaining to read. 

It mimics the detective novel, a popular genre of writing that has also had a parallel academic life in disciplines and by authors in a variety of fields, including art history (Carlo Ginzburg), film (Sigfried Kracauer), and psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud), but, crucially, not yet by architecture. In each volume, a single structure will be examined as though it were an unsolved mystery.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of Harvard Graduate School of Design

3. Thinking Through Soil: Wastewater Agriculture In The Mezquital Valley

Thinking about soil means addressing some of the most important problems of our day. Soil is essential for freshwater resources, biodiversity, flood control, and agriculture, and it has emerged as the main carbon storage agent in global climate models. It also provides food for eight billion people. 

Published by Harvard Graduate School of Design, Thinking Through Soil imagines what a better environmental future can look like in central Mexico through a thorough investigation of the largest wastewater farming system in the world, which is situated in the Mexico City–Mezquital hydrological region. In a broader sense, this case study presents a fresh perspective on soil that argues for its potential to preserve our world, explains its tremendous significance to both rural and urban life, and depicts its changing character.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of Batsford Books

4. Cooling Towers: A Celebration Of Sculptural Beauty, Architectural Legacy And Industrial History by Twentieth Century Society (Author)

An inspiring celebration of cooling towers, the imposing British brutalist buildings that are remnants of the industrial history of the twentieth century and are set to permanently vanish.

Cooling Towers is an elegiac exploration of these massive structures that brings together some of the nation's most renowned architectural photographers and writers. Published by Batsford Books, the book creates a definitive visual record of Britain's coal-fired power plants as they are about to be demolished. The distinctive and sculptural presence of cooling towers in the landscape—always a striking sight—is the main subject of the book.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of gestalten

5. Circular Materials: Innovation And Reuse In Design And Architecture by gestalten (Editor), Joe Gibbs (Editor)

The creative culture of material reuse in fashion, design, and architecture is examined in this book. With 40-50 projects, it explores innovative ways to use recycled, repurposed, and produced waste.

In the 256-page book, each chapter of Circular Materials is devoted to the source of the materials employed, and each chapter includes one particularly noteworthy case study. All of the designers and studios showcased are dedicated to producing powerful designs that use repurposed innovation to construct the future. The book was published by gestalten.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of TASCHEN

6. Tadao Ando. Sketches, Drawings, And Architecture (Multilingual Edition) by Tadao Ando (Artist)

In his own words, Tadao Ando describes this incredibly insightful trip through the thoughts and memories of one of architecture's greatest poets. Over 750 sketches, models, and technical drawings that capture the spirit of his work are collected in this extremely personal volume, which chronicles five decades of creative invention. 

The book illustrates the development of many of his most well-known projects, such as Row House in Sumiyoshi, Rokko Housing, Chichu Art Museum, and Bourse de Commerce, from the raw immediacy of pencil lines to the accuracy of technical drawings. These projects are not isolated moments of inspiration, but rather living architectural projects that have been shaped by time, travel, and introspection. The book was published by TASCHEN.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of Thames & Hudson

7. Casa Mexicana by Jonathan Bell (Author), Edmund Sumner (Author), Fernanda Canales (Contributor)

Published by Thames & Hudson, the most exquisite new homes from Mexico, which is presently the vibrant core of the architectural landscape thanks to innovative young firms, a thriving economy, and an abundance of concrete.

Innovative homes that emphasize effective use of space, accentuate the penetrating quality of light, and experiment with texture through the use of concrete and stone are the hallmarks of Mexico's burgeoning domestic architecture scene. For this new collection, which will close a gap on the shelves of many readers interested in architecture and lifestyle, professional architecture photographer Edmund Sumner has compiled the best examples from the past ten years.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of Hirmer Publishers

8. Architecture And Energy: Building In The Age Of Climate Change by Annette Becker (Editor), Peter Cachola Schmal (Editor), Werner Sobek (Editor)

Published by Hirmer Publishers, Architecture and Energy provides a starting point for how to approach building both now and in the future by combining real-world examples. Buildings have large energy needs, which contribute significantly to global carbon dioxide emissions during the building's construction, use, and final deconstruction. The topic of how we build in a time of climate change becomes even more pressing in an era of energy transition and extreme weather occurrences. 

A kindergarten built from locally sourced recycled materials, a sustainably constructed wood and concrete supermarket with a roof farm, or the renovation of an office building to remove its air conditioning and ventilation systems are just a few examples of how to reduce emissions and energy requirements. The key is to consider a building's entire life cycle, which includes refurbishing rather than new construction when feasible.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of The MIT Press

9. Not Here, Not Now: Speculative Thought, Impossibility, And The Design Imagination by Anthony Dunne (Author), Fiona Raby (Author)

What it means to design at a time when many people believe that the future is unattainable. What can designers do when reality fails us? In this thrilling but contemplative journey to the boundaries of science, philosophy, and literature, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby challenge the relationship between design and reality in order to discover new ways of thinking about the possible—as well as about the meaning, function, and place of design in that speculative world of "not here, not now." 

Published by The MIT Press, Not Here, Not Now is a kind of mental journey that combines words, pictures, and artifacts to depict some of the concepts encountered along the way.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

Image courtesy of ORO Editions

10. 5 Houses on the Wild Side by Elena Agostinis (Author)

Published by ORO Editions, Elena Agostinis's highly creative, unrestricted, comfortable, and opulent interiors for her family's residences in New York, Montana, and Mexico are showcased in Five Houses on the Wild Side, a visual extravaganza.

Readers will be inspired to free-style their own homes by Elena's bold and courageous choices of colors and patterns, elements from the wildlife and fauna of her South African childhood mixed and matched with the finest local artisanry, textiles bought from souks and markets worldwide, giant papier-mâché animal garden sculptures, and wall art that ranges from the elevated to the quirky and humorous.

Read more and purchase the book on WAC Books.

architecture book books reading review of 2025