Books to Inspire Young Designers

Now that the holiday shopping season is officially open, I’ve started thinking again about great children’s books to give as gifts.  There are so many out there to help instill an appreciation for art, architecture, design and planning, and that are intelligent enough that adults don’t usually mind reading them over and over again (in fact, I have given these “children’s ” books as gifts to adults too!).

By engaging children at a young age and instilling in them an appreciation for the aesthetics of the built environment, our future might have fewer mass marketed big box buildings and more unique structures with character that contribute to a sense of place.

Some of my favorites:

Board Books:

• The Urban Babies Series addresses different infant lifestyles a la country mouse/city mouse.  They even have one about going green!
• The Petit Connoisseur Books present art and fashion in terms that even a baby can understand such as MoMa, Dali, and Choo Shoe Train.
• Andy Warhol’s Colors and Dr. Seuss’ Many Colored Days both introduce colors in an inspiring way.
• Michael J. Crosbie has written a whole series of books using architectural elements to teach letters, shapes, colors and numbers while slyly introducing architectural vocabulary, history and elements.

Picture Books:

• Antoinette Portis’ Not a Stick and Not a Box encourage the use of imagination to see the potential of everyday objects.
• Mo Willems has a technique of using photographs of actual cityscapes to illustrate his stories about urban living in the Knuffle Bunny books.

Story Books:

• Roberto, the Insect Architect stars a young termite who wants to grow up to design buildings like his heroes Hank Floyd Mite and Fleas Van Der Rohe.
• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton tells the story of urban sprawl from the point of view of a house that gets swallowed up by an expanding city.

Non-Fiction:

• David Macaulay’s books analyze the construction of buildings and how they go together, such as Underground which depicts the generally unseen foundations.

Chapter Books:

• The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett tells the story of 3 middle school students who are trying to save a Frank Lloyd Wright house from being divided up and sold to museums.

I’m sure that this just scratches the surface.  What are your favorites?  I would love to expand my library!

Tags: Antoinette Portis; Mo Willems; Roberto the Insect Architect; The Little House; David Macaulay; The Wright 3, Children's Architecture Books; The Urban Babies Series; The Petit Connoisseur Books; Andy Warhol's Colors; Dr. Seuss' Many Colored Days; Michael J. Crosbie

1 Comment to Books to Inspire Young Designers

1. 

   Two favorites in our house are:

   Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts: An imaginative boy has a compulsion to build which is not appreciated by his second grade teacher.

   Andrew Henry’s Meadow by Doris Burns: This 1965 picture book features Andrew Henry, a middle child whose family doesn’t appreciate the scope of his building projects. He runs away to a meadow where he builds his dream house as well as houses that best suit the friends who join him one by one in their own efforts to find homes that will accommodate their hobbies and talents.
Camille DeBoer on December 18th, 2009

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