Barbican Design Library - An art, design and architectural library curated by The Barbican Library.

Open for all to browse through. The books never leave the premises - however, feel free to settle in for the day with some coffee and a stack of your favourites.


Complete list of books to be found at the library.

'20s & '30s style

1000 patterns

100 ideas that changed art

100 ideas that changed photography

20th century jewellery : the complete sourcebook

21st century design : new design icons from mass market to avant-garde

40: houses

50 great adventures : extraordinary places and the people who built them

50s decorative art : a source book

A century of Olympic posters

A day in the sun : outdoor pursuits in art in the 1930s

African style : exteriors, interiors, details

A history of 20th century art

Alessi

Alexander McQueen : genius of a generation

All American : innovation in American architecture

Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto : a critical study

Alvar Aalto : summer homes

American architecture and urbanism

American Modernism : graphic design 1920-1960

AMERICAN STREAMLINED DESIGN

André Kertész

Andy Warhol : drawings and illustrations of the 1950s

Architectural details : a home source book of interior fixtures, from taps to tiles, doors to floors

Architecture : sculpture

Architecture in photographs

Architecture in photography

Arshile Gorky

Art carpets : Cleto Munari and friends

Art for all : British posters for transport

Artists' textiles in Britain, 1945-1970 : ademocratic art

Art parks : a tour of America's sculpture parks and gardens

Art photography now

Art under Socialist Realism : Soviet painting 1930-1950

Art words : the handbook of art & art related terms

Back in the days : remix

Balconies

Batch : craft, design and product

Bauhaus Dessau : architecture, design, concept = Architektur, Gestaltung, Idee

Beauford Delaney : from New York to Paris

Beautiful thing : an introduction to design

Be bold : interiors for the brave of heart

Ben Nicholson in England : a continuous line

Beyond the battlefield : women artists of the two World Wars

Black artists in British art : a history from 1950 to the present

Braque

Brian Wall

Bright : architectural illumination and light installations

British modern : architecture and design in the 1930s

British modern : graphic design between the wars

British prints from the machine age : rhythms of modern life 1914-1939

British studio ceramics

Building the revolution : Soviet art and architecture, 1915-1935

Building with light : the international history of architectural photography

Cassandre

Central Asian ikats : from the Rau collection

Chadwick

Charles and Ray Eames

Charlotte Perriand

Che Guevara : revolutionary & icon

China design now

Chinese posters : art from the great proletarian cultural revolution

Circling the square : avant-garde porcelain from revolutionary Russia

Color chart : reinventing color 1950 to today

Color design workbook : a real-world guide to using color in graphic design

Contemporary drawing : from the 1960s to now

Contemporary Iranian art : from the street to the studio

Contemporary outdoor sculpture

Contemporary prefab houses

Contemporary western design : high-style furniture & interiors

Craftivity : 40 projects for the DIY lifestyle

Crazy art

Crazy design

CREATIVE DRAWING

Creative drawing and illustration : a sourcebook of inspirational drawing skills

Creative island : inspired design from Great Britain

Creativity for graphic designers

Cubism

Cubism and its legacy : the gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler

De La Warr Pavilion : the modernist masterpiece

Design : Peter Blake

Design : the groundbreaking moments

Design! : a lively guide to design basics for artists & craftspeople

DesignArt : on art's romance with design

Designed for kids : a complete sourcebook

Design for the 21st century

Design furniture

Designing diagrams : making information accessible through design

Designing modern British

Destination art : 500 artworks worth the trip

Dream worlds : architecture and entertainment

Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia

Eames : furniture 1941-1978

Easy elegance : creating a relaxed, comfortable and stylish home

Eco-architecture : 1000 ideas by 100 architects

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper : 1882-1967 : vision of reality

Eric Gill : sculpture

Eric Owen Moss : the uncertainty of doing

Essential children's rooms : the back to basics guide to home design, decoration & furnishing

Exploring architecture : buildings, meaning and making

Fabulous fifties : designs for modern living

Fashion designers' sketchbooks

Fashion design essentials : 100 principles of fashion design

Fifties house

Fifty modern buildings that changed the world

Flower design

Foale and Tuffin : the sixties : a decade in fashion

For the love of vinyl : the album art of Hipgnosis

Frank Gehry

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier : the romantic legacy

Freestyle : new Australian design for living

Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican modernism : the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection

Frida Kahlo : the brush of anguish

Furniture & interiors of the 1940s

Furniture design : an introduction to development, materials and manufacturing

German expressionism : primitivism and modernity

Glass of the avant-garde : from Vienna secession to Bauhaus : the Torsten Bröhan Collection from the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid = Cristal de vanguardia : de la secesión Vienesa a la Bauhaus : Colección Torsten Bröhan : del Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid

Graphic design

Graphic design in Germany 1890-1945

Graphic style : from Victorian to new century

Great garden design

Great spaces : flexible homes

Green design : creative, sustainable designs for the twenty-first century

Green homes

Handwritten : expressive lettering in the digital age

Henry Moore : at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Henry Moore textiles

Henry Moore y el inquietante infinito

Home : the twentieth-century house

Home for now : making your rented space or first house beautiful

How to love brutalism

Humble masterpieces : 100 everyday marvels of design

Ibrahim El-Salahi : a visionary modernist

Icons of design! : the 20th century

Icons of fashion : the 20th century

Industrial design & the community

Inside art direction : interviews and case studies

Inside MNM minimalist interiors

Inspire : the art of living with nature : 50 beautiful projects to bring the outside in

Into the thirties : style and design, 1927-1934

Iron fists : branding the 20th-century totalitarian state

Italian prints, 1875-1975

Japan

Japanese graphics now!

Jean Hélion

Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1960-1988

Jean Nouvel

Joan Miró : snail woman flower star

Joan Miró : the ladder of escape

John Lautner, 1911-1994 : disappearing space

John Piper : design

Kenneth Armitage : life and work

Key contemporary buildings : plans, sections and elevations

Le Corbusier

Lee Miller : portraits from a life

Library design

Life and death in Picasso : still-life/figure, c.1907-1933

Light Air and Openness

Lighting : an introduction to light, lighting and light use

Lisa Fonssagrives : three decades of classic fashion photography

Livable Modernism

Living in the new millennium : houses at the start of the 21st century

Living outside inside

Living with books

Lofts : living in space

London Underground : architecture, design and history

Made in Russia : unsung icons of Soviet design

Magazine covers

Magic metal : buildings of steel, aluminium, copper and tin

Magritte and photography

Make it wild! : 101 things to make and do outdoors

Making stuff : an alternative craft book

MALEVICH

Many masks : a life of Frank Lloyd Wright

Mass market classics : the home : a celebration of everyday design

Materials for inspirational design

Max Baur : in the Bauhaus spirit : photographs, 1925-1960

Mediatecture : the design of medially augmented spaces

Mediating modernism : architectural cultures in Britain

Mews style

Michael Graves designs : the art of the everyday object

Mies van der Rohe, 1886-1969 : the structure of space

Miller's 20th century design : the definitive illustrated sourcebook

Miller's collecting the 1950s

Minimum space maximum living

Modelling and sculpting the figure

Modern art and modernism : a critical anthology

Modern British furniture : design since 1945

Modern country : inspiring interiors for contemporary country living

Modern design in wood

Modern garden design : the big book of ideas

Modernism : designing a new world, 1914-1939

Modernism London style : the Art Deco heritage = die Bauten des Art Déco

Modern retro

Modern vintage style

Moscou, 1900-1930. English

Mother stone : the vitality of modern British sculpture

Museums and modernity : art galleries and the making of modern culture

New chairs : design, technology and materials

New museum architecture : innovative buildings from around the world

New York rises

New York through the lens

Non-official art : Soviet artists of the 1960s

Norman Rockwell : pictures for the American people

Observations for young architects

Old to new_ : houses by Paul Archer Design

Origins of form

Origins of modern art : masterworks of modernism, from Monet and Van Gogh to Kandinsky, Delaunay & Klee

Paths to abstraction 1867-1917

Philippe Starck

Photo icons : the story behind the pictures, 1928-1991

Picasso : inside the image : prints from the Ludwig Museum, Cologne

Picasso and the mysteries of life : La Vie

Picasso und das Theater

Piero Fornasetti : a conversation between Philippe Starck and Barnaba Fornasetti

Pillars

Pioneers of modern design : from William Morris to Walter Gropius

Pop! : design, culture, fashion, 1955-1976

Principles of modern architecture

Product design now : renderings

Propaganda prints

Psycho buildings : artists take on architecture

Reasons to be cheerful : the life and work of Barney Bubbles

Recycled home

Rem Koolhaas/OMA

René Magritte, 1898-1967 : thought rendered visible

Retro graphics cookbook

Retro style : the 50s look for today's home

Revolutionary tides : the art of the political poster, 1914-1989

Ron Arad talks to Matthew Collings

Roy Lichtenstein : the black-and-white drawings, 1961-1968

Rugs & carpets : techniques, traditions & designs

Sanderson : the essence of English decoration

Scandinavian modern

Sculpture since 1945

Seaside style. Vol. 2

SED : schönes Einheits Design = stunning Eastern design = savoir eviter le design

Seduced by art : photography past and present

Significant interiors

Simply Scandinavian

Sketch: public buildings : how architects conceive public buildings

Skyscrapers

Soviet textiles : designing the modern utopia : selected from the Lloyd Cotsen collection

Squares, checks and grids

Stanley Jones and the Curwen Studio

Stencil graffiti

Steuben design : a legacy of light and form

Store window design = Schaufenster vitrine = Escaparate vetrina

Street talk : the rise and fall of the poster

Styles, schools and movements : an encyclopaedic guide to modern art

Tadao Ando, 1941 : the geometry of human space

Talk about design

Tall buildings

Textiles : the whole story : uses, meanings, significance

Textile treasures at the Glasgow School of Art

Textile visionaries : innovation and sustainability in textile design

The American century : art and culture, 1900-1950

The architecture of happiness

The art of Italian film posters

The Barbican Estate

The Bauhaus

The complete color harmony : expert color information for professional color results

The cutting edge of modernity : linocuts of the Grosvenor School

The design mix : bars, cocktails and style

The Eames lounge chair : an icon of modern design

The EY exhibition : Paul Klee : making visible

The fine art of advertising

The graphic design idea book : inspiration from 50 masters, Josef Albers ... Christoph Niemann

The home styling sourcebook : over 30 period, contemporary, country and exotic decorating styles for your home

The kilim and tribal rug book

The look of the century

The modernist textile : Europe and America, 1890-1940

The photographer's vision : understanding and appreciating great photography

The Picasso book

The politics of modernism : against the new conformists

The radical eye : modernist photography from the Sir Elton John Collection

The sculpture of Frank Dobson

The sculpture of Maurice Lambert

The sculpture of Phillip King

The snow show

The Soviet image : a hundred years of photographs from inside the Tass archives

The state of British architecture

The story of architecture

The story of Britain's best buildings

The story of the design museum

The style of coworking : contemporary shared workspaces

The velvet years : Warhol's factory 1965-67

The wallpaper book

The way we were : the photography of Julian Wasser

The Wright style : the interiors of Frank Lloyd Wright

This brutal world

Tiles in architecture

Towards a new architecture

Traffic design

Tropical architecture : sustainable and humane building in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia

Twentieth-century architecture

Type & typography

Typeforms : a history

Urban pioneer : interiors inspired by industrial design

US design, 1975-2000

Van bakeliet tot composiet : deign met nieuwe materialen = From bakelite to composite : design in new materials

Very small cafés & restaurants

View from the top : grand apartment living

Wallcoverings from the F. Schumacher & Co. Collections : applying the language of color and pattern

Wary Meyers' tossed & found : unconventional design from cast-offs

Welded sculpture of the twentieth century

What is graphic design for?

Where's my space age? : the rise and fall of futuristic design

Windows

Women artists and modernism

Wood : materials for inspirational design

Wright-sized houses : Frank Lloyd Wright's solutions for making small houses feel big