Architecture is basically a container of something. I hope they will enjoy not so much the teacup, but the tea.
Yoshio Taniguchi

Virtual Book Club

AIA|DC has developed a Virtual Book Club to introduce you to books about architecture, design, and practice that you might not find on your own. You can use the Book Club in two ways. You can read the selections on your own and request the test, which, when successfully completed, will be submitted for AIA/CES learning credit. OR you can use the questions in the test and study guide to hold a discussion of the book with colleagues. We recommend doing both: have a discussion and then take the test on your own to receive learning units

Purchase of books through this website will benefit the Chapter.

Why Architecture Matters

Paul Goldberger (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009)

Please submit your completed test (downloadable below) with ten dollars ($10.00) to the Washington Chapter, AIA. We will submit it for AIA/CES learning units. This selection earns 4.0 LU.

Study Guide Questions
(To be used only for book discussion; you cannot use the study guide for learning credit.)

  1. Discuss the history of Paul Rudolph's Art and Architecture Building. What does it say about American architecture?

  2. What did Louis Kahn mean by "The street is a room by agreement"?

  3. Discuss the paradox of challenge and comfort in Architecture.

Download Why Architecture Matters Test (pdf)

Refabricating Architecture: How Manufacturing Methodologies Are Poised to Transform Building Construction.

Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake ( New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004)

Please submit your completed test (downloadable below) with ten dollars ($10.00) to the Washington Chapter, AIA. We will submit it for AIA/CES learning units. This selection earns 2.0 HSW units.

Study Guide Questions
(To be used only for book discussion; you cannot use the study guide for learning credit.)

  1. Discuss the concept of mass customization. What industries use this most? How can the construction industry, and the architect’s role in it, be made better by adopting mass customization?

  2. What are the biggest hurdles to changing construction methods? What are some solutions?

  3. How do you think constructing buildings in modules will change things for construction workers?

Download Refabricating Architecture Test (pdf)

Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and the Architecture of Decency

Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and Timothy Hursley (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002).

Please submit your completed test (downloadable below) with ten dollars ($10.00) to the Washington Chapter, AIA. We will submit it for AIA/CES learning units. This selection earns 4.0 HSW units.

Study Guide Questions
(To be used only for a book discussion; you cannot use the study guide for learning unit credit.)
Here are some questions to open a discussion with colleagues:

  1. What has caused Hale County to become so isolated? What were some of the ways that the Rural Studio had worked to reduce that isolation?

  2. Discuss the ways in which the Rural Studio educational experience is different from the traditional studio experience. How was it different from your own? What are advantages and disadvantages of the Rural Studio approach? Why do you think other schools have not initiated similar programs?

  3. What does the author mean by the "Architecture of Decency"?

Download Rural Studio Test (pdf)

Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century.

Gissen, David, ed. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002).

Please submit your completed test (downloadable below) with ten dollars ($10.00) to the Washington Chapter, AIA. We will submit it for AIA/CES learning units. This selection earns 4.0 HSW units.

Study Guide Questions
(To be used only for a book discussion; you cannot use the study guide for learning unit credit.)

  1. What are the sociological aspects of green design that are often overlooked? Discuss the Enron example.

  2. Sustainable architecture relies on dense urban settings and public transportation. With the security concerns in major cities like Washington and New York, do dense urban environments have a future? How will security concerns affect sustainability?

  3. Discuss recycling vs. downcycling. What strategies can be employed to make recycling more viable?

Download Big and Green Test (pdf)

The Perfect House: a Journey with the Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio

Rybczynski, Witold. (New York: Scribner, 2002).

Please submit your completed test (downloadable below) with ten dollars ($10.00) to the Washington Chapter, AIA. We will submit it for AIA/CES learning units. This selection earns 4.0 LU.

Study Guide Questions
(To be used only for a book discussion; you cannot use the study guide for learning unit credit.)

  1. What similarities do you find between the practice of Architecture in the 21st century and that of the 16th Century?

  2. What about Palladio’s villas make them so ‘perfect’?

  3. How do you think Palladio’s earlier career as a stone mason influenced his architecture?

Download The Perfect House Test (pdf)

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that changed America

Erik Larson (New York: Vintage Books, 2003)

Purchase the book by clicking on the Amazon icon on our web page. It’s cheaper for you and benefits the chapter.

Please submit your completed test (downloadable below) with ten dollars ($10.00) to the Washington Chapter, AIA. We will submit it for AIA/CES learning units.This selection earns 4.0 LU.

This book describes Chicago while it prepared for the 1893 World’s Fair. The White City built by Burnham, Hunt, Olmstead and McKim changed the way America looked at civic architecture. It also details a series of gruesome murders so be warned. It is at times rather graphic.

Study Guide Questions
(To be used only for a book discussion; you cannot use the study guide for learning unit credit.)

  1. Discuss the urban experience in Chicago in the 1890s. Why was it so different from other cities?

  2. Why was the Fair so important to Chicago and the nation? Why aren’t worlds’ fairs important in the 21st Century?

  3. How did they manage to build so much in so little time? What lesson can be learned for large projects today?

Download Devil in the White City Test (pdf)

The Architecture of Happiness 

Alain de Boton (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006) 4.0 LU.

Note to the Reader: This is a work of philosophy: the opinions expressed are soley those of its author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chapter.

Study Guide Questions
(To be used only for a book discussion; you cannot use the study guide for learning unit credit.)

  1. Discuss the moral messages that can be conveyed through architecture.

  2. Explain the difference between the German Pavillions at the Worlds Fairs of 1937 and 1958.

  3. Explain how the Pessac Houses designed by Le Corbusier did not ultimately follow Corbu’s intent.

Download Architecture of Happiness Test (pdf)

If you have a book you'd like to recommend, please email mfitch@aiadc.com. The Chapter staff has complete discretion over the titles featured in the book club.